The Bible is the divine revelation. Hence, it is not a simple book. It is a profound book. After I got saved, as a young Christian I began to love the Bible. The more I read it, the more I realized that I could not fully understand it. After many years of studying it, I have discovered that the Bible has at least three layers. The first layer is that God loves us. Because He loves us, God gives us blessing, happiness, peace, and especially His salvation. In response to His love, we love God and His Word. This causes us to touch the second layer. The second layer is morality, proper behavior, good character, and spirituality. Most Christians stop here, but this is not the intrinsic or deepest part of the Bible. There is still another layer. God's dispensation is the deepest layer within the Bible.
We may read a verse such as Ephesians 1:10, but have very little understanding of the word dispensation in this verse. Verses such as John 3:16 are easily understood by many Christians, but only in a superficial and shallow way. Many appreciate the first part of John 3:16 which says that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." But when asked what eternal life is in the latter part of this verse, few have a very accurate understanding. Some would say that eternal life is going to heaven, living in a heavenly mansion, and walking on a golden street within pearly gates to enjoy peace and blessings for eternity. This is mostly a wrong concept of what eternal life is. The salvation of God preached in Christianity is true but very shallow. God's salvation also has layers. These layers include the forgiveness of sins, washing from sin, being redeemed by the blood, being justified through Jesus Christ, and being regenerated. But the deepest layer of God's salvation is God's plan to work Himself into His created, chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people. God's eternal plan is to work Himself into His chosen people so that He becomes their very constituent.
God not only desires that man be His vessel to contain Him (Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:7), but also wants man to eat, digest, and assimilate Him (John 6:57). When we eat, digest, and assimilate physical food, we are energized and strengthened. The food that we eat is dispensed into our blood, and through the blood into every part of our body. Eventually, the food that we have eaten becomes the fiber, tissue, and cells of our being. In the same way, God's eternal plan is to dispense Himself into us so that He becomes every fiber of our inward being. He wants to be digested and assimilated by us so that He can become the constituent of our inward being.
God created man in His image so that man could contain Him. A container is always in the image or shape of the content it is destined to contain. If the content is round, the container must also be round. The creation of man in God's image is for the dispensing of God into man. After man was created, God placed him in front of the tree of life (Gen. 2:8-9). Then immediately, God warned man about his eating (vv. 16-17). If man ate of the tree of life, he would live; but if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. The tree of life signifies God Himself. Today, God is our food; He is edible. In John 6 Jesus said that He was the bread of life (vv. 35, 48), and in verse 57 He said, "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me shall also live because of Me." We need to eat Jesus.
To be a Christian is more than just repenting of our sins, receiving the forgiveness of sins, being washed by the blood, being justified, and being regenerated. The Christian life also includes growth and maturity. In order to go on from regeneration to maturity, we must eat. Regeneration is the beginning of our spiritual life, but we need to eat after our regeneration. No one can grow without eating. We must eat, digest, and assimilate food daily. Assimilation is the final step of food being dispensed into our being. We need to eat, digest, and assimilate Jesus as our spiritual food day by day.
According to God's economy, God is not only our Savior objectively but also our food subjectively. This is shown by the type of the Passover in Exodus 12. The blood of the Passover lamb was sprinkled on the side posts and the upper doorpost of the houses of the Israelites (v. 7). This signifies the redemption of Christ in its objective aspect. God also charged the children of Israel to eat the meat of the lamb which they had killed (v. 8). Under the covering of the blood of the Passover lamb, they were to eat the flesh of the Passover lamb, not leaving anything for the next day (v. 10). This was one of God's ordinances concerning their eating. In nearly every culture, there are so-called "table manners" which govern the way of eating. According to Exodus 12, one of God's "table manners" was to finish the entire lamb. God would be insulted if there was anything left over until the morning. If there was more lamb than one household could eat, the Israelites were to share the lamb with their neighbor next door (vv. 3-4). This signifies the preaching of the gospel. We should lead our neighboring families to share in God's rich and boundless salvation, which our family cannot exhaust. After the Israelites were filled with the lamb through eating, they were strengthened in order to make their exodus out of Egypt. The Israelites marched out of Egypt, and while they were marching, they were digesting and assimilating the lamb. This digestion and assimilation was the dispensing of the lamb into their being. Through their digestion and assimilation of the Passover lamb, the dispensing of the Passover lamb took place. This dispensed lamb became their strength.