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Scripture Reading: 5-6, John 3:14-16; 1:42; 14:7-11, 16-20; 1 Cor. 3:6-12; Eph. 1:3-23
The general subject of these messages is “The Economy and Dispensing of God.” The words economy and dispensing are somewhat unfamiliar and even peculiar terms to some of us. According to the New Testament revelation, economy is a particular term used by God to unveil His eternal plan. In Greek this word is oikonomia, composed of two words, oikos and nomos. The word oikos means “house, family, or household,” and the word nomos means “law.” When we put the two words together, the result, oikonomia, means “a household regulation, household government, or household administration.” Within a household administration there are some plans and arrangements, and there is the exercise of some kind of skill for the dispensing of the riches of the household to the family members.
The word dispensing carries the denotation of distributing. In a love feast we may have an abundance of food, but there is the need for some “dispensers” to distribute the food to everyone. This distributing of food is the dispensing of food. Furthermore, when the food gets into us, it begins to dispense itself within us. Our digestion of the food is our cooperation with the dispensing of the food. After digestion there is also the process of assimilation, through which we assimilate what has been received through digestion. This is a further cooperation with the dispensing of the food. In this way the food will be in us, and everything we have eaten will become part of us. This is the denotation and the connotation of the word dispensing.
The entire economy of God, and especially that in the New Testament age, is a matter of dispensing. I do not say that it is a matter of dispensation. The word dispensation conveys a different notion. I like to use the word dispensing as a noun in expressions such as God’s dispensing or the divine dispensing. In the New Testament, God is carrying out His economy, His household administration, which He made in eternity past, before the foundation of the world. God’s intention in His economy, His household government, is just to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — into His chosen people.
Many matters are covered in the New Testament, but if we dive into the depth of the New Testament as the divine revelation, we will see that God surely has an economy, a household administration, to carry out His eternal purpose. This economy is just God’s universal operation. If you would ask me what God is doing today, I would answer that God is operating in one thing and for one thing: He is spending much time to patiently dispense Himself into all His chosen people. Everything that is mentioned in the New Testament concerning God has to do with His dispensing for His economy.
Many people are familiar with John 3:16, which says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” In this verse three things are taking place: first, God gave and is still giving; second, we believe; and third, we will have eternal life. In these three points we can see God’s dispensing. God’s giving is a kind of dispensing. Suppose I have a lot of money, and I give each of you some of this money. My giving is my dispensing. I unload my money to you by the way of dispensing. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. This means that God is dispensing His Son to us. What God dispenses is not money but His only begotten Son.
When we receive God’s Son, God is dispensed into us. After putting a dollar bill in my pocket, I may lose it. However, through God’s dispensing I have a living person in my spirit. Because I have received this person, I can never throw Him away, and I cannot even chase Him away. What I have is not just a piece of paper or a piece of sugar but the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ. This is why I am so happy and so strong.
Quite often some dear saints have written letters to comfort me. They have encouraged me not to care for all the troubles. But these troubles have never bothered me. I am always happy. My wife can testify that every night I sleep well. I also eat well. The secret to my happiness is that I have received, and am still receiving, the marvelous, unlimited, unsearchable, and untraceably rich Christ. I have received what God has dispensed to mankind. Every day I receive more of Him. I have a living, rich, happy, and joyful One within me. That is why I am a happy, living, active, and aggressive person. When He laughs, I laugh also. I am one with Him.
Not only do we have John 3:16 we also have another wonderful verse, John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” The incarnation of God is just the coming of God to us. For God to be incarnated means that God came to us. When Jesus came as God, He did not come empty-handed. He came as God full of grace and reality. Verse 16 speaks of His fullness: “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” Grace and reality are just God’s fullness. We all have received of God’s fullness, which is composed of God’s grace and reality. Of this fullness we all have received, and grace upon grace. There is no ending to this grace. It is grace upon grace for eternity. I have been a Christian for over sixty-five years, yet this grace is still coming upon me. Every day there is grace upon grace.
When your wife gives you a long face, you should simply receive grace upon grace. She may give you a long face, but you can give her a round face. This is grace upon grace.
Incarnation is a kind of dispensing. Through incarnation God dispenses Himself to us as grace and reality. On our part, all we need to do every day is to receive the Lord Jesus. When we pray, we are receiving, and when we praise the Lord, we are receiving. Every time before I speak, I must pray. If I do not pray, my receiving will not be full, and I will not have that much to dispense to the saints.
God’s dispensing is to dispense the Divine Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — into us. He is not dispensing to us blessings, such as a good house, a good car, or a good daughter-in-law. Paul considered all such things as refuse (Phil. 3:8). They are not God’s dispensing. God’s dispensing is simply to dispense Himself in His three persons into us.
Our God is rich in His three persons. He is rich in the person of the Father, He is rich in the person of the Son, and He is rich in the person of the Spirit. The Divine Trinity is God’s unsearchable riches. It is true that God is rich in light, power, life, love, holiness, righteousness, and thousands of other items. But in totality, God is rich in His Divine Trinity.
The divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity is for the producing of the materials for the divine building. The divine building is just the church of God as the Body of Christ. God has only one work today, that is, to build up the church as the Body of Christ. For any building, there is the need of material. In the divine building, we are the material. In order for us to be the proper material for God’s building, we must be processed; we must pass through a number of steps.
First, God the Father so loved the world that He gave the Son to mankind (John 3:16). This is the Father’s dispensing. When the Father gave His Son to us, He gave Himself to us in the Son. If I give you a purse that contains twelve checks, it seems that you receive only a purse. Actually, you receive the twelve checks with the purse. Jesus Christ is the “purse.” He is the embodiment of the riches of God. By Himself, Jesus seems to be merely a small purse. But in this “purse” there are many “checks.” This is the Father’s giving, and this giving is His dispensing.
God the Son redeemed fallen men so that everyone who believes into the Son may have eternal life (vv. 14-15). The Son is the eternal life (11:25; 14:6). He is given by God the Father for His dispensing. Now the Son has accomplished redemption so that we may receive Him. When we receive Him, He becomes eternal life to us. The Father’s giving is the Son, and the Son’s giving is the eternal life.
God the Spirit is the One whom the Son has given to us. When God is given to us, He becomes the Spirit in us. This Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. As the totality of the Triune God, this Spirit is dwelling in us as the life-giving Spirit.
When this Spirit enters into us, He regenerates us (3:5-6). Through regeneration the Spirit comes into us to make us another person. This same Spirit, after regenerating us, becomes life in us. Now we are persons who are mingled with God. Wherever we go, we are persons who are one with God. If we realize this, we will never say that we are weak.
The above three passages speak of the three steps taken by the three persons of the Trinity. They speak of the Father’s dispensing, the Son’s dispensing, and the Spirit’s dispensing. Eventually, when the Spirit comes, He becomes the very life in our regenerated being. This regenerated being is the mingling of the Triune God with us.
The result of this dispensing is to make men of dust stones for the divine building (1:42).
God the Father is expressed in the Son. This is fully revealed in John 14:7-11. There the Son said that if we have seen Him we have seen the Father (v. 9). The Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son (vv. 10-11). The two are one (10:30). This is for the expression of the Father in the Son.
In John 14:16-17a the Lord Jesus told us that the Spirit as the third person of the Godhead is the reality of the second. The first person, God the Father, is expressed in the second, God the Son. Now the third person, the Spirit, is realized as the reality of the Son. Hence, the third person is the reality of the second. The Father is expressed in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit. When the Spirit comes, the Son is here, and when the Son is here, the Father is here also. As long as we have the Spirit, we have all three.
We need to realize that every day and all the time the three divine persons as the Divine Trinity are right within us. This is why we Christians are very different from all the people of the world: we have the Triune God within us. Outwardly speaking, we are the same as they are, but inwardly, we have the Triune God, and they do not.
This Triune God is working within us to transform us. Transformation is not merely a change in form. It is to impart some element into our being. This divine element changes us metabolically. It is not like putting cosmetics on our face, which adds no element into us. Rather, it is a work in which some element is added into us. Every day and every hour God is adding Himself as an element into us. This element is transforming us metabolically; something old is being discharged, and something new is being imparted. This is not just an outward change but a transformation from within.
The dispensing of the Triune God has only one goal, which is to transform us, to change us metabolically with His divine element. In this way we have not only the human element but the divine element as well. We are now a God-man, a person with both humanity and divinity, both the human nature and the divine nature. We are divinely human. A turtle can never become one with a human being; neither can the angels become one with man. But God has become one with us. Hallelujah, we are not “turtlely human” or “angelically human”; we are divinely human! We need to be bold to tell every creature that we are divinely human.
Through the growth in life the believers become the materials for the divine building (1 Cor. 3:6-7). First Corinthians 3 tells us that we are God’s plants. God has planted us on His cultivated land, His farm (v. 9). Every plant needs growth. Within us God is giving us the growth in life every day.
In God the Father we have His life and nature as the gold, in God the Son we have His redemption as the silver, and in God the Spirit we have transformation as the precious stones (v. 12). Day by day three things are growing within us. God’s nature is growing. Christ’s redemption also is growing. When we believed in Christ, we did not know anything about His redemption. But after we are saved, the knowledge and realization of Christ’s redemption increase within us day by day. This means that the silver is increasing within us. Moreover, the Spirit’s transformation also is growing within us. All the three things are going on and advancing within us every day until we are fully redeemed, transformed, and even transfigured to have a glorious body.
The growth that Christians need is the growth in the nature of God the Father, the redemption of God the Son, and the transformation of God the Spirit. This growth makes us precious like gold, silver, and precious stones, which are the proper materials for us to be built up together as the church of God. The church of God is not a group of so-called Christians gathering together in a fleshly, worldly, or soulish way. That is not the proper church. The proper church must be one that is not only composed together but also constituted together. All the believers must be built up together as gold, silver, and precious stones, which are produced through the divine nature of the Father, the redemption of the Son, and the transformation of the Spirit. These three things should go on in us all day long.
The hall where we are meeting has a strong foundation. That foundation holds and supports the entire building. In the same way, Christ as a living foundation holds and supports the entire church. While He is holding and supporting, He is dispensing and imparting His divine element of life into all the members. The physical foundation of a building cannot impart anything, but Christ as the living foundation is imparting while He is holding and supporting all of us.
An electric blanket dispenses when the electrical power is turned on. When the electric current passes through the blanket, heat and warmth are dispensed. Christ is the “electric” foundation. This “electric” foundation holds and supports the whole building. While He is holding and supporting, He is also dispensing. He does not dispense heat and warmth; rather, He dispenses the element of life. This foundation also grows. When it grows, it imparts His growth into us.
We should say to the Lord every day, “Lord Jesus, I thank You that You are my foundation. You are the living foundation.” Whenever we say, “Lord Jesus” with a purpose, we have the feeling that He is imparting something to us and that a dispensing is going on. As we call, He imparts to us the “heat” and the “warmth.” As one hymn says, we should say His sacred name a thousand times a day (Hymns, #208). This will make us overcomers. We will experience the Lord as the real foundation that holds and supports us with His impartation. This kind of dispensing of Himself as the element of life into our being will transform us into precious materials.
The church is not something organized or composed together. The church is something that is constituted. The church is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18). Our body is not a number of bones composed together. It is not organized together as a carpenter would put pieces of wood together to make a table. Our body is not a composition; neither is it an organization. Our body is a constitution. In this body there is life, and there is the circulation of blood. This circulation of blood flows within our entire body. Wherever it flows, it constitutes. All the members of our body are constituted together through the circulation of the blood. This is not a matter of organization or composition but a matter of organic constitution. This is what the church should be.
God has chosen us to participate in His holy nature (Eph. 1:4). This means that if we are going to have God’s divine nature imparted into us, we must have a union with God. When we are united to God, His nature will be ours organically. Furthermore, we the believers have been predestinated to have the sonship of God (v. 5). Holiness refers to God’s nature, and sonship refers to God’s life. Both God’s nature and God’s life indicate that we the believers should be organically one with God. As God’s children, we have His life, and we have His nature because we have His life. The nature goes along with the life. When we have the human life, we also have the human nature. In the same way, when we have the divine life, we also have the divine nature. Because we have the divine nature, we can be holy, as He is holy. This is according to the Father’s selection and predestination, and it is accomplished through God’s dispensing. Through His dispensing, God comes into us to be our life and our nature.
Through the Son’s redemption we become God’s inheritance (vv. 7, 11). The word inheritance indicates that something of God Himself has been wrought into our being. Otherwise, we, the natural man, can never be God’s inheritance. We were just a heap of dust, and as such, we had no value. But since Christ’s redemption has imparted something of God into our being, we have something of God Himself within us. The redemption of Christ has worked something of God into our tripartite being through the dispensing of the divine life and element into us. Some divine “gold” has been imparted into our spirit. Something precious has been spreading into our soul. Eventually, the glory of the divine person will permeate our entire body. Then our whole being will become precious. This will make us an inheritance, something precious for God to inherit. God is expecting to inherit such a precious inheritance. God the Son’s redeeming to make us the inheritance of God is so that He may head up all things in Himself at the fullness of the times for the completion of God’s eternal economy (v. 10).
Although God is precious, we may not have the assurance that He will be our inheritance. The sealing of the Spirit (v. 13b) assures us that this precious God will surely become our inheritance. Furthermore, He has given us a pledge to guarantee that this will happen. This pledge is the Spirit (v. 14a). The Spirit is kept within us as the guarantee.
This sealing and pledging is for our enjoyment through the divine, all-inclusive dispensing of the processed Triune God. This dispensing is unto the redemption of our body (v. 14b), which will be transfigured into a glorious body (Phil. 3:21), saturated with the glory of the Triune God through His ultimate dispensing.
We have not only the transformation and the dispensing but a transmission as well. Electricity is transmitted from a power plant to a particular building. Once the transmission of electricity stops, the lights in the building will go out, and all the electrical appliances will cease to function. God in the heavenlies is our power plant. We are the object of His transmission. Between Him and us there is a “transmission line,” and a transmission is going on.
According to Ephesians 1:19-23, this transmission is in the surpassing greatness of the divine power toward the believers, which the Father caused to operate in the Son in raising Him from the dead, seating Him at the Father’s right hand in the heavenlies, subjecting all things under His feet, and giving Him to be the Head over all things to the church. God has wrought something in Christ, and all this work is to the church. The word to (v. 22) indicates a transmission. This transmission is transmitting all the great power that God wrought in Christ into us, the church, with the result that through His excelling dispensing, the church becomes the organic Body of Christ. The church becomes organic through the transmission that is taking place between God and us. This organic Body of Christ is the very fullness of Christ, the One who fills all in all, for His corporate expression in the universe.
The existence of the church comes out of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Eventually, the church is the issue of this divine transmission. For this we need to experience the divine dispensing plus the divine transmission continually.
