This stewardship of the grace is for God’s dispensation. We have seen that the desire of God’s heart is to dispense His riches, which actually are Himself, into His chosen people. After these riches have been dispensed into us, we need to take up the burden to dispense them into others. With God, these riches are His economy; with us, they are the stewardship; and when they are dispensed by us into others, they are God’s dispensation. When God’s economy reaches us, it becomes our stewardship. When we carry out our stewardship by dispensing Christ into others, it becomes the dispensation of God into them. Hence, we have the economy, the stewardship, and the dispensation.
Our concept of preaching the gospel needs to be uplifted. We should not be concerned merely with winning souls. Rather, we should preach the gospel to carry out God’s economy by dispensing God into others. Go to school or to work for the purpose of carrying out your stewardship according to God’s economy for His dispensation. We are not doing an ordinary work of gospel preaching. We are dispensing God into man. What a glorious ministry! What a wonderful stewardship! Praise the Lord that we all have such a stewardship! We have the privilege of dispensing the unsearchable riches of Christ into others.
Since our stewardship is the stewardship of the grace, we need to see what grace is. John 1:17 says that grace came through Jesus Christ. During the time of the Old Testament, there was law, but not grace. Grace did not come until Christ came.
Many Christians think that grace refers mainly to material blessings. But the Bible indicates that grace did not come before Christ. However, God certainly bestowed material blessings on His people before Christ came. Grace is nothing less than God Himself given to us, gained by us, and enjoyed by us. Before Christ came, God could not be given to anyone. No one could receive God or enjoy Him. But in Christ and through Christ we receive God, and God becomes our enjoyment. Therefore, grace is God Himself as our enjoyment. The stewardship of grace is the dispensing of God into people to be their enjoyment. Dispensing this grace into others is our stewardship according to God’s economy. Because we partake of God as our enjoyment, we can dispense Him as grace into others. This is the dispensation of grace.
In 3:7 Paul says that he became a minister. In the New Testament there is just one ministry, which is the stewardship, the dispensing of God into people. The word “minister” corresponds to the word “steward,” for a steward is one who serves by dispensing the necessities of life to others. Not only the brothers who minister the Word of God or the elders who care for the local building are ministers, but every saint, every member of the church, has a part in the ministry. Do not be cheated by the traditional concept and think that you are not a minister. A minister is simply one who serves. A minister of the gospel serves people with the gospel. If a young sister ministers Christ to her mother, she is carrying out the New Testament ministry. All the saints must be bold to declare that they are ministers. We must not only speak this but put it into practice. Young people, go to your parents and minister Christ to them. I encourage you all to fulfill this ministry. Although there may be thousands of saints in the Lord’s recovery, there is just one ministry, the dispensing of the riches of Christ into others. Hallelujah for this glorious ministry!
Our ministry is according to the gift of the grace of God. To say that grace is God for our enjoyment means that grace is God as our life and life supply (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9). This life supply operates within us. By means of this operating life, we have a certain ability, which is the gift. Therefore, in 3:7 Paul speaks of being a minister “according to the gift of the grace of God.”
All the saints have such a gift, such an ability. For example, my hand has the ability to grasp objects. This ability comes from the life blood in my body. If the blood does not flow into my hand, my hand will be short of life and therefore will not be able to function. But when the life blood flows into my hand, the blood operates within the hand to give it the ability to function. As members of Christ, we all have the life of God operating within us to produce a certain ability. This ability is the gift that makes us ministers to impart Christ to others.
Our ministry is to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel. It is not to present doctrine nor simply to teach the Word in letters. Our gospel is a Person with all His riches. To preach such a gospel is to minister the riches of Christ to others.
This ministry is for producing the church. The ministry of the Apostle Paul as God’s steward was to bring forth the church by dispensing the unsearchable riches of Christ as grace into the believers. Paul’s ministry was not only to save sinners, but to produce the church for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose. This was the goal of his stewardship of grace.
According to 3:3 and 5, our ministry is by the revelation of the mystery in spirit. The mystery of God is Christ, and the mystery of Christ is the church. As long as we have seen Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ, we have the revelation of the mystery in our spirit. This enables us to minister Christ to others. This is a matter in our regenerated spirit which is indwelt by the Spirit of God.