صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

ART. V. THE DISPENSATIONS.*

It is a solemn thing to speak of the things of God, to see that we do not put forth our own thoughts in the place of His thoughts, to watch our words lest they may be found contrary to His word. Yet it is a blessed thing to be in the position of one speaking of and for the Lord Jesus.

In looking at dispensational truth, as affecting our globe, we find the great fundamental principle of all the dealings of our God and Father to be the glory of the Lord Jesus. Whether these dealings have reference to the earth, to the Church, or to Israel, the ultimate object of God appears to be, to set His glory in the land of the living, to exhibit God manifest in the flesh, to set up Jesus as the head over all things. As it is true that, in the proportion in which we find God manifested to our souls as a Father reconciled through the Saviour, we get spiritual blessings; so, in the proportion in which we view all things as tending, in God's purposes, to bring about the exaltation of the Lord Jesus, do we get a sight of those glories which are revealed in God's Word, as yet in store for this earth, and for her redeemed children. We can easily conceive some Christian minds, thinking only of the truth which bears on personal salvation, comfort, and usefulness, and neglecting a large portion of Scripture which contains dispensational truth, will be ready to say or to think, What profit is there in these things? The more we study the dispensations of God, the more shall we see of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the more we shall know of Him "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." There is a very practical, as well as a very consolatory result attached to rightly dividing the Word of Truth; for we thereby get warning or comfort, as we need we are forewarned and prepared to meet what is coming, and to discern the principles now working to the grand consummation of evil. Unless we understand the different dispensations, we are in danger of misapplying truth in reference to them, and thereby not obtaining the blessing our Father has promised.

In pursuing an investigation of the subject before us, we are led to consider

1. The meaning of the word vikovoμia, or Dispensation. Literally translated, it is "The law of the house;" applied to the operation of such law, we should say, "The government of

* This article is the substance of conference at the last meeting of the Prophetical Alliance.

the house." It is a word not often used in Scripture-never, we believe, in the Old, and in rather different ways in the New Testament. Perhaps "the dispensation of the fulness of the times" in Eph. i. 10, is, strictly speaking, the only passage where the above sense can hold good, as applied to God's government. It seems as if the purpose of God, in the arrangement of His great and glorious house, is that Christ should be the glorious head and upholder, the centre and substance of all. That is the ultimate object to which all other things are tending and preparatory, especially in training the Church to be associated with Christ in the glory. The order of the household is, Christ the glorious Head, and the Church associated with Him. This is the only complete dispensation: all else is preparatory to it. Conventionally, we speak of the Jewish and Christian dispensations, the different ways in which God acts to His people, His dealings with the world, with the Church, with Israel, or with all commingled. He governs in different ways at different times, just as a parent adopts different modes of training for his children, for infancy, boyhood, youth, preparatory to manhood. And thus we speak of a dispensation to signify God's rule in successive periods, from the commencement to the last revelation we have in Scripture -a portion of time in which God's will is made known and His plan worked out.

Hence, the term is used in a wider sense. The word "house," designating first a building, then the family inhabiting the building: "He came to his own" (house), eis τà idia, “and his own" (household), kai oi idiot "received him not;" "Whose house are we." And wider still, a group of families: "In my Father's house are many mansions." And then, as applied to the government of the household, we get "stewardship," as the word is translated in Luke xvi. 2, 3, 4. In this sense also, it is used in 1 Cor. ix. 17: "A dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me."

Thus there is included in the word, a plan, and an office, of managing the affairs of God's house, and dispensing His gifts, especially His truth, to His house. The plan is always of God, who is the head of the house. The office is a trust committed to all His servants (1 Pet. iv. 9, 11), especially to ministers of His word (1 Cor. ix. 17), and pre-eminently to Christ (Heb. iii. 6).

We may assume, then, that "dispensation" signifies first, the law or government of God's house and household, when that shall be complete, and unbroken by any opposing circumstance on the part of Satan or sinful men, when all things shall be gathered together, or headed up in Christ. This is its sense in

Eph. i. 10, and may be called the dispensation of complete

ness.

Preparatory to it, appear certain portions of time, succeeding each other, during which, parts of God's mode of government have been revealed, each portion containing that part, which it has seemed good to Him to reveal, for the special guidance of His people therein. And this is the sense in which the word is usually acknowledged in the Church, when speaking of the Levitical, or the gospel, or any other dispensation. It is also used to signify stewardship.

2. The house and household which are under God's laws or government. In the revelation that God has made, we find nothing irrelevant to, or disjointed from this earth. All has reference to it in some way-to its material, its productions, or its inhabitants; whenever mention is made of heaven and its holy angels, or of Satan and his fallen followers, there is some relation to this globe, or to those who live upon it. We cannot, then, in any investigation based upon Scripture truth, dissociate the earth from God's revelation. Many passages and many doctrines may undoubtedly be held by, and blessed to believers without interfering with the bearing they may have upon truth as a whole; but in all the broad principles enunciated in revelation, as pertaining to God's dealings with men, the earth and its inhabitants are bound up together.

"The Lord possessed me," says the Saviour, "in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men." We presume that this was all looking forward to the creation of man, and to this earth, as a sphere, in which the glory of the Lord Jesus should be permanently displayed; for not only were all things created by Him, but also for Him (Prov. viii. 22, 31, with Col. i. 15, 17), and though "we see not yet all things put under Him, yet God's purpose will stand." "He hath established the earth for ever" (Ps. lxxviii. 69), and given it to the children of men (Ps. cxv. 16), to be ruled over by "the second man, the Lord from heaven." According to this predetermined rule, has God ordered His plans in the dispensations which have passed, in the present one, and until the consummation of His purposes hereafter.

We consider, then, the house to which reference is made in the dispensation to be this our earth, and the household to be the saints of God in all ages (Eph. ii. 19), of whom Christ is the head (Heb. iii. 6). We say the saints, because the ultimate

[blocks in formation]

glory of the earth cannot be shared by the wicked, and because, although the earth is now under the rule of Satan, who is the god of this world, yet in the ordering of God's household who exist in the world, none but His children can, of necessity, hold office, or be accounted stewards. The word seems to be only applicable where there exists a people under God's authority, and the wicked reject and disown His authority.

We notice

3. The changes in God's dispensations. When we trace the dealings of God with His people in His varied dispensations toward them, we see grace shining through all. Grace shone out in Eden; and afterwards, when man might have expected God's bow to be strung and turned against him, an inverted bow was presented-the token of a covenant of grace. The same feature pertained to the law, and is exhibited in a manifold degree in the gospel. Grace shall abundantly be seen in the coming time, and grace shall be the everlasting theme of the redeemed. Yet grace has been shewn under various aspects, and we find development in all the Lord's revelations to men. He, from time to time, revealed so much of His will as was suited to His purpose: "precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little." When man had fallen, there was the promise of a Saviour, but nothing more. When Abraham was called, the promise was expanded, and there was the promise of a Seed who should be the Saviour, and of a seed who should be saved; a land of inheritance, and a Church to inherit. While the law existed, it implied the coming of the Saviour, it shewed His work; and when the gospel came, it proclaimed a day of gladness yet to be revealed. Distinction, but not separation, has been the characteristic of this development: like a telescope, every part of which fits into another, or like the arches of a bridge, one springing gracefully from another, and all contributing to make the fabric stable. And in this characteristic we may observe a transition state, as when Moses was in Egypt, just before the closing of the patriarchal and the coming in of the Levitical dispensations; or as when we read that the law and the prophets testified "until" John; and so, will it not be in the present one? Between the closing of the gospel and the ushering in of the millennial dispensations, there seem to be events predicted which have a transition character.

An important question arises here: How may we know when God sets up a new dispensation, that we may not multiply dispensations which God has not given? Perhaps the following mark may be nearly, if not quite, correct—viz., a

personal interposition of Deity to make a new revelation. For instance, we speak of the patriarchal dispensation. How was it set up? When our first parents heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, it was followed by a new revelation of mercy, which shone forth over the darkness introduced by sin. Then came the Levitical dispensation, when the Lord God came down on Sinai, and the law was given. Afterwards the gospel, when, in the fulness of time, God sent forth His Son, and on the day of Pentecost poured out His Spirit. Equally marked, we believe, will be the next, when the Lord Jesus shall return in glory, and set up a new dispensation, in the day which is especially called "the day of the revelation of Jesus Christ."

In every dispensation there have been eras or epochs, remarkable in themselves, but not sufficient to warrant us in calling such the establishment of a new dispensation. In the patriarchal we point to the times of Noah and of Abraham, in the Levitical to those of Solomon and Zerubbabel, and in our own we may speak of the Reformation, as such epochs. They were marked by God in a prominent manner, but we do not speak of them as involving any new mode of God's manifestation of Himself.

Before proceeding to offer remarks on each separately, it will be well to notice some characteristics which are common to all.

4. We observe, in all, order and progression. Light may be considered as the emblem of God's manifestations, and light, shed upon His revelation, is progressive. It is so in individual cases. We learn God's truths" line upon line," and we experience them also in the growth of the soul in grace, in a progressive manner. Order and plan are apparent in the whole of revelation, yet we do not attain at once to a knowledge of the different parts of the plan. So in the dispensations, a portion only of the Lord's ultimate object is seen in each.

5. Justification by faith is also seen in every dispensation, as a characteristic common to all. We cannot, perhaps, apply the word "justification" to man in an unfallen state, yet Adam stood only by faith. When he disbelieved, he fell. "Ye shall not

surely die," was Satan's lie, which Adam and Eve believed, in opposition to the Lord's word, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," which they disbelieved. In the patriarchal dispensation we see the same principle. "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous," or just (Sikalos). And of Abraham it is said, "He believed in the

« السابقةمتابعة »