Now we want to come to the New Testament and see the central view concerning God’s dispensing Himself into us. In the New Testament the first step of God’s dispensing Himself into us is that He became incarnated (John 1:14a). The incarnation means that God is born into man. Before the incarnation God was God outside of man and even far away from man. But in incarnation God came to dispense Himself into humanity. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God was dispensed into humanity. Jesus was a real man with blood and flesh and skin and bone. When He was thirty years of age He came out to minister for three and one-half years. He was a real man, yet within Him was God. God was dispensed into that Man. This is Jesus our Savior.
Incarnation brings God into humanity to make humanity holy, and even to make humanity divine. Surely the Lord Jesus is divine and holy. In the same principle even we ourselves who are His believers are also holy and divine. We are divine, but we are not God. This is just like the children of a king. They are kingly, but they are not the king. They are kingly because they have the king’s life. We are divine because we have a divine Father. We have been born of God (John 1:12-13). We possess His life (John 3:15) and partake of His nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Although we are not God, we are divine, because God’s divine life and nature have been dispensed into our being. When a child is conceived and born, the father has dispensed his life and nature to the child. To be born of God means God dispenses His life and nature into our being. Because we are born of God we are not only holy but divine! The word holy may only denote the outward appearance, but divine denotes the inward nature. We are not just outwardly holy, but also inwardly divine. When you go to the department store don’t forget that you are a child of God. You have a royal status. You are divine because God has been dispensed into you. Today we all have Christ, and Christ has wrought God into our being.
When the Lord Jesus was on earth He was the tabernacle of God among men (John 1:14b). Isn’t this wonderful! The unapproachable, invisible, hidden, mysterious, and abstract God became solid, visible, touchable, and even enterable. This tabernacle is just God in humanity (Matt. 1:23).
When the Lord Jesus was staying with the disciples, before His death and resurrection, all the disciples were around Him. They could see Him and touch Him, but at that time they could not enter into Him, because the way was not paved and the entrance was not opened. After the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the way was paved and the door was opened for all the disciples to enter into Him. The Lord Jesus had promised them that in that day, the day of resurrection, they would know that He was in His Father and they were in Him and He was in them (John 14:20). This is God dispensed into human beings. When the Lord Jesus was with the disciples before His death and resurrection, He Himself alone was divine. Peter, John, and James were not divine. But when the Lord Jesus breathed into them on the day of resurrection (John 20:22), He entered into them. They became divine because God had been dispensed into their being.
The Lord Jesus in His ministry brought the divine grace and reality to man (John 1:14c, 17). Grace is a big term in the New Testament. John 1:17 says that the law was given through Moses but that grace and reality came through Jesus Christ. Grace came when the Lord Jesus came. What is grace? Grace is a free gift. The real grace in the whole universe is just God given to us freely. It is not a good house or a good car or a good job given to us freely. All those things are considered by Paul as trash (Phil. 3:8). In the whole universe there is only One who is the real grace. That is our God. And God has given Himself to us freely. Before the Lord Jesus came, God had never been brought to man. But when the Lord Jesus came He brought God to us as a free gift. This is grace for our enjoyment. When you have Christ, you have God.
The Jewish people today have rejected Christ, yet they insist that they worship God. Actually they have God only in name and in term. They don’t have a personal God within them. It is the same with the Moslems. They only have God in term and in name. They don’t have God within them.
But we have the person of God within us as our daily enjoyment. He is our supply, our support, our food, and comfort. We daily enjoy Him as grace. Outside of the Lord Jesus you cannot have God. If you would meet God, you have to come to the Lord Jesus. God is here in the person of Jesus. The Lord Jesus has brought God to us as a free gift. After God has been dispensed into you and becomes your enjoyment, this is the real grace.
When the Lord Jesus came, reality also came. Reality is harder to illustrate. You have to realize that without God the entire universe is an empty shell. If you do not have God as the reality in your family, your family is empty. If you don’t have God, you are empty. This is why King Solomon said that everything is vanity (Eccl. 1:14). Only God is reality. When we have God we not only have the enjoyment, but we also have the reality. Other things that we enjoy will vanish away. A good house will vanish away. A good car will vanish away. Money will vanish away. Only One will never vanish away. He will remain forever; He will exist forever, and He is the reality. He is the real enjoyment, and this enjoyment is the reality. The Lord Jesus came with the enjoyment and the reality. He has brought us grace and reality. Both grace and reality are God Himself dispensed into our being.