In the first message of this series we saw that chapter one of Ephesians reveals the plan of God the Father. In the second message we saw that chapter two reveals mainly the Son’s accomplishment to dispense the Trinity into our being so that we may grow into the dwelling place of God. In this message we come to chapter three where we have the dispensation of God’s grace.
The word dispensation used in chapter three is an equivalent of the Greek word oikonomia which is composed of two words: oikos, which means house, and nomos, which means law. Oikonomia denotes household regulations or household management. Because this word refers to a household administration and arrangement, it implies a plan. Some Bible teachers have pointed out that there are seven dispensations for God’s dealing with man. In Ephesians 3 the word dispensation means a plan, an arrangement, a system, or an order.
In Ephesians 3 the word oikonomia is used twice, in verses 2 and 9. In verse 2 it is better to translate it as stewardship, and in verse 9, as dispensation. In English a stewardship refers to the duty, office, or responsibility of one who is carrying out the dispensation. A steward is a servant who carries out the household management and administration. The stewardship is even a part of the dispensation. This is why Paul used the word oikonomia to denote both the dispensation and the duty of the steward to carry out the dispensation.
The church is God’s house, and in His house, He has a plan, an arrangement, a household administration, to distribute the riches of Christ into all the members of this household. Paul and the other apostles were not the only stewards to carry out this dispensation. Peter in his First Epistle says that we all should minister the gift we have received “as good stewards of the varied grace of God” (1 Pet. 4:10b). The word “stewards” in 1 Peter 4:10 does not refer to the duty or responsibility of the servant; it refers to the steward himself, the one who carries out the household management. Every one of us should be a good steward of the varied grace of God to distribute the riches of Christ to nourish all the saints in the church.
When we use the word dispensation, we mean God’s household management, God’s plan. We do not mean dispensing. Nevertheless, in God’s dispensation the crucial matter is the dispensing of Himself into us. In God’s dispensation there is the dispensing. Paul may be considered the leading steward to carry out God’s divine dispensation, that is, to carry out God’s divine, eternal plan to dispense and distribute all the riches of Christ. Paul was commissioned with such a responsibility, such a service. This may be considered a stewardship. It also may be considered a dispensation. Paul had been committed with God’s plan, His dispensation, to distribute the grace of God. Such a plan to distribute the grace of God is called the dispensation of the grace of God. Paul was commissioned and committed by God with this plan to carry out God’s dispensing of His riches as grace.
In the dispensation, the plan, of the mystery of Christ there are three main items. The first is to make the nations joint-heirs, a joint Body, and joint-partakers of the promise in Christ (v. 6). God’s plan, His household administration, is to make the Jewish and Gentile believers joint-heirs of God. All these joint-heirs are in the one joint Body, which is the Body of Christ, the church. Furthermore, the joint-heirs are joint-partakers of the promise in Christ, that is, joint-partakers of all the riches in Christ.
Second, God desires to distribute the unsearchable riches of Christ to the nations (v. 8). How can the Gentiles be made joint-heirs of God? This can only be through the divine dispensing.
Paul was a dispenser. We may compare him to Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph was the steward in Pharaoh’s rich house (Gen. 41:41). The king of Egypt had a great house full of food supply, and he needed a household administration to distribute this supply. Joseph was appointed to be a steward with the commission to distribute food. We may consider Paul a New Testament Joseph to distribute all the rich food in Christ to God’s people.
The dispensing of the rich food of God’s household is to make the nations, the Gentiles, joint-heirs of God with the Jewish believers. This cannot be done by education or organization. It can only be done by life-dispensing. Paul did not use organization to dispense the riches. In chapter three he told us that he preached the unsearchable riches of Christ (v. 8). Here the word “preach” actually means to distribute or dispense. Paul’s ministry was to dispense the unsearchable riches of Christ to the nations. Even today I regard Paul as my Joseph. Whenever I come to his Epistles, I receive a rich supply of food. Paul’s distribution of the unsearchable riches of Christ was to make the nations joint-heirs with the Jews.
Third, the dispensation of the mystery of Christ is to bring forth the church for the manifestation of the multifarious wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose made by God in Christ (vv. 9-11). Out of the distribution and dispensing of the unsearchable riches of Christ, the church is produced to exhibit God’s manifold or multifarious wisdom. God exhibits this wisdom not mainly to man, but to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies, that is, to the evil angels, the followers of Satan. God has set up an exhibition to let the fallen angels see how much wisdom He has. To those on earth the church is a poem, a masterpiece, but to the fallen angels in the air the church is a great exhibition. Through the church they can see God’s wisdom. This is God’s plan, which is the dispensation of God’s grace.