In these messages we will be on a basic item in the Bible, the divine dispensation. We will not try to cover the entire theme of God’s dispensation. Our burden is just to see the central view of the divine dispensation. Dispensation is a translation of the Greek word, oikonomia. This Greek word has been anglicized into the English word economy and is equal to the word dispensation. The basic meaning of this word is a kind of arrangement, a kind of an arranged order. So it may be considered as a plan, as a management, or as an administration. God has a divine arrangement of His administration. The entire Bible tells us God has been working and is still working on this plan.
Of course God’s plan includes a lot of steps, but many Christians have misunderstood the word dispensation to merely indicate a period of time or an epoch for certain dealings of God with man. The best Bible teachers understand that this word denotes God’s plan, God’s arrangement, of His full salvation. This is absolutely right, but we still have to ask, What is the goal of God’s full salvation? What will be the consummation of God’s plan?
If we look into the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, we could see God’s works and also the goal of God’s works. We can realize that God has been going on toward a goal. Some may say that this goal is simply God’s full salvation. But what then is the goal of God’s salvation? Not many Christians have seen the definite goal of God’s salvation.
Genesis 1 tells us that God created man in His own image (vv. 26-27). This surely indicates that God wants man to express Himself. At the end of the Bible there is a city which bears the glory of God and which is the composition of many names. There are twelve names from Israel and twelve from the church. All twenty-four of these names denote the saved ones of God. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel denote all the redeemed saints of the Old Testament, and the names of the twelve Apostles denote all the saints of the New Testament. This tells us that the New Jerusalem is a composition of all God’s redeemed ones.
The city bears the glorious image of God, denoting that this composition of God’s redeemed ones is the expression of God. This makes it very clear that God’s goal is to work Himself into His redeemed people. God wants to work Himself into His chosen people that He may have a full expression in eternity. This is the goal of God’s full salvation. God’s dispensation is toward this goal. We must see, not only God’s dispensation, but also the goal of God’s dispensation, that is, God is working Himself into His chosen people.
In Ephesians 1:10 we can see that there is a plan, an arrangement, or an administration for God to head up all things in Christ. This is God’s dispensation, His universal administration, to head up all things in Christ. Presently we cannot see that all things are headed up in Christ, but God is working on this. First God would collect His chosen people and put them into Christ. Then He would work Christ into them so that they all might become the parts and members of Christ with Christ as their Head. All these dear Christians have been headed up into Christ. We know that Christ is our Head, and we all are members of His Body. This gives us a picture of the heading up of things in Christ. Although we may come from many different countries, we have been headed up into Christ. In the name of Christ and in His enlivening Spirit we have been headed up into Christ. Christ is the heading up. Verse 10 tells us that in the fullness of the times God will head up the entire universe into Christ. By that time God will be fully expressed. This is the goal of God’s dispensation.
Ephesians 3:9 also speaks of God’s plan, the dispensation of God’s mystery. This is a kind of order, or system, or arrangement, or administration of God’s full salvation. According to the context of Ephesians 3:9, God’s plan of His full salvation is to dispense the unsearchable riches of Christ into His chosen people to produce the church. The dispensing of Christ’s riches is for the producing of the church to fulfill God’s eternal purpose.
In 1 Timothy 1:4 we see God’s household administration, which is to dispense Himself into His children that He may have a household, the church, to express Himself. From these three portions of the Word, we can have the general view of the meaning of God’s dispensation. The Greek word, oikonomia, is composed of two words: oikos, meaning house and nomos, meaning law. Hence, it refers to the house arrangement, household management or administration. The word denotes the management and distribution of the wealth of a rich household. Joseph in the Old Testament was an example. Joseph was the administrator of Pharaoh’s house, which was so rich that it could even supply other nations. There was a need of some management and administration and order and system to distribute the riches of Pharaoh’s house. Otherwise, the riches would lie there undistributed.
By this you can see what is the oikonomia. That is the household management to distribute and dispense the riches of the house. Our Father surely has a great house with a rich store of the unsearchable riches of Christ. This great house needs some administration, some management, some system, some plan to dispense and distribute all the riches to God’s people.
The biggest distributor in the New Testament was the Apostle Paul. By reading Paul’s writings, you see that Paul in the New Testament was like Joseph in the Old Testament. The unsearchable riches of Christ were under his administration and distribution.
In 1 Corinthians 9:17 Paul used the word oikonomia to denote the stewardship, that is, the responsibility of such an administration, entrusted to him for preaching the gospel. In Ephesians 3 he used this word again to denote the office, the duty, of a steward in God’s house, which he called “the stewardship of the grace of God,” committed to him to dispense the grace of God to His children in the church. And in Colossians 1:25 he used the same word again to denote the stewardship given to him by God to complete His word, that is, the divine revelation concerning Christ for the producing of the church as His Body.
Paul was given the stewardship, the office, the duty, of God’s dispensation to distribute all the riches of Christ. Even today we are still under the distribution of Paul. Paul is still doing a dispensing work even as Joseph did. In Joseph’s time all the people had to go to Joseph for the rich supply. If you take away Paul’s fourteen Epistles from the New Testament, so much of the riches are gone. Many unsearchable riches are under Paul’s distribution. His distribution is just to distribute the unsearchable riches of Christ to all of us in order that we may be the expression of God.
In 1 Corinthians 4:1 Paul called himself and his co-workers “stewards (oikonomos) of the mysteries of God,” denoting that they were God’s servants, entrusted with the responsibility to carry out the divine dispensing according to God’s dispensation. And in 1 Peter 4:10, Peter told us that all the believers are the stewards of God’s dispensation, dispensing the varied grace of God to supply the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17). All this indicates that the intention of God in His dispensation is to dispense all His riches in Christ through the Spirit into His chosen people that they may enjoy Him and become His expression.