In Greek the words “God’s dispensation” in 1:4 also mean God’s household economy (Eph. 1:10; 3:9). This is God’s household administration to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people, that He may have a house, a household, to express Himself, which household is the church, the Body of Christ (1 Tim. 3:15). The apostle’s ministry was centered upon this economy of God (Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:17), whereas the differing teachings of the dissenting ones were used by God’s enemy to distract His people from this. This divine economy must be made fully clear to the saints in the administration and shepherding of a local church.
My burden is altogether centered on God’s economy. This has been my burden for more than forty years. During the years I have been in this country, I have not taught anything other than God’s dispensation.
God’s dispensation is His household economy. According to the Bible, God does not first want to have a kingdom. Rather, He first wants a house, a family. Once He has a family, His family will spontaneously become His kingdom. If He is not able to secure a family, a household, a house, He will not be able to have a kingdom. Thus, God’s dispensation is first a matter of His household economy, or family economy.
Second, God’s dispensation is His household administration to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people that He might have a house, a household, the church, the Body of Christ, to express Himself.
God’s dispensation was the focus of the Apostle Paul’s ministry (Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:17).
In verse 4 Paul tells us that God’s dispensation is in faith. The dispensing of God into us is altogether by faith. The dispensation of God is a matter in faith, that is, in the sphere and element of faith, in God through Christ. Faith may be in contrast to questionings. God’s economy to dispense Himself into His chosen people is not in the natural realm, nor in the work of law, but in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regeneration by faith in Christ (Gal. 3:23-26). By faith we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him. By faith we are put into Christ to become the members of His Body, sharing all that He is for His expression. This is God’s dispensation according to His New Testament economy, carried out in faith.
We need to be deeply impressed with the meaning of faith in the New Testament. We have spoken much about this in our Life-studies of Romans, Hebrews, and Galatians. Faith is firstly God being the Word spoken to us. We have God and then God as the Word spoken. Through the Word of God and by the Spirit of God we are infused with God in Christ. As a result, something rises up within us. This is faith. Faith then works in us to bring us into an organic union with the Triune God. Through this organic union, God is continually transfused and infused into us. As a result, we have the divine life and the divine nature to become God’s sons, members of Christ, and parts of the new man. As a totality we become the house of God, the Body of Christ, and the new man. This is God’s dispensation in faith.
God’s dispensation is “according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” (v. 11). Have you heard this expression before? Many have heard of the gospel of grace, the gospel of forgiveness, the gospel of justification, and the gospel of regeneration, but not the gospel of glory. This gospel not only brings good news concerning forgiveness of sins and justification by faith; the gospel of glory is the gospel of God’s dispensation. Glory is God expressed. Thus, the gospel of glory is the gospel of the expressed God; it is a gospel which expresses God’s glory.
The “gospel of the glory of the blessed God” is an excellent expression. It refers to God’s dispensation mentioned in verse 4. The gospel with which Paul was entrusted is the effulgence of the glory of the blessed God. This gospel, by dispensing God’s life and nature in Christ into His chosen people, shines forth His glory, in which He is blessed among His people. This is the commission and ministry the apostle received of the Lord (v. 12). This should be commonly taught and preached in a local church.
In verse 12 Paul says, “I give thanks to Him Who empowers me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He has counted me faithful, appointing me to the ministry.” The Lord not only appointed the apostle to the ministry and commissioned him with the dispensation of God outwardly, but also empowered him inwardly to carry out His ministry and fulfill His commission. This is altogether a matter of life in the Spirit.
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