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Scripture Reading: John 1:14, 16; 3:16; 1 John 4:9; Gal. 4:4; Rom. 8:3; John 6:32, 40; 5:24; Heb. 2:14; 1 Tim. 3:16; John 1:17b; 10:10b; 19:34; Titus 2:14; Matt. 26:26; John 6:32-33, 48-51, 57b; Rev. 2:17; 1 Cor. 10:3; Rev. 2:7; 22:2; Eph. 3:8; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6; Rom. 8:11; Phil. 1:19-21a; Rev. 22:1; 1 Cor. 12:13; 10:4
In the first two chapters we saw the vision concerning the Divine Trinity and the vision concerning the economy of the Divine Trinity. In this chapter we want to see the vision concerning the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. The dispensing of the Divine Trinity is included in His economy. God’s economy is His household administration. In ancient times a large family of perhaps a few generations would live together. Such a large family was in need of an administration, an arrangement, for the food to be dispensed to them. In the Old Testament Joseph is a good example of a household administrator, a steward. He was the administrator of Pharaoh’s house. The supply of food was under Joseph’s stewardship. His stewardship was to dispense the food to all those in Pharaoh’s house.
We must see the distinction between the terms dispensation and dispensing. God’s dispensation, His economy, is His plan to dispense Himself as the rich supply to all of His chosen people. In God’s dispensation, God intends to dispense Himself into His people. Dispensing is imparting, distributing, and giving. God is giving Himself, imparting Himself, distributing Himself, dispensing Himself, into His people for their enjoyment. This dispensing is of the Triune God — of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit.
The dispensing of the Triune God can first be seen in John 1:14 and 16. These verses tell us that the Word [the Triune God] became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality, and that of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. What was the purpose of the Triune God becoming flesh and tabernacling among us? It is correct to say that the Triune God became incarnated to be our Savior, but this is too superficial. We need to realize that John 1:14 is like a big ocean. Its significance is deep, broad, and beyond our natural understanding. This verse is also like a deep mine full of treasures.
John 1:14 says that the incarnated Triune God was full of grace and reality. Many Christians do not have a proper realization of what grace and reality are. Grace is God Himself for our enjoyment. Two lines from Hymns, #497 say, “Grace in its highest definition is / God in the Son to be enjoyed by us.” Grace is God being enjoyed by us, and reality is God being realized by us. Grace is God for our enjoyment, and reality is God for our possession. Nothing is real in the universe except God. The real light is our God. Our real drink is God. Our food is God. God is the reality. The phrase full of grace and reality in verse 14 indicates that the incarnation is for God to come to dispense Himself into us as our enjoyment and as our possession. We need to see such a great vision. The incarnation of the Divine Trinity is for the dispensing of Himself into us for our enjoyment and for our inheritance. In His dispensing we enjoy Him and inherit Him as our possession, as our reality.
Revelation 21 and 22 reveal that in the New Jerusalem in eternity future, God will be our unique reality. The city has no need of the sun or of the moon because God Himself is the light, and Christ is the lamp (21:23; 22:5). The light in the universe will not be something made by man but will be God Himself. God is the reality of light, and He is our possession, our inheritance. In the New Jerusalem there is also the river of water of life (v. 1). This river is a symbol of the Spirit as the supply of the divine and spiritual water to meet our need. Our food in the New Jerusalem will be the fruit of the tree of life (v. 2). Thus, in the New Jerusalem the light is God Himself, the water is God Himself, and the food is God Himself. He is the reality of these necessities. God came in incarnation with all these riches of grace and reality. We enjoy and inherit Him as such a rich supply.
John 3:16 says that [the Triune] God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would have eternal life. The world in this verse refers to mankind. God so loved mankind that He gave His only begotten Son for what purpose? It was so that everyone who believes into the Son would have eternal life. God gave His Son, and we receive eternal life. He loved mankind to such an extent that He gave His only begotten Son to us. Then we receive eternal life by believing into His dear Son. God’s giving His Son to us is His dispensing. The Son is the embodiment of the Father. When the Father gave His Son to us, that was God giving Himself in His embodiment to us. If we receive His Son, His embodiment, we receive eternal life. This indicates that eternal life is the Son, the embodiment of the Triune God. To receive eternal life is to receive the Son as the embodiment of the Triune God, as a gift from Him.
First John 4:9 says that [the Triune] God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him. This verse reveals the dispensing of the Triune God in the Son that we might have Him as life and live through Him. Galatians 4:4 says that [the Triune] God sent forth His Son, born of a woman. God dispensed Himself into us as the gift of life through incarnation by being born into a woman.
Romans 8:3 says that [the Triune] God sent His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin. By sending His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, God came to dispense Himself into us as the gift of eternal life. The truth in Romans 8:3 can be seen in the type of the bronze serpent in Numbers 21, referred to by the Lord Jesus in John 3:14: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The bronze serpent lifted up by Moses was in the likeness of a serpent, but within it there was not the poison of a serpent. Likewise, Christ was in the likeness of the flesh of sin, but within Him there was no sin. By being lifted up on the cross as the bronze serpent, Christ dealt with Satan, the old serpent (12:31-33; Heb. 2:14). This means that the serpentine nature within fallen man has been dealt with so that man might have eternal life. This is the way that the Triune God came to dispense Himself into His chosen people.
The dispensing of the Father can be seen in the Gospel of John. Verse 32 of chapter 6 says that the Father gives us the true bread out of heaven. The Lord Jesus told us clearly that He is the very bread from heaven given by the Father. This means that the Father is dispensing Christ as food to all of us. John 6:40 says that the will of the Father is that everyone who beholds the Son and believes into Him should have eternal life. Christ as the heavenly bread dispensed to us is the embodiment of the eternal life. When we receive this bread and eat it, we have this bread within us as the eternal life. The Father gives us the heavenly bread, which signifies the Son. Thus, the Son is the heavenly food for our life supply.
We can also see the dispensing of the Father in John 8:29, which says that He [the Father] who sent the Son is with the Son. The Father gives the Son as the heavenly bread, but when He gives the Son, He comes with the Son. The Father who sent the Son is with the Son. The natural thought is that the Father remained in the heavens when He sent the Son to us to be our food supply. But according to the divine revelation, the Father was with the Son when the Son came. This shows that not only the Son but also the Father is the component of the heavenly bread. When we receive the Son, we have the Father with the Son as our food supply. This is the dispensing of the Father.
John 5:24 says that he who hears the Son and believes the Father who sent the Son has eternal life. The book of John repeatedly tells us that God has given Himself for us to receive Him as our eternal life. This giving and receiving indicates the dispensing of the Father.
Now we want to see the dispensing of the Son. The Son, who shared in our blood and flesh, was manifested in the flesh (Heb. 2:14; 1 Tim. 3:16). As we have seen, the Son was born of a woman in the likeness of the flesh of sin. The dispensing of the Son is also seen in grace and reality coming through Jesus Christ (John 1:17b). Jesus Christ came for the purpose of dispensing God Himself as grace and reality to us. God Himself as grace and reality came through Jesus Christ. This is the dispensing of the Son.
The Son came that we may have life and have life abundantly (10:10b). He desired to dispense Himself into us as life. This can also be seen in John 19:34, which says that one of the soldiers pierced His side, and immediately there came out blood and water. The blood is for our redemption, and the water is for God’s dispensing. The blood deals with sins, and the water is the flow of the divine life to quench our thirst and swallow up our death. The water is for the dispensing of the divine life into our being. The Son of God loved us and gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20; Titus 2:14). His giving of Himself was for His dispensing.
The Son gave Himself to us that we might eat Him. When the Lord Jesus established His table, He gave the bread to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body” (Matt. 26:26). This shows us that to remember the Lord at His table is to enjoy Him by eating Him. The Lord Jesus, who gave Himself on the cross for us, is edible. The bread on our dining table has been processed, or cooked. After the cross our Lord is now the heavenly bread who has been cooked. Now this bread is ready for us to take and eat. Today Jesus is edible. The Lord’s table, of which we partake, is a sign, a symbol, of our daily walk, indicating that our daily walk is one of taking Christ as our life supply and living by this supply. One day a week we come together to give a testimony to the entire universe with a declaration that this is the way we live. We live by eating Jesus as our food, our life supply. We need to see the vision of Jesus being edible.
The Son is our life supply as manna, even the hidden manna (John 6:32-33, 48-51, 57b; 1 Cor. 10:3). In John 6 the Lord compared Himself to the heavenly manna that was given to the children of Israel in ancient times. In the seven epistles in Revelation written by the Lord Jesus to His seven churches, Jesus is revealed as the hidden manna (2:17). He is the real manna for our life supply.
The Son is also our life supply as the tree of life with its fruit (v. 7; 22:2). The tree of life is seen in both Genesis and Revelation. In Revelation 2:7 the tree of life is promised as a reward to the overcomers. In Revelation 22:2, 14, and 19 it is a complete fulfillment of God’s intention in Genesis. In eternity future we will be in the New Jerusalem enjoying Christ as our life supply, as the fruit of the tree of life.
Eating results in the mingling of divinity with humanity. In the early church there was a heretical teaching concerning the mingling, which said that the mingling of divinity and humanity produces a third nature. Because of this heresy nearly everyone avoided the truth concerning mingling. But in the Bible there is a strong revelation concerning the mingling of the divine nature with the human nature. This is typified by the meal offering in the Old Testament, composed of fine flour mingled with oil (Lev. 2:4-5). The fine flour signifies humanity, and the oil signifies the Holy Spirit with His divinity. Oil mingled with fine flour signifies that divinity is mingled with humanity. There is a third entity produced but not a third nature. This third entity is not merely oil or fine flour but a cake made of oil mingled with fine flour, signifying the mingling of divinity with humanity. After this mingling these two natures remain distinguishable. They remain two natures without a third nature being produced. Thus, there is a third entity but not a third nature.
Whatever we eat, digest, and assimilate is mingled with us and even becomes us. This is why dietitians say that we are what we eat. A little boy becomes big and strong by being mingled with what he eats. What we eat is assimilated into us and eventually becomes our very fiber and tissue. In John 6:57 the Lord said that he who eats Him shall live because of Him. God in Christ is good for food. His being food is for the dispensing of Himself into our being.
The dispensing of the Son is also seen in Ephesians 3:8, which reveals that the unsearchable riches of Christ [the Son] are for the New Testament ministry in the divine dispensing. Many people claim that they have a ministry, which is a service, but what is the content of their service? Do we minister Christ as the food supply to His believers? If we do not, we do not have a real, genuine, adequate ministry. The real, genuine, adequate ministry in the New Testament is the divine stewardship that ministers the Triune God in Christ to people as their life and life supply. In all the messages I have given throughout the years, my unique burden has been to minister Christ to God’s people as their life and life supply. This truth is expressed in Hymns, #509, the chorus of which says,
First Corinthians 15:45b shows us the life-giving Spirit for the divine dispensing. The consummated Triune God is the life-giving Spirit. Life-giving means life-imparting, and life-imparting means dispensing. The consummated Spirit of the Triune God is dispensing the divine life into us all day long. The Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6).
The Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead gives life to our mortal bodies (Rom. 8:11). The life-giving Spirit first gives life to our spirit (v. 10). Then from our spirit He spreads the divine life into our soul to transform us (v. 6). Eventually, He gives life to our mortal body. We do not need to wait for this. Even today when we are sick, we can exercise our faith to say, “Lord, send Your Spirit from my spirit into my body to enliven it. My body is now weak and sick. It may even be dying. But Lord, I ask You to dispense Your life through the life-giving Spirit into my mortal and dying body. I need Your divine life.” We need to exercise our faith to live not by ourselves but by Him. We live by Jesus. We have a dying life, but He is not dying. The Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead gives life to our dying body. This is dispensing.
The bountiful supply of the Spirit is for us to live and magnify Christ (Phil. 1:19-21). God has prepared such a bountiful supply for dispensing. Furthermore, the Spirit is the flow of the life supply as the river of water of life that we might drink Him (Rev. 22:1; 1 Cor. 12:13; 10:4). Eating and drinking are for dispensing. In 1965 we had a conference with a training on eating and drinking Jesus. This truth is seen throughout the entire Bible. In Genesis 2 is the eating of the tree of life. In Exodus is the eating of the lamb in Egypt and the eating of manna and drinking of the water that flowed out of the cleft rock in the wilderness. When the people of Israel entered into the good land, they ate the produce of that land. The offerings in Leviticus are for God’s eating and our eating. This is all the eating of Jesus in typology. Then in the New Testament Jesus Himself told us that He is the heavenly bread and that we need to eat Him (John 6:51, 57).
In Matthew 15 there is a story of the Lord’s encounter with a Canaanite woman. When she asked the Lord to help her, He replied, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” (v. 26). Then she said, “Yes, Lord, for even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (v. 27). The Canaanite woman, not offended by the Lord’s word but rather, admitting that she was a heathen dog, considered that at that time Christ, after being rejected by the children, the Jews, became crumbs under the table as a portion to the Gentiles. The holy land of Israel was the table on which Christ, the heavenly bread, came as a portion to the children of Israel. But they threw Him off the table to the ground, the Gentile country, so that He became broken crumbs as a portion to the Gentiles. This shows us again that God is for our eating so that He can dispense Himself into us and mingle Himself with us that He and we may become one.
