When this wonderful and unique man named Jesus came in His incarnation, He did not come empty-handed. Rather, John 1:14 says, "And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality." His entire being was not full of commandments, ordinances, and regulations but was full of grace and reality.

Few people know what grace and reality are. Many believe that grace is merely unmerited favor. They may even think that having a new home or a new car is God's grace. However, Paul said that he counted such things as refuse (Phil. 3:8). Grace in its highest definition is God in the Son to be enjoyed by us (Hymns, #497). Reality is God in His Son to be gained by us. The wise king Solomon said that all things are vanity (Eccl. 1:2); but God in the Son gained by us is reality. Christ came filled in His being as God in the Son to be given to us for our enjoyment and to be gained by us as our reality. When people ask us what we have, we may say, "We do not have material riches. Rather, we have God as our grace, our enjoyment, and as our reality, our gain." Christ did not come with a small amount of grace and reality; on the contrary, He was full of grace and reality. John 1:16 says, "For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." The Gospel of John as the biography of the Triune God in His humanity begins in this way.

John 1:12-13 says, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." To be born of God to be His children is the dispensing of the Divine Trinity into us that we may enjoy Him as grace and gain Him as reality to such an extent that He becomes our life, our nature, our element, our essence, and our very being. Such a dispensing qualifies us to be His children.

In John 3, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus in the night to receive some teaching from Him. Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (v. 3). Nicodemus misunderstood the Lord and responded, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" (v. 4). The Lord Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (v. 5). The Lord told Nicodemus that he needed to be buried through water and have a new birth through the Holy Spirit; then he would be regenerated. As a result, in Nicodemus as well as in many others, the Lord would have His increase, His bride, His counterpart (vv. 29-30). Although the word dispensing is not found in the Bible, without dispensing there can be no increase of Christ. The increase comes from the divine dispensing. Every point in the Gospel of John is a matter of the divine dispensing.

In John 3 a moral man came to the Lord Jesus, but in chapter four the Lord went to contact an immoral woman (vv. 3-4). The Lord told her that He had the living water (vv. 10, 14). She said, "Sir, give me this water so that I will not thirst nor come here to draw" (v. 15). He told her, "Go, call your husband and come here" (v. 16). The woman answered, "I do not have a husband," and Jesus said to her, "You have well said, I do not have a husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly" (vv. 17-18). In this way the Lord wisely touched her conscience, and she realized that He knew all her sinful history. Eventually, the Lord Jesus led her to receive the living water by drinking of Him. He told her, "But an hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him" (v. 23). To receive the Lord Jesus as the living water is to worship God the Father. The real worship of God is not to kneel before Him; it is to receive His dispensing. What pleases God the most is our allowing Him to dispense Himself into our being. To open ourselves and embrace and receive His dispensing is the best worship we can render to our God. God is waiting today to dispense Himself into us, the thirsty ones, as the living water. When we drink and receive His dispensing, God is very happy. This is a pleasure to Him.