The Bible reveals to us that God had a good pleasure in eternity past (Eph. 1:5). According to His good pleasure, He made a purpose in eternity (v. 9). To fulfill His eternal purpose, He planned to dispense Himself into a group of human beings. The Bible calls this dispensing the economy of God (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4).
A kitchen is a place of dispensing. First, the cook must consider how many people need to be fed and what to feed them. When these matters have been decided, a plan will be formed. To feed people is to dispense food into them. The dispensing of food implies not only that food enters into a person but also that the food is digested and assimilated by the person. In less than one day, the food that we eat becomes part of our tissues and cells. We may be familiar with the saying, “You are what you eat.” This means that we become what we eat. For instance, a man who eats fish every day will eventually be constituted with fish. He becomes fish by eating fish. We eat, digest, and assimilate food until we are constituted with the food. This is dispensing.
In eternity past God set up the universe as a great kitchen. Christ is the food in this kitchen. In John 6:35 Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” Christ is our life supply. The church is a dining room; we come to the meetings to eat. God’s economy is God’s dispensing of Himself into us. The central line and goal of the entire Bible are the Triune God dispensing Himself into man. In order to know the Bible, we must see that God wants to dispense Himself into us.
The word triune, which comes from Latin, means three-one. The Triune God is the three-one God. He is three, yet He is one. There is only one unique God, yet this God is three, for He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are one God. God is triune in order to dispense Himself into man. The Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the flow. As the source, the course, and the flow, the Triune God flows into us. This flow is His dispensing.
Once we are saved, the Triune God flows in us every day. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 Paul says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The love of God, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Spirit are not three separate matters but three aspects of one thing. The fellowship of the Spirit is the flow. When this flow is in us, the grace of Christ and the love of God are also in us. Thus, the entire Triune God is flowing in us, and we are in the central line and goal of the Bible.
In the previous chapter we saw that Christ, who is the mystery of God (Col. 2:2), is in us as a mystery (1:27). Christ is God (John 1:1, 14), the Father (Isa. 9:6), the Son (Matt. 3:17), and the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Because Christ embodies the entire Triune God (Col. 2:9), when Christ is in us, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are in us. This is why Christ in us is a mystery.
Before a brother was saved, he may have lost his temper whenever he became upset with his wife. He may have even enjoyed losing his temper. However, once he is saved, the Triune God is flowing in him even when he becomes upset with his wife. He may begin to speak something in anger but then suddenly will become silent, go to his bedroom, and begin to pray. Later he may repent to his wife. She may not understand this radical change in his conduct. This is a mystery—the mystery of God.
A sister may have liked to go shopping before she was saved. After being saved, however, she may sense a speaking within as she is browsing through a department store. As she considers what to buy, a speaking within may tell her not to purchase certain items; it may even prompt her to leave the store. This is the mystery of God. We need to realize that the mystery of God is a person, Christ, who lives within us.
Since Christ lives in us, we are persons of Christ. A Christian is a Christ-man, a God-man. God desires not good men or bad men but God-men. A God-man is a man who has God living in him and who lives God. God wants us to live Christ, who is the mystery of God.