We have seen that the church needs to be recovered from the divisive and apostate ground with its deviation from the truths concerning the person of the Triune God and the person and work of Christ. The next matter we shall see is that we need to be brought back to the unique and pure ground of the oneness of the Body of Christ with its truths concerning the New Testament faith and God’s economy, the person and work of Christ, the person and the dispensing of the Triune God, the church, the Body of Christ, the corporate Christ, and the universal and local aspects of the church.
In 1 Timothy 1:3 and 4 Paul says, “Even as I urged you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach differently, nor to occupy themselves with myths and unending genealogies, which give occasion for questionings rather than God’s dispensation which is in faith.” The Greek words translated “God’s dispensation” may also be rendered “God’s household economy” (Eph. 1:10; 3:9). This is God’s household administration to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people, that He may have a house, a household, to express Himself, which household is the church, the Body of Christ (1 Tim. 3:15). The apostle’s ministry was centered upon this economy of God (Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:17), whereas the differing teachings of the dissenting ones were used by God’s enemy to distract His people from this.
God’s dispensation is His household economy. According to the Bible, God does not first want to have a kingdom. Rather, He first wants a house, a family. Once He has a family, His family will spontaneously become His kingdom. If He is not able to secure a family, a household, a house, He will not be able to have a kingdom. Thus, God’s dispensation is first a matter of His household economy, or family economy.
In 1 Timothy 1:4 Paul tells us that God’s dispensation is in faith. The dispensing of the processed Triune God into us is altogether by faith. The dispensation of God is a matter in faith, that is, in the sphere and element of faith, in God through Christ. God’s economy to dispense Himself into His chosen people is not in the natural realm, nor in the realm of the law, but in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regeneration by faith in Christ (Gal. 3:23-26). By faith we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him. By faith we are put into Christ to become the members of His Body, sharing all that He is for His expression. This is God’s dispensation according to His New Testament economy, carried out in faith.
We need to be deeply impressed with the meaning of faith in the New Testament. First, faith is God being the word spoken to us. We have God and then God as the word spoken. Through the word of God and by the Spirit of God we are infused with God in Christ. As a result, something rises up within us. This is faith. Faith then works in us to bring us into an organic union with the Triune God. Through this organic union, God is continually transfused and infused into us. As a result, we have the divine life and the divine nature to become God’s sons, members of Christ, and parts of the new man. As a totality, we become the house of God, the Body of Christ, and the new man. This is God’s dispensation in faith.
Jude 3 speaks of contending for the faith. “Beloved, using all diligence to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, entreating you to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” Faith here is not subjective; it is objective. It does not refer to our believing, but refers to our belief, to what we believe. The faith denotes the contents of the New Testament as our faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 4:1; 5:8; 6:10, 21; 2 Tim. 2:18; 3:8; 4:7; Titus 1:13), in which we believe for our common salvation. This faith, not any doctrine, has been delivered once for all to the saints. For this faith we should contend (1 Tim. 6:12).
With the faith given by God there is both a subjective side and an objective side. The subjective side concerns our believing, and the objective side concerns the things we believe. In Jude 3 the faith does not denote our ability to believe; rather, it refers to what we believe. Hence, the faith refers to the contents of the New Testament.
Peter tells us in his second Epistle that like precious faith has been allotted to us (2 Pet. 1:1). This faith is subjective and refers to the faith that is within us. This differs from the faith in Jude 3, for faith here is objective.
The faith in the objective sense is equal to the contents of God’s will (the document of God’s bequests) given to us in the New Testament. This will even includes the Triune God.
To contend for the faith is to contend for the basic and crucial matters of God’s new testament, His new will. One of these basic matters is Christ’s death for our redemption. We need to contend for the truth concerning Christ’s redemption against the modernists. Suppose a modernist tells you that Jesus died on the cross not for redemption but because He was a martyr and sacrificed Himself for His teachings. This understanding of the death of Christ is heretical; it is contrary to one of the main items of God’s new will. We need to contend for the faith by fighting against heretical, modernistic teachings. This faith has been delivered to the saints once for all, and now we need to contend for it.
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