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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:2, 24, 30; 2:7, 9-10, 12; 3:16; 6:11b
In previous chapters we have seen that the church is God’s poem, His masterpiece (Eph. 2:10), and that the existence of the church comes through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. The church is produced of God as the source (1 Cor. 1:2a), the church is sanctified in Christ as the sphere and element (v. 2b), and the church is sanctified by the Spirit as the application with the divine nature (6:11b). In this chapter we will go on to consider the dispensing work of the Divine Trinity with respect to the church.
In 2:7 Paul says, “We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages for our glory.” The glory here is Christ, who is the Lord of glory (v. 8). Christ is our life today (Col. 3:4) and will be our glory in the future (1:27). God has called us into this glory (1 Pet. 5:10), and He will bring us into this glory (Heb. 2:10). This is the goal of God’s salvation.
Ephesians 1:5 says that God has predestinated us unto sonship. But in 1 Corinthians 2:7 Paul tells us that God has predestinated us unto glory. Sonship begins with regeneration and matures in glorification. We have been regenerated, and now we are in the process of being transformed. Eventually, our body will be transfigured, and our entire being will be glorified. In simple words, the glory in which we will participate will be the maturity of sonship. For us to be predestinated unto glory means that we are predestinated unto the maturity of sonship.
We all have been regenerated to become sons of God. Now we are growing and are being transformed. When the Lord Jesus comes, we will be transfigured in our body and reach maturity. That maturity will be our glorification.
We may use the blossoming of a carnation plant as an illustration of glorification. When a carnation plant blossoms, it reaches its maturity. This blossoming of a carnation is its glorification. In a similar way, our maturity as sons will be our spiritual blossoming, our glorification.
Some may have the concept that because God has predestinated us unto glory, He will lift us out of our low condition and transfer us into a realm, a sphere, of glory. God’s way is altogether different. God dispenses Himself into us, and the first step of God’s dispensing is regeneration. Actually, God has regenerated us by dispensing Himself into our spirit. From the time of our regeneration, God has been seeking to dispense more and more of Himself into us. Whenever we are available to Him, He will dispense Himself into us a little more.
When we are not available to God for His dispensing, He is patient, knowing that sooner or later we will make ourselves available to Him for the divine dispensing. Regarding this matter, God will continue to be patient, even if it is necessary for Him to wait many years until we are available for His dispensing. Whenever our situation affords God the opportunity to dispense Himself into us, He will do this work of dispensing. Through the divine dispensing we are gradually transformed.
Transformation through the divine dispensing involves a long process. But to the Lord a thousand years are like one day (2 Pet. 3:8). He is calm, and His way is slow. Once, I heard a certain Bible teacher say that our God never does anything in a hurry. On the contrary, God acts slowly. He sanctifies and transforms us gradually. God’s way is to take many years to complete the work of transformation in us.
In the book of Revelation the Lord Jesus said, “I come quickly” (22:7). But nearly two thousand years have passed, and still He has not come. Furthermore, we do not know when the Lord will come. When the Lord said “soon,” He spoke according to His sense of time, not according to our sense of time. The point here is that God is working slowly to dispense Himself into us.
The elders and the leading ones in the churches need to learn that God is patient and long-suffering. Often the elders expect the saints in the local churches to reach maturity in a short period of time. I can testify that whenever I have had such an expectation concerning the saints, it was never fulfilled. For example, in the past I expected that the saints in a certain church would reach maturity after five or ten years. But after ten years had passed, the apparent condition of the church had not improved very much. As a result of experience, I have come to learn that the sanctifying work of the indwelling Spirit is a long, slow process.
Life grows slowly. The higher a particular kind of life is, the more slowly it grows. For example, mushrooms and mosquitoes, being rather low forms of life, grow quickly. But it takes at least twenty-one years for a human being to reach maturity. The principle here is that the higher the life is, the slower it grows. Since the divine life is the highest life, it grows at the slowest rate. If we see this, we will not expect to grow quickly in the spiritual life. We should never expect mushrooming growth in the church life.
Since the divine life grows slowly in the saints, I would encourage the elders and leading ones in the churches to be patient and long-suffering. If we expect to see growth in the saints, we may be discouraged. However, sometimes when we are very discouraged and feel that the situation is hopeless, we see in the churches some signs of growth. Therefore, I would encourage not only the elders and leading ones but all the saints not to be disappointed with the rate of growth.
Some of the saints who are disappointed with the slowness of their growth may say, “Brother Lee, for years you have been telling us that it takes time to grow and be transformed. I have been in the recovery for many years, and I can’t see any improvement with me. I am utterly discouraged with my condition.” If I try to encourage these saints, they may say, “You don’t know my actual situation. You may think that I am rather good, but the Lord knows how pitiful I am. He knows that in many ways I have become worse.” I would like to say to these saints, “I do not believe that concerning the matter of the divine life you have become worse. No, you have grown at least a little. Since you have grown, there is some improvement with you.”
As long as we are in the “garden” of the local churches, we will grow. We may grow quite slowly, but we certainly will grow in the divine life. To be sure, even a little growth is better than no growth at all. It is a fact that many saints have experienced considerable growth in life. If we compare these saints today with what they were many years ago, we would see that with them there has been the definite growth in life.
God has predestinated us not only unto sonship but also unto glory. Because 1 Corinthians reveals that God has predestinated us unto glory, we may say that, in a sense, this book is deeper than the book of Ephesians. We should not be satisfied simply to be sons. Our desire should be to be glorified, to enter into glory.
In 1:9 Paul says, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” This fellowship is the partaking of God’s Son, the participation in Him. To be in this fellowship is to partake of the all-inclusive Christ, to participate in Him. God has called us into such a fellowship so that we may partake of Christ and enjoy Him as our God-given portion.
To be called into the fellowship of God’s Son actually means to be called into the participation and enjoyment of Christ. Fellowship means “participation.” We have seen that God has predestinated us unto glory. But how can we reach the glory to which we have been predestinated? We reach this glory by enjoying Christ. The One who predestinated us unto glory is also the One who has called us into the enjoyment of Christ. Now we need to enjoy Christ every day.
Every part of our enjoyment of Christ is also a part of the glory to which God has predestinated us. What is the coming glory? The coming glory is the totality of all our enjoyment of Christ. Today we may have some enjoyment of Christ, and tomorrow we will also have some enjoyment of Christ. Eventually, our enjoyment of Christ will be put together, and the aggregate of all that we have enjoyed of Him will be glory. Hence, we reach glory through our daily enjoyment of Christ.
We will not come into glory suddenly. Apparently, the Bible indicates that we will be raptured into glory. Actually, we are growing into the coming glory. How do we grow into this glory? We grow into glory by enjoying Christ.
As we enjoy Christ, He dispenses Himself into us. We may use the eating of food as an illustration. As we enjoy the food that we eat, the food is dispensed into us. Actually, our enjoyment of the food is the dispensing of the food into our being. In a similar way, our enjoyment of Christ is the dispensing of Himself into us. We need to learn how to remain in the fellowship of God’s Son, that is, how to remain in the enjoyment of Christ, in the participation of Him.
First Corinthians 1:30 tells us, “Of Him you are in Christ Jesus.” What we believers, as the new creation, are and have in Christ is of God, not of ourselves. It is God who has put us in Christ, who has transferred us out of Adam into Christ.
Although God has totally transferred us out of Adam and into Christ, according to our actual experience, we have been transferred into Christ only in part. From the standpoint of our position as the result of God’s working, we have been transferred into Christ, and now we are in Christ. But experientially, we are not yet wholly in Christ. Therefore, God is continually seeking to dispense something of Christ into our being so that we may be transferred into Christ more and more.
Paul’s word in 1:30 concerning our being in Christ is related to the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. After years of experience we have come to see this. God is dispensing Himself into our being. The extent to which He has dispensed Himself into us is the degree to which He has transferred us into Christ experientially.
First Corinthians 1:24 says, “To those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” This verse indicates that the crucified Christ preached by the apostles is God’s power and God’s wisdom. Wisdom is for planning, purposing; power is for carrying out, for accomplishing what is planned and purposed. In God’s economy Christ is both.
According to 1:24, Christ has become power to us from God. It is only in the book of 1 Corinthians that Paul tells us that Christ is God’s power and wisdom to us. In doing anything we need both wisdom and power. If we do not have wisdom, matters will be in confusion. But if we have wisdom without power, we will not have the ability to carry out anything. We need wisdom and power, and Christ is both wisdom and power from God to us.
We need to realize that every day the living Christ is transfusing us with Himself as power to us from God. In ourselves we cannot be holy, victorious, or even patient. Therefore, we need Christ as our power. A married sister, for example, is not able in herself to be submissive to her husband. In order to be submissive, she needs the living Christ as her power.
In order to experience Christ as power to us from God, we need to know Christ as the life-giving Spirit. However, some Christians believe only in an objective Christ sitting in the heavens. They do not know that Christ is also the life-giving Spirit. If Christ were only in the heavens and were not the life-giving Spirit, He could not be power to us from God. Christ can be such power to us only because He is the life-giving Spirit. He is now the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who is identical with the Spirit. As the pneumatic Christ, the Lord is within us as the pneuma, dispensing Himself into us continually.
In our daily living we need to turn inwardly to our spirit. We may use switching on electrical power as an illustration of turning to the spirit. When we need power to operate an electrical appliance, we simply need to turn on the switch. There is no need to go elsewhere to receive electrical power. In the spiritual life we also have a “switch,” and this switch is in our spirit, where Christ is. If someone is giving us a difficult time, we should not try in ourselves to be good. If we behave ourselves in a certain way, we are merely doing something outward. Instead of trying to be good in ourselves, we should come back to our spirit. Rather than dealing with the situation in an outward way, we need to come to our spirit. Concerning this, it is helpful to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. If we turn to our spirit, calling on the Lord’s name, immediately Christ will be transmitted as power from God to us. Then in a practical way this power will become our strength.
The “current” of the divine transmission of Christ as power is interrupted whenever we try to behave in an outward way without turning to our spirit. We need to be reminded to turn from the outward situation, the difficulty or problem in our environment, and come back to our spirit. For instance, a brother should not try to deal with his wife’s temper, and a sister should not consider that her husband is too strong or that he does not show her enough love. Both the brother and the sister need to come back to the spirit and call on the name of the Lord Jesus.
Whenever we turn inwardly to the spirit and call on the Lord, the power reaches us and becomes our strength. As a result, we are well able to face our particular situation. When we receive the divine dispensing in this way, we will have the ability to be patient in a happy way instead of gnashing our teeth in an effort to be patient.
Only Christ as the power to us from God can enable us to bear our problems or be carried through a difficult situation. The situation of the church in Corinth was certainly full of problems and confusion. The only power that could bear such a situation was Christ as the power from God to the Corinthians.
Paul’s word in 1:24 regarding Christ as power from God to us is certainly related to the divine dispensing. The Lord is dispensing Himself into our being as the power to us from God. This power is able to bring us through every kind of difficulty.
According to 1:24, Christ is also wisdom to us from God. Furthermore, in 1:30 Paul says, “Of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Here we see that Christ has been made wisdom to us from God as three vital matters in God’s salvation: righteousness (for our past), by which we have been justified by God so that we may be reborn in our spirit to receive the divine life; sanctification (for our present), by which we are being sanctified in our soul with His divine life; and redemption (for our future), that is, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23), by which we will be transfigured in our body with His divine life to have His glorious likeness (Phil. 3:21).
Sometimes we may find ourselves forced into a “corner” by a particular situation. It seems that there is no way out. At such times we need to turn inwardly to our spirit. If we turn to our spirit, Christ will become our wisdom.
In 1 Corinthians wisdom refers to the high things of Christ — to Christ as our righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and even as everything to us. In this book wisdom, along with the depths of God, refers to Christ. In this Epistle we see different aspects of Christ as our wisdom. To experience this wisdom is to experience Christ dispensing Himself into us.
I would encourage us to spend more time to pray-read verses such as 1:24 and 30. We need to dwell on these verses and muse upon them in order to assimilate Christ as power to us from God and also as wisdom to us from God to be our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In our experience Christ should also be the hidden mysteries, mysteries that we cannot define but that we can experience. We need to get into the depth of the mysterious things of Christ Himself.
First Corinthians 2:9 and 10 say, “As it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man’s heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But to us God has revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” Here we see that the Spirit reveals to us the things which God has prepared for us in Christ. In verse 12 Paul goes on to say that we have received the Spirit from God so that we may know the things which have been graciously given to us by God.
In 2:10 we see that the things which God has prepared for us are revealed to us through the Spirit. This verse tells us not that the Spirit teaches but that the Spirit reveals. To teach is related to our mind; to reveal is related to our spirit. To realize the deep and hidden things which God has prepared for us, our spirit is more necessary than our mind. When our entire being becomes one with God through loving Him in intimate fellowship, He shows us, in our spirit through His Spirit, all the secrets of Christ as our portion. This is to reveal the hidden things planned by His wisdom concerning Christ, things which have never come up in man’s heart.
In God’s economy the Father plans, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit comes to us to apply what the Father has planned and what Christ the Son has accomplished. Therefore, we cannot experience Christ as power and wisdom to us from God unless the Spirit applies Christ in our spirit. This means that if we would experience Christ, we cannot afford to stay away from the Spirit. Furthermore, we cannot separate Christ from the Spirit in our spirit, for He is the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit.
The Spirit reveals to us all that Christ is. This revealing is actually a dispensing. However, we may think that the revealing to us of the things of Christ is simply a matter of vision, a matter of the Spirit showing us something. Actually, revealing involves dispensing. If we do not have the divine dispensing, anything that the Spirit reveals to us will be nothing more than doctrine to us. But when we have the divine dispensing as our enjoyment, then the revelation of the Spirit is not merely objective doctrine but a subjective experience and enjoyment of Christ. In this way through the Spirit’s dispensing we see Christ experientially.
Suppose you are suffering in the midst of a particular situation. Instead of trying to handle the situation in an outward way, you inwardly turn to your spirit and enjoy Christ as power to you from God. At such a time you will have the sense deep within that the Triune God is dispensing Himself in Christ through the Spirit into your being.
In 3:16 we see that the Spirit dwells in the church: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” In this verse the temple of God refers to the believers collectively in a certain locality, as in Corinth. But in the following verse the temple of God refers to all the believers universally. The unique spiritual temple of God in the universe has its expression in many localities on earth. Each expression is a temple of God in a particular locality. To say that the Spirit of God dwells in the believers as the temple of God means that the Spirit of God dwells in the church. The dwelling of the Spirit of God in the church is also a matter of the divine dispensing.
As we consider all these verses in 1 Corinthians, we see that the unique thing that is taking place in the church life is the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. I realize that in the book of 1 Corinthians we cannot find the word dispensing. But just as we have the fact of the Trinity in the Bible even though this word is not used, we also have the fact of the divine dispensing even though this term cannot be found in the Scriptures. Day by day this dispensing is taking place among us in the church life. Therefore, the church life in a practical way is the issue of this divine dispensing. The divine dispensing of the Triune God results in the practical church life. The proper church life comes from the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
If we see this, we will realize that we cannot teach anyone how to have the proper church life. No, the proper church life comes only through the dispensing of the Triune God into us. The more we have this dispensing, the more we have the genuine and proper church life. I hope that many of us will enter into the depths of Christ through the divine dispensing of the Triune God in our practical church life.
