After God created all things and mankind according to His eternal plan, His economy, God began His work on the man of His creation in order to accomplish the purpose of His eternal economy. This work can be divided into four dispensations: the dispensation of the patriarchs (the pre-law dispensation), the dispensation of law, the dispensation of grace, and the dispensation of the kingdom (the dispensation of righteousness).
God has two categories of work in the universe: the work of creation, which is the work of the old creation, and the work of building, which is the work of the new creation. The sphere of His work of the old creation was the old heaven and old earth of His original creation (Gen. 1:1); the sphere of His work of the new creation is the new heaven and new earth, which are the original God-created heaven and earth that have become old and that will be renewed through the burning of God’s judging fire (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).
God’s work of creation was to prepare all the materials for His work of building, that is, for the work of the new creation. He created all things wholly according to His purpose and plan (Rev. 4:11). The creation of all things was not accidental nor by chance, nor was it done in a casual way; it was something that came out of God’s will, something planned by God. In God’s plan, He decided to accomplish His work of building by means of all things; therefore, He created all things.
God’s building work, that is, His work of the new creation on the man of the old creation, is to work Himself into the created man to be his life and content that He may have a corporate expression. After man’s fall, God uses four different dispensations—the dispensation of the patriarchs, the dispensation of law, the dispensation of grace, and the dispensation of the kingdom—in the old creation, which has been corrupted by Satan and which has been judged by Him, to do the work of the new creation on the man of the old creation. He is carrying out this work by the Spirit and the life of the Triune God, who has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, by His heavenly ministry after His ascension, and by the things that He will accomplish at His coming back, that He may gain a group of people to be built up into the New Jerusalem as His corporate expression in eternity.
The dispensation of the patriarchs was from Adam to Moses (Rom. 5:14). This was the dispensation before the law; hence, it is also called the pre-law dispensation. In this dispensation, God’s work on man can be divided into the following:
God created man in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26) that man might have His life to become His expression and to represent Him in His dominion. However, God did not accomplish everything at the time He created man. He left a part, even the most central part, of His creating work incomplete; that is, He did not put His life into man. Therefore, after He finished creating man, He put man in front of the tree of life in the midst of the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:8, 9). His intention was that man should exercise his free will to choose to receive the tree of life, thereby obtaining God’s life. The tree of life symbolized God as the source of life. Therefore, for man to receive the life of the tree of life was for him to receive God Himself as life. God also warned man that in addition to the tree of life there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which symbolized Satan as the source of sin and death. If man would touch it, the result would be death (Gen. 2:17).