Search
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:2, 24, 30; 2:7, 9-10, 12; 3:16; 6:11b
Many Christians think that the book of Romans is deeper than the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians. In a sense, Romans is deeper than 1 and 2 Corinthians. But as far as the church life is concerned, these two Epistles are deeper than Romans, for they are more practical. Of the fourteen Epistles of Paul, the most practical Epistles are the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians.
Whenever we touch the practical aspect of the church life, we have trouble. If we stay in the realm of doctrine or if we approach the church in a theoretical way, everything may seem to be fine. But when we come to the practicality of the church, we face difficulties. In 1 and 2 Corinthians there are many troubles, but Paul gives us the remedy for all these troubles. For this reason, in these books the depths of God are revealed in a practical way.
In these chapters on 1 and 2 Corinthians we will consider the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. I believe that the expression divine dispensing was originated by us. The divine dispensing certainly is not a matter of doctrine; on the contrary, the divine dispensing is a matter of the depths of God realized in a practical way.
As the title of this chapter indicates, according to 1 Corinthians, the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity issues in the practical life of a local church and in a local church. Therefore, as we consider the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity in this Epistle, we come to something very practical, and this practical matter is the life of a local church.
In Ephesians 2:10 Paul says, “We are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them.” The Greek word for masterpiece here is poiema, which means “something that has been made,” a “handiwork,” or “something that has been written or composed as a poem.” Not only poetic writing but also any work of art that expresses the maker’s wisdom and design is a poem. We, the church, the masterpiece of God’s work, are also a poem, expressing God’s infinite wisdom and divine design.
As a poem written, composed, by God, the church is God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus. To create is to call something not being as being; that is, to create is to call something into existence. Anything that is created is altogether new. Because the church has been created in Christ Jesus, the church is a new creation. We, the church, as the masterpiece of God’s work, are an absolutely new item in the universe, an item freshly brought forth by God. We have been created by God in Christ through regeneration to be His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
Since the church is a new creation, we are not the church when we live in our old nature or by the old creation. The church is something absolutely new, something created of God by His Spirit in Christ. Therefore, the Trinity — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit — is involved in the producing of the church. Actually, the church is produced through the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. This means that the church is a new creation produced through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Because the church is of God, by the Spirit, and in Christ, it is God’s masterpiece, His poem.
What are the letters with which the church as God’s poem is composed? What is the alphabet used in writing this poem? In the last book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation, we see that the Triune God is Himself this alphabet. Revelation 1:8 says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, He who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.” Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last letter. Not only is God the first and last letter of the alphabet; He is also the other letters, all the letters between Alpha and Omega. Therefore, He is the letters used to make up the words that compose this poem. Just as all poetry is composed of words written with letters of the alphabet, so the church as God’s poem is composed of God Himself as the letters.
We have seen that in Revelation 1:8 the Lord God declares that He is the Alpha and the Omega. But in Revelation 22:13 the Lord Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Does this mean that there are two sets of letters, one related to God, and the other to the Lord Jesus? No, these verses indicate that God and the Lord Jesus are one. In the first chapter of Revelation God declares that He is the Alpha and the Omega, and then in the last chapter of Revelation the Lord Jesus makes the same declaration concerning Himself. This indicates that the entire Godhead is the divine alphabet. Our Triune God is the whole alphabet: the Alpha, the Beta, the Gamma, the Delta, and all the letters through Omega. Actually, the New Testament is not composed of the letters of the Greek alphabet. The entire New Testament is composed of the letters of the divine and heavenly alphabet, letters which are actually the Triune God Himself.
I can testify that for more than sixty years I have been learning to compose something with the Triune God as letters. I have become accustomed to using these heavenly letters. I would encourage all of you to learn to write with these letters, realizing that the New Testament actually is composed of God Himself. The Triune God is every letter of the alphabet used in writing the New Testament.
Some readers may be wondering what it means to compose something with the Triune God as the letters of the alphabet. Perhaps I may use as an illustration a recent experience in ministering the Word of God. Not long ago I gave some messages on the basic revelation in the Holy Scriptures. In those messages I spoke concerning God’s plan, Christ’s redemption (including His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension), the Spirit’s application, the believers, the church, the kingdom, and the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation. In giving all those messages I applied the Triune God as the letters of the spiritual alphabet. Every aspect of the church as God’s poem is composed with the Triune God as the alphabet.
I do not believe that throughout the centuries many Christians have realized that the existence of the church depends on the divine dispensing. The church does not come into being through organization. The church comes into being through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. The dispensing of the Triune God, therefore, gives the church its existence.
The church comes into being through the divine dispensing of what the Triune God is. When the Divine Trinity is dispensed into the believers, this dispensing brings the church into existence. We all need to know the church in such a deep way. We need to know that the church does not come into existence through anything other than the dispensing of the Triune God into the believers.
The church is produced of God as the source. This is the reason 1 Corinthians 1:2 speaks of “the church of God which is in Corinth.” Here we see that the church to which this Epistle was addressed was of God and in Corinth. If we had been writing this Epistle, we might have said simply, “To the church which is in Corinth.” However, Paul first says that the church is of God and then that it is in Corinth.
Here we see that the church is both divine and local; it is a church that is of God and also a local church, a church of God and a church in Corinth. The church addressed in this Epistle is a local church, a church located by a city, not a church located by a region or a street. Of God indicates the source of the church, and in Corinth indicates the location of the church.
The church in Corinth was constituted of the universal God, but it existed in Corinth, a definite locality on earth. In nature the church is universal in God, but in practice the church is local in a definite place. Hence, the church has two aspects: the universal aspect and the local aspect. Without the universal aspect, the church is void of content; without the local aspect, it is impossible for the church to have any expression or practice. Therefore, the New Testament also emphasizes the local aspect of the church (Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rev. 1:11).
Let us read all of 1 Corinthians 1:2: “To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours.” Here we see that “the church of God” equals “those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus.” This strongly indicates that the church is a composition of the saints, and the saints are the constituents of the church. The two should not be considered separate entities. Individually, we are the saints; corporately, we are the church.
We have seen that in 1:2 of God indicates the source, and in Corinth indicates the location. In this verse we also have the phrase in Christ Jesus. As we will see, this means in the element and sphere of Christ. Christ is the element and sphere that separated us unto God, made us holy unto Him, when we believed in Him, that is, when we were brought into an organic union with Him through our faith in Him.
According to verse 2, the members of the church are called saints. We need to lay aside the Roman Catholic concept of a saint and be impressed with the fact that we all are saints, genuine saints sanctified in Christ Jesus. We have been made holy, separated unto God for the fulfillment of His purpose. In verse 2 Paul does not say, as rendered in the King James Version, that the believers are called to be saints; rather, he says that the believers in Christ are the called saints. This is a positional matter, a sanctification in position with a view to sanctification in disposition.
In 1:2 the preposition with is significant. Paul does not say “and all those who call,” but he says “with all those who call.” This indicates that a local church, such as the church in Corinth, is composed only of those believers in that locality, not of all believers in every place. It also indicates that this Epistle was intended not only for the believers in the church in Corinth but for all believers in every place. Hence, this Epistle is for all believers of whatever place or time.
In this verse Paul speaks of calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. To call upon the name of the Lord implies believing in Him (Rom. 10:14). All believers in the Lord should be those who call on Him (Acts 9:14, 21; 22:16). We have been called to call; we have been called by God to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.
The words theirs and ours used by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:2 indicate that Christ, as the all-inclusive One, belongs to all believers. He is our portion given to us by God (Col. 1:12). The apostle added this special phrase at the end of this verse to emphasize the crucial fact of Christ’s being the unique center of all believers in whatever place or situation. For all problems, especially the matter of division, the only solution is the all-inclusive Christ. We have all been called into the fellowship, the participation, in Him (1 Cor. 1:9).
First Corinthians 1:2 is a rich verse. All the riches contained in this verse are related to the church.
We have pointed out that, according to 1:2, the church is of God. This phrase not only denotes the fact that the church belongs to God; it also indicates that the source of the church is God Himself. The church comes out from God. Since the church comes out from God, the church is of God.
As an illustration of the fact that the church comes out from God, we may say that children are of their parents. This means that children are the issue, the produce, that comes out from their parents. In a similar way, the church is the produce that comes out from God, for all the members of the church have been born of God.
We all have been born of God; that is, we all have experienced the divine birth. It is through the divine birth that the church comes into being. Just as there cannot be a human family without human birth, so there cannot be a church, which is a divine family, without the divine birth. A family is something that issues from human parents through birth. Likewise, the church is of God and issues from God through the divine birth.
The begetting of children is a matter of dispensing. When parents beget children, they dispense their life and nature into the children. Hence, birth is actually a dispensing. We have been born of God, and our divine birth involved the divine dispensing. Actually, the divine dispensing began at the time of our regeneration.
How can the church be produced? How can the church come into existence? The existence of the church depends on the divine birth. Through the divine birth God has dispensed Himself into our being. That part of our being which has received the divine dispensing is part of the church. When we were regenerated, we all received the dispensing of the Triune God into our being. The church is composed of that part in the believers which has received the divine dispensing. When we add all these parts together, the total is the church.
The church is of God because the church is produced with the element that comes out from God. For the Corinthians, the church was also in Corinth. This church was composed of all the sanctified ones with those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, all those who possess this all-inclusive One. As we consider the points in 1:2, we see that the church is the issue of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
