In this message we will consider the divine economy and the divine dispensing in the initiation of the New Testament. In the New Testament the first two things that carry out God's dispensing are the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. Our God went through a process; the beginning of this process was incarnation, and the end of this process was resurrection. Both the beginning and the end of God's process depend on God's dispensing. Between the incarnation and resurrection are the steps of Christ's human living and Christ's all-inclusive death. It is very difficult to find any indication that God's dispensing was involved in either of these two steps.
Christ's incarnation was a great step for God to dispense Himself into humanity. The crucial point concerning the Lord's birth is the matter of dispensing, but this thought is missed by most Christians today. Most Christians are veiled from seeing this matter because of all the outward things in the celebration of Christmas. As those who are living in the environment of Christianity, we must drop all our former knowledge derived from the celebration of Christmas, because that knowledge has become a thick veil preventing us from seeing the mystery in the Lord's incarnation. In a similar way, most Christians are veiled concerning the mystery in the Lord's resurrection. The Lord's incarnation and resurrection are the two basic steps of God's dispensing of Himself into His chosen people.
As I pointed out in earlier messages, the matter of the divine dispensing can be seen in the promises, prophecies, and types in the Old Testament, but the fact and the fulfillment of the dispensing did not take place in the Old Testament. In the first four thousand years of man's six-thousand-year history, strictly speaking, there was no dispensing. During this period of time, God always kept Himself separate from man. At most, He only came to man or upon man. Thus, it is very difficult to find a verse in the Old Testament that says that Jehovah God was in man or entered into man.
In the New Testament, especially in the Epistles, many verses use the preposition in to form phrases such as in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), in Him (Eph. 1:4, 10; 3:12), in the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thes. 3:12), in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:23b; 8:2; 1 Cor. 1:30), in God (1 Thes. 1:1), and in the Spirit (Col. 1:8). In the Old Testament age God purposely did not join Himself with man; God was God and man was man. But today we cannot say that God and man are separate, because we have been regenerated of God. Therefore, it is impossible for us to be separated from God. Even if we go downward in our Christian life, He goes with us. In Luke 24, after the Lord's resurrection, the Lord took a journey with two of His disciples as they were going away from Jerusalem to Emmaus (vv. 13-35). They were going downward, yet the Lord went with them and walked with them. The two disciples talked about the Lord and even rebuked the Lord (v. 18), but the Lord pretended not to know anything. Their eyes were kept from recognizing Him (v. 16). Eventually, however, He opened their eyes and they recognized Him (v. 31). As soon as they recognized Him, He disappeared from them. This shows that we can never be separated from the Lord.
Today the age of grace is the age of God's dispensing. He is dispensing to such an extent that He and we, we and He, are mingled as one (John 17:21; 1 Cor. 6:17). Jesus was the first One to be mingled with God, the first God-man. Before Him, God was God and man was man. But beginning with Him, God and man became one. In the whole universe, a little man named Jesus is both God and man. He is man and God. God and man are not only united but mingled. This mingling depends altogether on dispensing. As a God- man, Jesus is a compound person, a person compounded with God and man.
Before His death Jesus was a person compounded with God and man, with divinity and humanity. But after He went through death and resurrection, He picked up the elements of death and resurrection. These elements were compounded into Him. Today He is not merely God and man; He also comprises death and resurrection. He is a God-man with death and resurrection. He is such a compound. This compound is the issue of God's dispensing. If dispensing were subtracted from incarnation, there would be no incarnation. Likewise, if dispensing were subtracted from the resurrection, there would be no resurrection.