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Scripture Reading: John 1:14; Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:20; 16, John 1:17; 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:45b
In this chapter we will consider the divine economy and the divine dispensing in the initiation of the New Testament. In the New Testament the first two things that carry out God’s dispensing are the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. Our God went through a process; the beginning of this process was incarnation, and the end of this process was resurrection. Both the beginning and the end of God’s process depend on God’s dispensing. Between the incarnation and resurrection are the steps of Christ’s human living and Christ’s all-inclusive death. It is very difficult to find any indication that God’s dispensing was involved in either of these two steps.
Christ’s incarnation was a great step for God to dispense Himself into humanity. The crucial point concerning the Lord’s birth is the matter of dispensing, but this thought is missed by most Christians today. Most Christians are veiled from seeing this matter because of all the outward things in the celebration of Christmas. As those who are living in the environment of Christianity, we must drop all our former knowledge derived from the celebration of Christmas, because that knowledge has become a thick veil preventing us from seeing the mystery in the Lord’s incarnation. In a similar way, most Christians are veiled concerning the mystery in the Lord’s resurrection. The Lord’s incarnation and resurrection are the two basic steps of God’s dispensing of Himself into His chosen people.
As I pointed out in earlier chapters, the matter of the divine dispensing can be seen in the promises, prophecies, and types in the Old Testament, but the fact and the fulfillment of the dispensing did not take place in the Old Testament. In the first four thousand years of man’s six-thousand-year history, strictly speaking, there was no dispensing. During this period of time God always kept Himself separate from man. At most He only came to man or upon man. Thus, it is very difficult to find a verse in the Old Testament that says that Jehovah God was in man or entered into man.
In the New Testament, especially in the Epistles, many verses use the preposition in to form phrases such as in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), in Him (Eph. 1:4, 10; 3:12), in the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thes. 3:12), in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:23b; 8:2; 1 Cor. 1:30), in God (1 Thes. 1:1), and in the Spirit (Col. 1:8). In the Old Testament age God purposely did not join Himself with man; God was God, and man was man. But today we cannot say that God and man are separate, because we have been regenerated of God. Therefore, it is impossible for us to be separated from God. Even if we go downward in our Christian life, He goes with us. In Luke 24, after the Lord’s resurrection, the Lord took a journey with two of His disciples as they were going away from Jerusalem to Emmaus (vv. 13-35). They were going downward, yet the Lord went with them and walked with them. The two disciples talked about the Lord and even rebuked the Lord (v. 18), but the Lord pretended not to know anything. Their eyes were kept from recognizing Him (v. 16). Eventually, however, He opened their eyes, and they recognized Him (v. 31). As soon as they recognized Him, He disappeared from them. This shows that we can never be separated from the Lord.
Today the age of grace is the age of God’s dispensing. He is dispensing to such an extent that He and we, we and He, are mingled as one (John 17:21; 1 Cor. 6:17). Jesus was the first One to be mingled with God, the first God-man. Before Him, God was God, and man was man. But beginning with Him, God and man became one. In the whole universe a little man named Jesus is both God and man. He is man and God. God and man are not only united but mingled. This mingling depends altogether on dispensing. As a God-man, Jesus is a compound person, a person compounded with God and man.
Before His death Jesus was a person compounded with God and man, with divinity and humanity. But after He went through death and resurrection, He picked up the elements of death and resurrection. These elements were compounded into Him. Today He is not merely God and man; He also comprises death and resurrection. He is a God-man with death and resurrection. He is such a compound. This compound is the issue of God’s dispensing. If dispensing were subtracted from the incarnation, there would be no incarnation. Likewise, if dispensing were subtracted from the resurrection, there would be no resurrection.
Incarnation is the top, universal conception. Matthew 1:20 says, “While he pondered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.” Joseph and Mary had not come together as man and wife, yet Mary was pregnant. This caused Joseph to doubt concerning their marriage. At this juncture an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, because “that which has been begotten [born] in her is of the Holy Spirit.” The One who was born in the womb of Mary was not man but the very God. At the beginning of Mary’s conception, God was born into Mary. At the end of that conception, nine months later, God came out with humanity. This is Jesus, the God-man. Before this conception Mary did not have God in her. But at the conception God came into her by dispensing Himself into her.
The first step in the accomplishment of God’s full redemption and salvation in Christ was the incarnation of Christ. The incarnation of Christ was through the conception by the Holy Spirit in a human virgin, dispensing the holy nature of God into humanity (Luke 1:35).
From the first day of Mary’s conception, God was dispensed into humanity. God was in Mary’s womb for nine months. God’s divinity and Mary’s humanity came together and were mingled together for nine months. During those nine months the divine dispensing increased. This increase of the dispensing of divinity into humanity caused the growth of that conception. Thus, the entire process of Mary’s conception was a process of the divine dispensing into humanity. When this divine dispensing was “ripe,” when nine months were consummated, a child came out. That child was the mingling, the blending, of the divine dispensing into humanity. His name was called Emmanuel — God with us (Matt. 1:23). He was a little child, yet He was God with man. On the one hand, He was the complete God, and on the other hand, He was a perfect man. He was the complete God mingled with a perfect man. In human history there had never been such a One. He is wonderful! He was a child who possessed skin and bones and blood and flesh. He was a real man. Yet within Him was the complete Triune God (Col. 1:19; 2:9). He was not merely the Son of God but the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Isa. 9:6; Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:20).
As such a One, He eventually became the Christ. Acts 2:34-36 indicates that in Christ’s ascension He was made both Lord and Christ. At the time of His birth He was called Christ (Matt. 1:16-18); but thirty-three and a half years later, when He ascended to the heavens, He was made Christ. Through resurrection Christ was consummated to be the perfect, complete Christ, the One who is the mingling of divinity with humanity.
Today there are thousands of “Christs.” These Christs are called Christians. The word Christian means “a person who belongs to Christ.” As Christians, we belong to Christ and are His counterpart. As those who belong to Christ, we are Christ (1 Cor. 12:12). He is the mingling of divinity with humanity, and we are too. We are exactly the same as He is in life and nature. We are copies of Christ, and these copies are the mingling of the Trinity with humanity. He is the model, the mold, and we are His mass production. The second and fourth stanzas of Hymns, #203 express the thought that we are Christ’s duplication and reproduction:
With the Lord Jesus, the mingling of divinity with humanity began at the time of His incarnation, but with us as His mass production, this mingling began at the time of His resurrection. In resurrection we all were mingled with God and began to have a life of mingling. This was the beginning of the mingling in reality. But this mingling began in a practical way when we were regenerated. At that time God was born into us. Because God has been born into us, we are wonderful people! Every proper Christian is a wonderful person. We are not wonderful in material possessions, but we are wonderful in God. Regardless of who we are, as long as we are a proper Christian, we are a wonderful person. Our being wonderful is in the fact that we are being mingled with the Divine Trinity by His divine dispensing.
The mingling by the divine dispensing at the time of the Lord’s incarnation was consummated in nine months. But the Christian life may cover a period of many years; therefore, the divine dispensing in our Christian life continues within us every day, from morning until evening. From the time of our regeneration we have been enjoying the divine dispensing. From that time onward the whole course of our Christian life is a period of God’s dispensing. This divine dispensing mingles God with us. If we need sanctification, we need this mingling. If we need victory, we need this mingling. If we need transformation, we need this mingling. Regeneration, renewing, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification are all the issue of the divine dispensing.
Although we have been regenerated, in another sense we have not yet been born. Revelation 12:1-5 reveals that a woman, who signifies the totality of God’s people on earth, brings forth a man-child. This man-child is a symbol of the corporate overcomers (2:26-27). These overcomers today have been conceived within the woman, but they have not yet been born. Regeneration was the beginning of their conception, but the consummation of this conception will be their birth as the corporate overcomers, the man-child. Today they are still in the process of conception, because there is still the need of more dispensing. We all need much more dispensing. With more dispensing, we will be matured. Maturity will be the real birth, and this birth will be the result of the divine dispensing.
Luke 1:35 says, “The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the holy thing which is born will be called the Son of God.” The holy thing born of Mary was called the Son of God. The holy thing mentioned in this verse is God Himself, that is, Christ as the embodiment of God. He was born of God, possessing God’s life and nature through the dispensing of the Holy Spirit. Although Christ was born of Mary (Matt. 1:16), He was a child of the Holy Spirit. The birth of Christ was directly of the Holy Spirit (v. 20). His source was the Holy Spirit, and His element was divine.
Some have the thought that conception cannot be considered a birth. But Matthew 1:20 clearly says that what was begotten in Mary was of the Holy Spirit. From the first day of Mary’s conception, God was born in her. God was begotten into Mary by the dispensing of His nature by His Spirit.
First, God was born into Mary through His Spirit; then after the conception was completed, He, with the human nature, was born to be a God-man, possessing both divinity and humanity. This God-man is Jesus, our model.
Christ came through incarnation with God as reality and grace for His dispensing into His believers. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us..., full of grace and reality,” and verse 17 says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” The law could not come, because it had no life; hence, it was given. But because He is a living person, Jesus was not given; He came down to man, and He came with something. Christ came through incarnation with God as reality and as grace.
Reality is God gained by us, and grace is God enjoyed by us. We gain God, and we enjoy God. God as grace is God enjoyed by us, and God as reality is God gained by us. By gaining God and enjoying Him, we eventually enjoy all His fullness.
Of His fullness His believers have all received, and grace upon grace (v. 16). Today the grace upon grace that we are enjoying is a matter of dispensing. We are enjoying and He is dispensing. He is dispensing for our enjoyment. Our enjoyment today is altogether a matter of the dispensing of the Triune God into us.
This dispensing of the Triune God into us can take place only by the Holy Spirit in our spirit. This is the reason that we must remain in our spirit. When we get out of our spirit, we must return quickly and remain there. In our spirit we enjoy the dispensing, and from the dispensing we receive the fullness, all the riches of what the Triune God is.
In incarnation the divine dispensing was mainly for Christ, the Head, but in resurrection the divine dispensing is mainly for us, the Body. The Head and the Body are two marvelous entities in the universe. The dispensing in incarnation for the Head has been completed, but the dispensing in resurrection for the Body is still going on today.
In His resurrection Christ as the grain of wheat produced many grains for the dispensing of His divine life into His many believers that they may be His many members (12:24). Christ was the one grain of wheat. He fell into the earth and died, and then He grew up. By His growing up, a kind of dispensing took place in which the many grains were produced to be the many members of His Body. In the past we realized that the many grains were the fruit of Christ as the one grain of wheat, but we did not realize that the producing of the many grains was altogether a matter of dispensing. Without the dispensing of the divine life, the many grains could not have been produced. We as the many grains are the issue of Christ’s dispensing of His divine life into us.
God the Father regenerated us, the believers, through Christ’s resurrection for the dispensing of His divine life into us that we may be His many sons (1 Pet. 1:3). The resurrection of Christ was a dispensing. As the many grains, we were produced to be Christ’s many members. As the many believers, we were born to be God’s many sons. The producing of the many grains and the regenerating of the many sons was carried out by the same procedure of the divine dispensing.
In His resurrection Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit for the dispensing of the divine life to germinate the New Testament believers that they may become God’s new creation (1 Cor. 15:45b). In Christ’s resurrection we sinners have all been made three things: the many grains, the many sons, and the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The many grains are the many sons, and the many sons are the new creation. These three things are all due to the dispensing of the divine life and nature into us. By this dispensing we become the members of Christ’s Body, the many sons in God’s household, and the new creation. In the past we did see that we are the many members of Christ’s Body, the many sons of God’s household, and the new creation, but we did not see so clearly that the crucial point concerning these three things is the dispensing of divinity into humanity. Today this dispensing is still going on.
