The recovery of the church also requires that we be recovered to the truth concerning the person and the dispensing of the Triune God. This matter of God’s dispensing is something that is altogether missed by many Christians today. By the Lord’s mercy we have been enlightened to see that in the New Testament economy of God there is the divine, triune Person for the dispensing of Himself into His chosen people to be their life, life supply, and everything. Because this has been neglected by many today, we need to be recovered to the proper understanding and apprehension of the divine dispensing of the riches of the processed Triune God into our being.
It is important that we make a distinction between the words “dispensation” and “dispensing.” According to New Testament usage, the word dispensation refers to God’s arrangement, God’s plan. Dispensation is a translation of the Greek oikonomia, which is composed of two words: oikos, which means house, and nomos, which means law. Oikonomia denotes household regulations or household management. Because this word refers to a household administration and management, it implies a plan. In Ephesians 3, the word dispensation means a plan, an arrangement. Therefore, when we use the word dispensation, we mean God’s household management, God’s arrangement, God’s plan. This is different from dispensing, which is the act of God’s dispensing Himself into us. Nevertheless, in God’s dispensation the crucial matter is the dispensing of the processed Triune God into us. To be under God’s dispensation is to be under His administrative government. To be under God’s dispensing is to be under His dispensing action, His act of dispensing Himself into us.
God’s New Testament economy is His plan to dispense Himself into His chosen people in His trinity. This dispensing has three steps. First, it is of God the Father, who is the source, the origin. Second, this dispensing is through God the Son, who is the course. Third, God’s dispensing is in God the Spirit, who is the instrument and sphere. Through these steps of God the Father, through God the Son, and in God the Spirit the processed Triune God dispenses Himself into His chosen people.
Matthew 28:19 speaks of the person of the Triune God. “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The word “into” indicates union, as in Romans 6:3, Galatians 3:27, and 1 Corinthians 12:13. To baptize people into the name of the Triune God is to bring them into spiritual and mystical union with Him.
In Matthew 28:19 there is one name for the divine Trinity-the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The name is the sum total of the divine Being, equivalent to His person. To baptize anyone into the name of the Trinity is to baptize him into all that the Triune God is.
Second Corinthians 13:14 reveals the dispensing of the divine Trinity. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” After His resurrection, the Lord charged His disciples to disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). This is to bring the believing ones into the Triune God, into an organic union with the processed Triune God, who has passed through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion and has entered into resurrection. It is based upon such an organic union that at the conclusion of 2 Corinthians Paul blesses the believers with the blessed Trinity in the participation of the Son’s grace with the Father’s love through the Spirit’s fellowship.
John 16:13-15 also speaks of the dispensing of the divine Trinity into the believers. Verse 13 says, “When He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality.” This reality is nothing less than Christ Himself. Thus, the Spirit of reality will bring us into all the reality of Christ.
In verse 15 the Lord says, “All that the Father has is Mine.” All that the Father is and has is the Son’s. The Son is the embodiment of the Father. All that the Father is and has is embodied in Him (Col. 2:9). All that the Father is, all the fullness of the Godhead, dwells in Christ. Therefore, the Father’s fullness is the Son’s fullness, and the Father’s life and nature are also the Son’s life and nature.
In verse 14, speaking of the Spirit of reality, the Lord says, “He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall disclose it to you.” All that the Father is and has is the Son’s, and all that the Son is and has obtained has been received by the Spirit. All of the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, and the Spirit receives this from Christ.
In verses 14 and 15 the Lord says that the Spirit of reality “shall receive of Mine and shall disclose it to you.” All that the Son is and has is revealed as reality to the believers through the Spirit. This is to glorify the Son with the Father. The Spirit discloses the Son with the Father to the believers. He makes all that Christ is and has real to us.
The Father, who is the source, has many riches. All that the Father has becomes the Son’s. The Son has unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8). Whatever the Father has is the Son’s, and what the Son has is received by the Spirit. Because what the Spirit receives is disclosed or transmitted to us, we become the destination. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is transfigured to be the Spirit, and the Spirit is the reaching of the divine Trinity to us. All the riches of the Triune God reach us in the Spirit. Because we are organically united to the Spirit, that is, organically united to the processed Triune God, whatever He is and has now is our portion as our reality.
Home | First | Prev | Next