God’s way is to do everything Himself and work His holiness into us. This is dispensing. He wants us to be holy, but He has no intention for us to take upon ourselves the work of holiness. Rather, He is working His holy and divine element, that is, His nature, into us to be our element. This results in our becoming holy. God is adding His divine nature into us. This is what we mean by dispensing. God wants us to have the sonship. But we cannot achieve this. Now God is giving His Son to us. Paul testified that at one time he was very zealous for God. But one day God showed him that His pleasure was to reveal His Son in him (Gal. 1:15, 16). For God to reveal His Son in Paul was for Him to dispense His Son into Paul. By this, Paul became a son of God with the sonship, that is, the life, the position, and the nature of the Son of God. As such, he could live the life of a son and enjoy the sonship. This is what we mean by dispensing. Tonight, we want to consider this matter specifically from Ephesians chapter one.
The dispensing spoken of in Ephesians is the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Our God is one, yet He is triune. He is one God, yet He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This is a fact. Our God is unique and only One. Yet He is three, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. He is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. When He dispenses Himself, He does so through His Divine Trinity.
Chapter one of Ephesians begins by showing us the dispensing of God the Father (Eph. 1:4-5). The Father’s dispensing is seen in His choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world. The purpose of His choosing is for us to become holy. Immediately after choosing us, He predestinated us. His purpose in predestinating us is that we would receive the sonship through His Son. Both the choosing and the predestination speak of His dispensing. He chose us to be holy. This indicates that He has given us His divine nature. With His divine nature, we can become holy. Some may say that since the Father’s choosing was before the foundation of the world, there was no dispensing yet. However, with God there is no element of time. Thus, in God’s eyes, at the very time that He chose us, although we were not yet created, and although the heavens and the earth were not yet made, in His foreknowledge He saw us already, chose us, and gave us His nature in order that we might become holy. This is dispensing.
After God the Father chose us, He marked us out and predestinated us unto sonship. Hence, in order for God to make us holy, He gave us His holy nature, and in order for us to become His sons and have the sonship, He gave us His life. We are not God’s adopted sons. Rather, we are the children begotten by God’s life. John 1:12 says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God.” These are not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. For God to predestinate us unto sonship means that He begets us and dispenses His life into us. Hence, God has not only put His nature into us to make us holy, but has imparted His life into us to make us His sons. Both of these involve God’s dispensing.
Since God has chosen us to be holy, we do not need to struggle to be holy by ourselves. What we have to do is realize that God has chosen us and put His nature within us at the time of His choosing. Hence, we do not need to strive or struggle. Instead, we only need to fellowship with our Father. Every morning when we wake up, we should say to the Father, “Abba, Father, You are my Father. You have given me Your life and Your nature. Praise You that I can be Your son and can become holy.” If we would do this, I can guarantee you that we would be holy the entire morning. Before lunch we should say a few words like these to our Father again. At every meal we should say something to our Father. This will be a shield to protect us from the distractions and attacks of the evil one, and will make us holy. God has no intention for us to become holy by ourselves. Before the creation of the heavens and the earth, He already put His life and nature within us. As long as we live a life of enjoying our Father every day, we will surely become holy. This is the dispensing of God the Father.
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