According to Peter, Christ is a lamb without blemish and spot (1 Pet. 1:19). This also is for life dispensing. We are sinful, and unless there is such a lamb without blemish and spot, our sins could never be taken away. Furthermore, Christ’s redemption according to 1 Peter 1:18 is not just to redeem us from sin or from hell, but to redeem us from our vain manner of life. His blood redeems us from our vain and corrupted life that we may live a godly life. How could we live a godly life if we did not have a godly life? How could we have a godly life except through Christ’s redemption? By this view you can see that even Christ being a lamb without blemish and spot is for life dispensing.
Peter ministered Christ as a living stone (1 Pet. 2:4, 7). A living stone doesn’t mean only a stone of life, but a stone which is living, acting, and working. The very Christ who lives in you is such a stone. You have a piece of living stone within you. John 6 tells us that He is the living bread (v. 51). He is not only the bread of life, but also the living bread, the bread that lives in you. The food we take into our stomach is living and organic. After a few hours it becomes us. If the food were not living it could not get into our blood and into our cells. If we eat a piece of stone, it will remain within us as a dead stone. When the bread is on the table, it is the bread of life. When it gets into us, it becomes the living bread. Could you see the difference? Where is Christ today? Outside of us He is the stone of life, but inside of us He becomes the living stone. Christ as a stone is organic and living. We can become a living stone because this living stone has been dispensed into us and lives in us to make us living. By this we can see that Christ is a living stone to dispense life into us.
The Lord Jesus is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls (1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4). As we have mentioned previously the main point in taking care of the sheep is to feed them so that they may have more life. So the shepherding is also for life dispensing. The purpose of the overseer is to watch over the sheep so that they would not be hurt or carried away. The shepherd first takes care of us to feed us and eventually becomes our overseer to keep us always under the life dispensing. Every item of what Christ is, is a life-dispensing matter. Whatever Christ is, is for life dispensing.
The result of all the life dispensing by what Christ is, is that the believers are produced. First they are chosen by God (1 Pet. 2:9a). Second, they are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-19). They are chosen and redeemed to receive life. Then they are sanctified, or separated, to receive life (1 Pet. 1:2). Finally, they are regenerated of the incorruptible seed of God to receive life (1 Pet. 1:3, 23). On God’s side regeneration is to dispense life, and on our side it is to receive life. We all have been regenerated of the incorruptible seed of God. This is the Word of life, which is really life itself. The divine life is the incorruptible seed of which we all have been born.
As those who have been born of the incorruptible seed we are newborn babes who long for the guileless milk of the word (1 Pet. 2:2, 3). Newborn babes only know how to do one thing, and that is to take milk. They don’t know how to improve their behavior, and they don’t know how to care for their character. They only care for the milk. They don’t even know the word milk, but something in their nature longs for the milk. Right after regeneration we become the newborn babes. We have to long for the guileless milk of the Word. Every day and all the time we need to get into the Word. In the Word there is the milk. When a little baby is not happy, it means he is short of milk. When you are not so happy, it means you have not taken any milk from the Word. When I get into the Word I get into the milk, and my face is so broad and shining. When you have just a little time of morning watch in the Word, you will come out of your room with your face shining. As newborn babes you need the milk for growing.
By growing we become the living stones to be built up a spiritual house, into a holy and royal priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; 4:17). This is the result of the life dispensing. It makes us living stones for the building up of God’s spiritual house. This spiritual house is a body of priests, a holy and royal priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God and to tell out the virtues of God.
Through regeneration of the life of God, we also become the flock of God which is always receiving the life nourishment from the Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:2), and heirs of the grace of life, inheriting all the riches of life (1 Pet. 3:7). Then we become stewards of the varied grace of God (1 Pet. 4:10). We become not only heirs of grace to receive grace, but also stewards of grace to minister grace to others. Because we are so full of grace, we become stewards of grace to serve others with grace. This is wonderful! Even your serving others with grace is a kind of life dispensing. In our Christian life, we all are stewards. You are a steward to me, and I am a steward to you. You minister life to me, and I minister life to you. There is a mutual dispensing among us. Actually our fellowship with one another is a mutual life dispensing. By this kind of life dispensing we are partaking of and enjoying what God is. This is to partake of God’s divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). For this purpose God has given us all things relating to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), and also given us precious and exceedingly great promises (2 Pet. 1:4). To partake of God’s divine nature is to enjoy God’s life dispensing.
Eventually we will be perfected, established, strengthened, and grounded by God’s life dispensing, that we may be brought into God’s eternal glory (1 Pet. 5:10). Without God dispensing Himself into us as life, we could never be perfected, strengthened, established, grounded, and brought into God’s eternal glory. That is the ultimate issue of God’s dispensing of life.