In this message we come to God’s dispensation in the ministry of Paul. Paul has presented us many items of what Christ is. Thirty-four items are covered in this message, all of which are concerning Christ in God’s dispensation. In Paul’s ministry Christ is ministered solely (1 Cor. 2:2):
First of all Paul ministered Christ as God the Creator (Rom. 9:5; Heb. 1:8, 10). God the Creator is not just for creation. His creation has a goal, that of dispensing Himself into His created man. Let us read Romans 9:5: “Whose are the fathers, and out of whom according to flesh is the Christ, Who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” This verse tells us that Christ came out of the fathers according to the flesh. In the flesh He came out of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and eventually Mary. So He was a man in the flesh. Yet the last part says, “Who is over all, God blessed forever.” This One who was in the flesh was not only a man but also God who is over all and blessed forever. The same expression is used in Romans 1:25 where it says that the Creator is blessed forever.
Our Christ is the very God, the very Creator, who is blessed forever, yet for the purpose of dispensing God into us He became a man.
Hebrews 1:8 tells us that He is the Son of God, yet He is God Himself. He was not only God but also the Creator (Heb. 1:10). He created all the things for the purpose of dispensing Himself into man. The heavens were created for the earth, the earth was created for man, and man was created for God’s dispensing. Man is at the center of the universe to be a vessel to contain God. God’s intention is just to infuse or dispense Himself into man, His human vessel. If we human beings do not have God within us, we are empty and the universe is empty. Everything is vain if it does not have God in it. But God has dispensed Himself into us so that we are filled with God. We do have the reality, and we make the universe real. If we did not have God as the reality within us, the entire universe would be empty. But today the universe is not empty because we, the center of the universe, are full of reality.
Paul ministered Christ as the Lord of all (2 Cor. 4:5; Rom. 10:12; Eph. 4:5). The Lord of all does not mean the Lord of all things, but the Lord of all men. This is a quotation from Romans 10:12 which says that “the same Lord of all is rich to all who call upon Him.” How can He, as the Lord of all, be rich to you? He has to be dispensed into you. If the Lord Jesus has not been dispensed into you, and you do not have Him within you, He cannot be rich to you for your enjoyment. The Lord who is within you is the Lord of all, who is rich to you.
Romans 8:3 reads, “For, the law being impossible in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” When the law could not work out God’s purpose, He sent His Son to fulfill His purpose. Never forget that the purpose of God is to dispense Himself into us. The law cannot give us life (Gal. 3:21) for the dispensing of God into us. The law can only require us to do good. The law could not dispense anything into our being, so God sent His Son to dispense God into us. The main purpose of Christ’s coming is to dispense Himself into us.
Romans 8:32 says “He Who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?” This verse tells us that God did not spare His Son, but that He delivered Him up so that through Him God could dispense Himself into our being. Since God did not spare His own Son, neither would He spare anything else from us. He gives us His Son that He may give us everything that He has. The first thing that He has to give us is life (1 John 5:12-13), and the second thing is His nature (2 Pet. 1:4). The third thing is the divine glory (1 Pet. 5:10). So God has given us His Son in order that He can dispense His life, His nature, and His glory into us.