Ⅰ
"Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him"—Eph. 1:9-10:
Ａ
The economy, or dispensation, that God, according to His desire, planned and purposed in Himself is to head up all things in Christ at the fullness of the times.
Ｂ
This is accomplished through the dispensing of the abundant life supply of the Triune God as the life factor into all the members of the church so that they may rise up from the death situation and be attached to the Body.
Ｃ
The times refers to the ages, and the fullness of the times will be when the new heaven and new earth appear after all the dispensations of God in all the ages have been completed:
１
A dispensation is the act or instance of dispensing, and it refers to God's dispensing of Himself into His chosen people; we need the element of God with His life and nature to be wrought into our being.
２
Altogether there are four ages: the age of sin (Adam), the age of the law (Moses), the age of grace (Christ), and the age of the kingdom (the millennium).
３
God dispensed Himself into Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with Joseph; He had an even greater dispensation with Moses and, of course, with the Lord Jesus.
４
This dispensing continues in the New Testament Epistles; God's dispensation is even greater than it was at the time of the apostle Paul; today there is a deeper, higher, and wider dispensation of the grace of God—cf. Eph. 3:2; 1 Pet. 4:10.
５
This dispensation will continue through the millennium until the fullness of the times; the ultimate, the consummate, dispensation will be the dispensing of the Triune God into the whole city of the New Jerusalem—Rev. 22:1-2.
６
We enjoy a miniature of this consummate dispensation in the church life today; as we enjoy the Spirit as the living water and eat Christ as the tree of life in the church life, we await the consummate dispensation, in which we will be fully saturated with the Triune God—1 Cor. 10:3-4; 12:13; Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14; John 6:57.
７
Where life is, there is light also (1:4; 8:12); because the New Jerusalem is saturated with light, it has no need of the light of the sun; the glory of the Triune God will be our shining and controlling light (Rev. 21:23).
８
In the New Jerusalem there will be no night, no death, and no darkness; instead, there will be life and light, causing everything to rise up and be in good order and thus be fully headed up in Christ (v. 24; Eph. 1:10).
９
When we are fully headed up in Christ in the New Jerusalem, that will be God's eternal administration and economy.
Morning Nourishment
Eph. 1:9-10 Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.When Satan, the power of death, injected himself into man, Satan became death and darkness to man. Death brings in corruption, and darkness brings in confusion. Satan’s goal is to corrupt God’s creation and to cause confusion. But praise the Lord that where death abounds, life abounds all the more!… God came in to enliven, to impart life. Where there is life, there is light also. Death ruins, but life heals; darkness brings in confusion, but light brings in the proper order….God…has come in to enliven the deadened creation and to bring in order. In this order all things are headed up in Christ. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 91)
Today’s Reading
God dispensed Himself into Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. He had an even greater dispensation with Moses and, of course, with the Lord Jesus. The dispensing continues in the New Testament Epistles. It may surprise you to know that God’s dispensation at the present time is even greater than it was at the time of the apostle Paul. I doubt that when Paul was on earth there was a congregation who had the privilege of hearing the things that you are hearing today. Today there is a deeper, higher, and wider dispensation of the grace of God. This dispensation will continue through the millennium until the fullness of the times. The dispensation of the fullness of the times will be the highest and the broadest. This dispensation will be in eternity, as revealed in Revelation 21 and 22.In these chapters we have a new environment, the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem [Rev. 21:1-2]…. In the Bible the sea signifies death. For there to be no more sea means that there will be no trace of death. By that time death will have been swallowed up. At the end of the millennium, death, the last enemy, will be abolished and cast into the lake of fire. In place of death, there will be a new environment, a new sphere, a new circumference, in the center of which will be the New Jerusalem.
We enjoy a miniature of this consummate dispensation in the church life today. In the church we have the flow of life, we drink the water of life, and we eat the tree of life. This is God’s dispensation in the church life. However, it is not the highest dispensation, the dispensation of the fullness of times. As I enjoy the living water in the church, I am awaiting the ultimate dispensation. We shall all be in this consummate dispensation, and we shall be fully saturated with the Triune God.
God on the throne refers to the Father, the Lamb refers to the Son, and the river of water of life refers to the Spirit. John 7 reveals clearly that the river of life denotes the Spirit. Thus, in Revelation 22 we have God the Father, God the Son as the redeeming One, and God the Spirit flowing with God the Son as the tree of life to be our life supply. This is the dispensation of the Triune God, the top dispensation, the dispensation of the fullness of the times.
This dispensation began with Abel and has been increasing throughout the ages until it eventually will reach the dispensation of the fullness of times. We are getting close to that dispensation. If we realize this, we shall be beside ourselves with joy. Not even the apostle Paul was as close to the ultimate dispensation as we are. Hallelujah, we all shall share in the consummate dispensation! In the Lord’s recovery we have in the church life a miniature of that coming dispensation. How wonderful!…Oh, in the church life we drink the water of life and eat of the tree of life! By eating and drinking we become saturated with God’s very life through His dispensation. The more life that is dispensed into us, the higher we rise up. This is the heading up in Christ. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 93-95)
Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 8-10