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In this message we shall consider further God’s work in the old dispensation, in His old administrative arrangement.
In his testimony before the Jewish religionists, Stephen spoke concerning God’s calling Abraham, the father of the chosen race, out of the idolatrous generation: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, Go out of your land and from your relatives, and come into the land which I will show you” (Acts 7:2-3). Abraham was called by God. Adam was the father and head of the created race, but Abraham was the father and head of the called race. As recorded in Genesis, the history of the created race culminated in the building of the tower and city of Babel. Names of idols were written on this tower, indicating that the created race had given up God and had turned to idolatry. Then God came in to call Abraham out of the idolatrous generation. According to Acts 7:2-3, God called Abraham out of his land and from his relatives.
By the time God called Abraham, man had forsaken God. Man’s forsaking of God was signified by his building a city for protection. Furthermore, man had built a tower as a sign of self-exaltation. Furthermore, mankind had turned from God to idols. Abraham, therefore, was called out of an idolatrous generation.
The calling of Abraham was originated by God Himself. It was not initiated by the called one. Although Abraham was the father of the called race, the calling did not originate with him. One day, while he was in Mesopotamia worshipping other gods (Josh. 24:2), God appeared to him and called him. God was the Originator of the calling of Abraham.
Although God’s calling of Abraham took place in time, something prior to that — God’s selection — took place in eternity past. Before the foundation of the world, God selected Abraham and also predestinated him. Then, in time, while Abraham was worshipping other gods, having no thought that he would be called by God, God appeared to him as the God of glory and called him.
It was the God of glory that appeared to Abraham. God’s glory was a great attraction to Abraham, and it separated him from the idolatrous generation unto God. This appearing strengthened Abraham to accept God’s calling. According to Abraham’s situation in Mesopotamia, without the attraction and encouragement of God’s glory, it would not have been possible for Abraham to accept God’s calling. But the God of glory appeared to him and transfused Himself into him, so that he answered God’s calling.
God did not appear to Abraham without speaking to him. When He came to Abraham, He called him. Calling means speaking. According to Acts 7:3, the God of glory said to Abraham, “Go out of your land and from your relatives, and come into the land which I will show you.” This was God’s speaking to Abraham. Such a speaking should have also enabled him to accept God’s calling.
God’s calling signifies a new beginning. When God created man, there was a beginning. But the man God created for Himself became fallen and forsook God. Therefore, God came in to call out Abraham so that He might have a new beginning. At the time of His calling of Abraham, God began to have a new beginning.
God’s calling also signifies a transfer of race. God’s new beginning with man through His calling is a transfer of race. God’s calling of Abraham meant that He had given up the race of Adam and had chosen Abraham with his descendants as the new race to be His people for the fulfilling of His eternal purpose. This was a transfer from the created Adamic race to the called Abrahamic race (Gal. 3:7-9, 14; Rom. 4:16-17). When we say that God’s calling is a new beginning, we need to understand that this new beginning is a transfer of race.
God’s intention in calling Abraham was to bring him back to Himself as the tree of life. According to Genesis 1, man was not only created by God but also for God and to God that man might express God’s image and exercise His dominion. In Genesis 2 God was represented by the tree of life. The fact that the man created by God was placed in front of the tree of life indicates that man should continually eat of this tree. Man needed to come to God, contact God, and have God transfused into him. However, man failed to do this and instead went to the wrong source, the tree of knowledge. As a result, the man who was made to God turned away from Him. This is the meaning of man’s fall.
God appeared to call Abraham out of such a fallen condition. This means that God wanted to bring man back to Himself. When God called Abraham out of Mesopotamia, His intention was to bring him back to Himself. In calling Abraham, God was bringing him back to the tree of life. When God appeared to him, that was the appearing of the tree of life. As Abraham spent time in the presence of God, he enjoyed the tree of life. Every time this happened God’s essence was transfused into him. In this way God trained Abraham to be totally transfused and permeated with God and to no longer act by himself that God may be everything to him.
As part of His work in the old dispensation, God promised Abraham that through his seed, Christ, the blessing of the gospel would come to all the families of the earth. Galatians 3:8 says, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham: In you all the nations shall be blessed.” In Galatians 3:14 Paul goes on to say, “In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Then in verse 16 Paul continues, “To Abraham were the promises spoken and to his seed. He does not say, And to the seeds, as concerning many, but as concerning one, And to your seed, who is Christ.” Because verse 14 combines the promise of the Spirit with the blessing of Abraham, this verse is extremely important. The blessing of Abraham is the blessing promised by God to Abraham (Gen. 12:3) for all the nations of the earth. This promise was fulfilled, and this promise has come to the nations in Christ through His redemption by the cross. The context of verse 14 indicates that the Spirit is the blessing God promised to Abraham for all the nations and which has been received by the believers through faith in Christ. This Spirit is the compound Spirit and is actually God Himself processed in His trinity through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension, for us to receive as our life and our everything.
The physical aspect of the blessing God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 1:12). Because Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds to the blessing of the promised land. Actually, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God’s bountiful supply for us to enjoy. What kind of Spirit could be the blessing God promised to Abraham? What Spirit could be the all-inclusive blessing, which is Christ as the land? It must be the Spirit, the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.
Paul’s word concerning the Spirit should remind us of John 7:39: “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” The Spirit in Galatians 3:14 and John 7:39 is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. The Spirit denotes the processed God. The Father is the source. The Son of God as the course was incarnated, lived on earth, was crucified, and was resurrected. Incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection are all aspects of a process. In resurrection, Christ, the last Adam, became the life-giving Spirit. No doubt, the life-giving Spirit is the very Holy Spirit who gives life. This Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed God. As the good land is an all-inclusive type of Christ, and as Christ who is the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) has become the Spirit, so the Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit as the processed God, is eventually the good land to us, the New Testament believers, as the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him.
In Galatians 3:14, the blessing of the promise is the Spirit, and in Galatians 3:16 the promises were made to Abraham’s seed, which is Christ. On the one hand, the Spirit is the all-inclusive Christ. On the other hand, the Spirit, as the blessing of the promise, was given to Christ as the seed. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received Him as the seed, as life. This seed is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the reality of the good land. The Christ whom we received as the seed is the Spirit typified by the good land. Christ came into us as the seed, but as we live by Him He becomes the land (the all-inclusive Spirit) which is our portion. This is the fulfillment of God’s word in promising Abraham that through his seed the blessing of the gospel would come to all the families of the earth.
Second Peter 2:6 says, “Having reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, He condemned them to ruin, having set an example to those who intend to live an ungodly life.” In the old dispensation, God condemned Sodom and Gomorrah to ruin by fire. This He did as an example to those who would live an ungodly life. To live an ungodly life is to live in the flesh in the lusts of men, not in the will of God (1 Pet. 4:2); it is to work out the desire of the nations (1 Pet. 4:3) and to live in a vain, ungodly manner of life (1 Pet. 1:18). People who live such an ungodly life should be warned by this example.
In His old administrative arrangement God chose the children of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, and made them His people as a type of the church (Rom. 9:11-13; Acts 7:38). In the Old Testament the church is not mentioned in plain words. However, there are types that portray the church. The children of Israel, as the chosen people of God, are the greatest, collective type of the church, in which we can see that the church is chosen and redeemed by God, enjoys Christ and the Spirit as the life supply, builds God’s habitation, inherits Christ as its portion, degrades and is captured, is recovered, and awaits Christ’s coming. What a work that in the old dispensation God prepared such an all-inclusive type of the church!
Paul applies the history of the children of Israel to the New Testament church life. In Hebrews and 1 Corinthians he points out clearly that what happened to the children of Israel is a type of us (1 Cor. 10:6). The entire history of Israel is a story of the church. The Bible, then, contains two histories — the history of Israel and the history of the church. The history of the children of Israel is a type, and the history of the church is the fulfillment of the type. Thus, the entire Bible gives us one revelation, the revelation of God’s economy concerning the church. In the Old Testament we have a type, a picture, of God’s economy concerning the church, whereas in the New Testament God’s economy concerning the church is fulfilled.
Part of God’s work in the old dispensation was to give the law and to make the old covenant. John 1:17 says, “The law was given through Moses.”
The law was also given to expose what man is and where man is. The best way for man to be exposed is to cause his situation to be seen in the light of God’s attributes. The Ten Commandments are composed mainly of four divine attributes: holiness, righteousness, light, and love. God is holy and righteous; He is also light and love. If you look into the Ten Commandments, you will see that they embody the divine holiness, righteousness, light, and love. For this reason, the law became God’s testimony. In other words, the Ten Commandments testify that God is holy and righteous and that God is light and love. God used this testimony to expose man. As man stands before this testimony, his sinfulness is exposed.
When the law was given, the children of Israel promised to obey God’s commandments (Exo. 19:8). Before the children of Israel responded in this way, the atmosphere around Mount Sinai was not threatening. But when the people declared that they would keep God’s commandments, the atmosphere changed and became terrifying. God exercised His holiness, and the people were not allowed to approach further. Frightened by the manifestation of God’s holiness, they asked Moses to go to God on their behalf. This indicates that the function of the law is to expose fallen mankind.
When God gave the law, He knew that the people would not be able to keep it. But He still gave it in order to expose the people. As the law functions to expose people, it keeps them. The law was used by God as a custodian to keep His people, just as a fold keeps a flock of sheep during the winter or during a storm. The time before the coming of Christ can be compared to a winter season. God used the law as a fold to guard the people. Paul makes this basic principle clear in Galatians 3:23: “Before faith came we were guarded under law, being shut up unto the faith which was about to be revealed.” In verse 24 he goes on to say, “So the law has become our child-conductor unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” These verses reveal clearly that the law functions as a custodian. As it exposed man’s transgression, it guarded God’s people until Christ came.
In the old dispensation God not only gave the law to His people; He also made a covenant with them. Concerning this, Hebrews 9:18-20 says, “Neither was the first covenant dedicated without blood. For when every commandment according to the law had been spoken by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded to you.” The sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifices was the sealing of the covenant and the completion of the official enactment of the covenant.
A covenant involves two or more parties. Here the covenant was between God and His people. This making of a covenant was a tremendous matter. Using today’s words, this covenant was an agreement or a contract. The proper way for a contract to be enacted today is for the participating parties to sign it. A time is set, and an official document is prepared. Then all the parties concerned sign this document. In some cases, the parties make an oath or a pledge. Without such an official enactment, the contract would exist as a written statement, but it would not be binding on either party. Although the law had been given to the people through Moses, there was still the need for the covenant to be enacted. Therefore, after God gave the law, He made a covenant between Him and His people.
God’s covenant in the old dispensation was enacted upon His promise. A promise is a common, ordinary word without confirmation. After God made His promise, He sealed it with an oath. He swore by His Godhead that His promise was confirmed. Once His promise was confirmed by an oath, it immediately became the covenant sealed by God. If you read the Old Testament carefully, you will see that God’s promises were all sealed by His oath. That the promises have become a covenant means that they cannot possibly be altered. Once the promises were confirmed by God’s oath, having been made unalterable, there was no possibility of change. The promise had been sealed; it was no longer a promise but a covenant confirmed by God’s oath.
God promised David, the king of the chosen race, that the fruit of his loins would be the coming Messiah — Christ. Regarding this, Acts 2:30 and 31 say, “Being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins he would seat One upon his throne, he, seeing this beforehand, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.” The Greek word rendered “fruit” in verse 30 is karpos, used for Christ only in the sense of offspring here and in Luke 1:42. It is used for the fruit of the tree of life in Revelation 22:2. Christ is the branch of Jehovah (Isa. 4:2) and of David (Jer. 23:5), and the fruit of Mary and of David, that we may eat of Him as the tree of life. To promise that such a Christ would come was a great thing and was a glad tiding. God did this to King David in the old dispensation as a great blessing to His chosen people.
God’s work in His old administrative arrangement included promising the coming gospel of the new dispensation through the prophets among the chosen race. The word “gospel” means glad tidings, good news. The gospel is news that gladdens those who hear it. It is good news from God, from the heavens.
In Romans 1:1b-3a Paul speaks of the gospel which “He promised before through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” The gospel of God concerns a person, Christ. Of course, such matters as forgiveness and salvation are included in the gospel, but they are not the central point. The gospel of God concerns the Person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel is not a doctrine nor a teaching nor a religion; it is a Person.
This gospel was promised by God through the prophets in the Scriptures. The gospel of God was not an accident; it was planned and prepared by God. The Bible shows us that this gospel was planned by God in eternity past. Before the foundation of the world, God planned to have this gospel. Therefore, numerous times in the Scriptures, from Genesis through Malachi, God spoke in promise through the prophets regarding the gospel. This indicates that if we would understand the content of the gospel as the good news, we need to know the Old Testament. The Old Testament is not merely a record of creation and history. In it are revealed crucial elements pertaining to the gospel.
We have seen God’s work in eternity past. God made the divine economy, chose the believers before the foundation of the world, predestinated the believers unto sonship, and probably made a counsel among the Trinity of the Godhead concerning creation and redemption. We have also seen God’s work in the old dispensation: the work of creating the universe, creating man and determining mankind’s seasons and boundaries, dealing with fallen mankind from Adam to Noah, calling Abraham, promising Abraham that through his seed the blessing of the gospel would come to all the families of the earth, condemning Sodom and Gomorrah to ruin by fire, choosing the children of Israel and making them His people, giving the law and making the old covenant, promising David that the fruit of his loins would be the coming Messiah, and promising the coming gospel of the new dispensation through the prophets among the chosen race.
Now we need to ask why God did all this work in eternity past and in the old dispensation. For what purpose did He work in this way? The answer is that God did all this for the purpose of dispensing Himself into His chosen people. This is the underlying thought in the Bible. The central subject, the underlying thought, in the Scriptures is that God wants to dispense Himself into His chosen people so that He may have a corporate expression that consummates in the New Jerusalem. This was God’s purpose for making the divine economy, His eternal plan. This was God’s purpose in choosing the believers, predestinating them, and making a counsel among the Trinity of the Godhead. This was God’s purpose in creating the universe, in creating man and determining man’s seasons and boundaries, and in doing so many other things in His old administrative arrangement. The purpose of God’s work in eternity past and in the old dispensation was the dispensing of Himself into His chosen people for the producing of the church as His corporate expression consummating in the New Jerusalem as the eternal expression of the Triune God.
These messages on the conclusion of the New Testament are not concerned with mere doctrine, theology, or teaching. The focus of these messages is the vision of the divine dispensing of the Triune God into us. It is not my intention that you simply know all the items of God’s person or all the aspects of His attributes. Rather, my intention is that we would see the rich ingredients of the divine food that we are taking in day by day so that we may participate in the dispensing of the Triune God into us.
