When God determined that the purpose of decreeing the law had been attained and that the law had been used to its full extent, that is, at the fullness of the time (Gal. 4:4), He became flesh, thus terminating the dispensation of law and inaugurating the dispensation of grace. At that time, God again changed the way of His work of the new creation on the man of the old creation by replacing the demand of the law with the supply of grace. The dispensation of grace is from Christ’s first coming to His second coming, which marks the beginning of the millennial kingdom. This is also the dispensation of the mystery of the church.
The dispensation of grace began with the Triune God becoming flesh in the Son. In eternity past, this One who became flesh was the eternal Word who was with God (John 1:1-2), the only begotten Son who expressed God (John 1:18), and the Author of life (Acts 3:15). In time, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit of God in the womb of a chaste virgin and was born as a God-man (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20), who is both the complete God (Rom. 9:5) and the perfect Man (Matt. 1:1). On the one hand, His source is God, and on the other hand, His source is man. Hence, He was born with two natures, the divine nature and the human nature. This word “nature” not only indicates His nature, but even more, His essence. His essence consists of the divine nature plus the human nature, that is, the divine essence plus the human essence. He is the entire Triune God becoming the complete Man, bringing God into man, that is, bringing God Himself to man to be enjoyed as grace and to be received as reality (John 1:17), thus replacing the law of the previous dispensation.
The law makes demands upon man according to what God is, but grace supplies man with what God is to meet God’s demand. No one can partake of God through the law, but grace enables man to enjoy God. The law is only a testimony of what God is (Exo. 25:21); reality is the realization of what God is. Therefore, reality is God realized, and grace is God enjoyed. The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.
The Triune God not only became flesh in the Son but also passed through human living in humanity. While Christ was living on the earth, the complete Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—was in Him, living a mingled life with Him as a perfect man. On the one hand, He experienced the hardships and sufferings of human living; on the other hand, He lived out God and expressed God in humanity. As a man, He grew up in the home of a poor carpenter and lived among men for thirty-three and a half years. He fully tasted the sufferings, sorrows, trials, and temptations of human life. He also contacted different kinds of people, such as the moral (John 3:1), the immoral (John 4:17-18), the dying (John 4:47), the sick and impotent (John 5:5), the hungry (John 6:26-27), the thirsty (John 7:37), those under the bondage of sin (John 8:3, 34), the blind (John 9:1), and even the dead (John 11:39), and He gave life to them to meet all their needs. In His human virtues He expressed the divine attributes, such as love, light, holiness, and righteousness. He lived as a man, yet He lived out God; He was the Triune God with all His virtues lived out in humanity and manifested in human form. He was the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9; John 16:15a), He was the tabernacle of God and the temple of God (John 1:14a; 2:21), He was coinherent with the Father (John 14:10a, 11a; 17:21), He was one with the Father (John 10:30; 17:22), He had the Father with Him (John 8:29; 16:32), He lived because of the Father (John 6:57a), He was anointed with the Spirit by the Father (Matt. 3:16-17; Luke 4:18a), He worked with the Father (John 14:10b; 5:17, 19), He did things in the name of the Father (John 10:25), He did the Father’s will (John 5:30; 6:38), He spoke the Father’s word (John 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). This was the living of the mingling of God and man that was lived out by the Triune God when He passed through human living in humanity.