For the dispensing of the Divine Trinity the Father first selected us. We were selected not only before we were born, but even before the foundation of the world (v. 4). In eternity, before time began, God the Father selected us. Then He predestinated us, determining a destiny for us (v. 5). He determined this destiny beforehand; hence, it is a predestination. Following His selection, God predestinated us unto sonship (v. 5). This means He destined beforehand that we may be His sons.
Sonship is a matter of life-dispensing. If a father has many sons, this means he has dispensed much life. God created only one man, Adam, as the forefather of the human race. But Adam’s descendants number in the billions. This is the result of life-dispensing. As human beings, we are here by life-dispensing. Likewise, as members of Christ, we are here by God’s life-dispensing.
Some may say that the term “life-dispensing” is not found in the Bible. That is correct. The word Trinity also is not in the Bible. Nevertheless, in the Bible there is the fact of the Trinity. In order to speak of the fact, we need terminology. Therefore, the word Trinity was coined to denote the Triune Godhead of the unique God. Likewise, when we read the Bible and see that God has predestined us before the foundation of the world unto sonship, we need a proper definition of sonship. We have seen that sonship involves life-dispensing. We have a great Father who is rich in life. His capacity is universally great, and He has much life to dispense. No one can tell how many millions of sons God has begotten. In all this begetting He has dispensed His life into His sons. We have a great Father who has dispensed much life.
Now you can understand why I say that Ephesians 1 has the divine dispensing. It has the dispensing because it has the sonship. Sonship is a great matter. Our destiny is sonship. Praise the Lord that we have been predestined unto sonship! Our predestination unto sonship is through Jesus Christ and according to the good pleasure of His will (v. 5).
Sonship results in “the praise of the glory of His grace” (v. 6). God’s grace has a glory, and glory means expression. For example, when electricity is hidden, there is no light. When the electricity shines, it is expressed, and this shining is the glory of electricity. Likewise, God’s grace has a glory, and this glory is the sonship. Do you realize that the entire globe is full of the divine sonship, with the many sons of God?
Recently I bought two maps for my living room, and I put pins in every place where there is a church. What a glorious sight! What are the churches? They are the totality, the aggregate, of all the sons of God. This is the sonship, and the sonship is the glory. Therefore, the sonship is to the praise of the glory of God’s grace. This is the glory of the sonship.
At one time we all were sinners and were scattered. But now we have been gathered together through the life-dispensing. Our Father has begotten us, dispensing His life into all of us. Now we all have the divine life dispensed into us by our one Father. This dispensed divine life is the factor that unites us. We all are in the sonship, and this is a glory to His grace. This is the dispensing of the Father.
The Father’s selection and predestination are for God’s purpose. Now we come to the Son’s redemption, which is for the accomplishment of the Father’s purpose. According to traditional theology, the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Spirit is the Spirit, as three distinct and separate persons. If this were the case, when the Son came, the Father would have remained in heaven. But by reading the Gospel of John carefully, we can see that when the Son came, He came with the Father (John 8:29; 16:32). The Son came not in His own name, but in the Father’s name (John 5:43), and in Isaiah 9:6 is even called the everlasting Father. The Son did the Father’s work (John 5:17, 19), He did the Father’s will (John 5:30; 6:38), He spoke the Father’s word (John 3:34a; 14:24; 7:16-17; 12:49-50), He sought the Father’s glory (John 7:18), and He expressed the Father (John 14:7-9). From these verses we can see that nothing was of the Son; everything was of the Father. This means that when the Son came, the Father came. The Son and the Father are one (John 10:30; 17:22). The Son was in the Father, and the Father was in Him (John 14:10-11; 17:21). When the Son spoke, the Father worked. The Son accomplished redemption through His blood and according to the riches of God’s grace (Eph. 1:7-9a).
The Son’s redemption for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose is “unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ” (Eph. 1:9b-10). What does it mean for all things to be headed up in the Son? We may use the human body as an illustration. As long as we are alive, all of our members, including our feet, legs, and hands, are headed up. But if we die, the members will become detached. This indicates that the heading up depends on the uniting of life. The life in our body is the means by which all the members are headed up. When the life goes, there is no longer any heading up.
After God created Adam, He put him before the tree of life. But Adam partook of the other tree, the tree of death (Gen. 3:6). At that time death came into man. Because man was the representative of the whole creation, his death caused all of creation to lose the heading up and become scattered.
Through the Son’s redemption, the divine life has been dispensed into His believers. This life that has been dispensed into them unites all of them. Christ as the Head with this uniting life thus heads up all the believers. This heading up is the church life. However, because many believers still live in the old creation, they are detached. They have no oneness, no uniting, which means they have no heading up. We must learn how to live by the divine life. As long as we live by this divine life, we are united. This uniting life is used by Christ the Head to head us up into one church life. This heading up of the church will spread until the time of the new heaven and the new earth. At that time there will be the New Jerusalem, which will be the center of God’s ultimate heading up. Then there will be the dispensation of the fullness of time. Dispensation here means arrangement or management. In eternity all things in heaven and on earth will be headed up in Christ through the church.
Many Christians today are not headed up because they are short of the dispensing of the divine life. This is the reason it is our burden today in the Lord’s recovery not to teach mere doctrines, but to dispense the divine life. Through this life-dispensing, saints from many countries around the globe become one. What has brought about this oneness? It is the life-dispensing. Life-dispensing heads us up. This is the result of Christ’s redemption. Christ’s redemption takes away our sin so that death may be swallowed and that all the members may be headed up through the life-dispensing.
In Christ we also were made an inheritance (Eph. 1:11). Furthermore, the Son’s redemption for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose is unto the praise of God’s glory (v. 12). After the Father’s dispensing in verse 6, Paul says, “To the praise of the glory of His grace.” Then after the Son’s dispensing, Paul says, “To the praise of His glory.”