Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:3-4; 5:10; 8:4, 6, 10-11, 14-17, 23, 26, 29-30; 12:4-5; Eph. 1:4-5, 7, 13-14, 19-23; 2:19-22; 4:4-6, 15-16; Gal. 4:6; Col. 2:19; 1 Tim 3:15
Ⅰ
God dispensed Himself into man by sending His own Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh but was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead—Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4:
A
All the titles related to Christ in Romans 1:3-4 are related to the Triune God in His dispensing; apart from God's dispensing, there is no need for His Son to be Jesus Christ.
B
Christ, who is over all, is the very God who has been and will be blessed forever—9:5.
C
The death of God's Son and the designation of the Son of God in resurrection imply the dispensing of the Triune God—5:10; 1:4.
D
Dispensing requires a process; the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead implies not only God's dispensing but also the process required to make this dispensing possible—8:11.
E
To dispense means to distribute; God distributes Himself in His economy through dispensing Himself into man.
F
The dispensing of the Triune God is for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, which is to have a Body for Christ—12:4-5.
Ⅱ
The dispensing of the Triune God issues in sonship for the producing of the Body of Christ:
A
Christ was designated the Son of God through incarnation and resurrection as the producer and as the prototype, the model, to produce many sons—1:3-4; 8:29-30.
B
We are children of God, being led as sons of God, ultimately becoming heirs of God—vv. 16, 14, 17.
C
The blessings of sonship include:
１
Having the spirit of sonship in which we cry, Abba, Father!—v. 15; Gal 4:6.
２
Having the witness of the Spirit Himself with our spirit as the mingled spirit that we are children of God—Rom. 8:16.
３
Having the leading of the Spirit to move us forward in the growth in life from the initial stage of being children to the more advanced stage of being the sons of God—v. 14 and footnotes; vv. 4, 6.
４
Having the firstfruits of the Spirit to eagerly await sonship, the redemption of our body—v. 23.
５
Having the helping of the Spirit through His joining us in our weakness to pray as is fitting and to intercede with groanings which cannot be uttered—v. 26.
D
The dispensing of the Triune God is according to His righteousness, through His holiness, and unto His glory.
E
We become children by regeneration, sons by transformation, and heirs by glorification; glorification is the result of the dispensing of the Triune God into the tripartite man.
F
The life of the Triune God is dispensed into the tripartite man through the spirit becoming life, the mind becoming life, and life being imparted into the mortal body—vv. 10, 6, 11.
G
The ultimate goal of this dispensing is that God is expressed through the Body of Christ—12:4-5.
Ⅲ
The threefold dispensing of the Triune God together with the transmitting of the transcendent Christ produces the church as the Body of Christ—Eph. 1:4-5, 7, 13-14, 19-23:
A
God the Father dispenses Himself in choosing the believers to make them holy and in predestinating them unto sonship—vv. 4-5.
B
God the Son dispenses Himself through His redemption to make the believers the inheritance of God—vv. 7, 11.
C
God the Spirit dispenses Himself in sealing the believers to make them a mark of God's image and in pledging to the believers as a foretaste of God for a guarantee of God as an inheritance unto the redemption of the body of the believers as God's acquired possession—vv. 13-14.
D
The result of this dispensing is the divine constitution of the Triune God with the believers in Christ as the Body of Christ—4:4-6:
１
Ephesians 4:4-6 shows us the constitution of the three divine persons with all His chosen people; we have one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father mingled together.
２
The building up of the Body of Christ is through the dispensing of life to produce the growth and increase of God's life in the believers—vv. 15-16; Col. 2:19.
E
All the constituents needed for the constituting of His organic Body were produced in the threefold dispensing of the Divine Trinity; this Body is an organic constitution, the organism of the Triune God; this organism is also the unique house of the Triune God, and this house is both the household and the dwelling place of God—Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Tim. 3:15.