Dispensations

1 April 2018

Dear Phyllis,

He is risen! This was the traditional greeting in the 1^st century church on Resurrection Sunday, and the reply was, “He is risen indeed”. Tradition demands that I say something about the resurrection today, but I would rather not. Several years ago was talking to a Kichijoji brother on Saturday night and asked him what we was going to say about the resurrection tomorrow. He replied, “Every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday” and he spoke on a different subject. Rather than discussing the resurrection of Christ today I would rather consider the resurrected Lord Jesus and the seven dispensations of the presence of God.

Without the Bible we would have very little knowledge about God and His purpose in creation. Obviously, man is the highest and greatest thing God ever created. Man is unique in that he is created in the image of God. And it would seem that the reason God created such a being was that He wanted something like Himself that He could have a relationship with.

The first dispensations of the presence of God was His relationship with Adam in the Garden. How long this lasted we have no idea. It would appear that it wasn't too long, and we have no concept of what Adam's relationship with God was like before the fall except that it was intermittent with God coming down to fellowship with Adam in the cool of the day.

After the fall it would seem that God's relationship with His created being was limited to a few men who walked with God. Enoch was the most famous for that relationship but it also describes how God was with a few individuals like Noah, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and Joseph.

When we come to Moses and the exodus we see God doing something He had never done before. This was His third dispensation. He choose a nation with whom He made a covenant. The whole purpose of that covenant was that He might have a nation that would be His people and He would be their God. In this Israel was unique in the world and God's presence with them was unique. For 40 years in the wilderness His presence was physical. God told Moses to make a Tabernacle for Him to live in and He presented Himself with a visible cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The epicenter of the presence of God was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat that covered it. Here He promised to meet with Moses and the priests who ministered there.

In the days of Eli Israel made a mistake in thinking that their salvation was a wooden box. When they lost a battle with the Philistines they said, “Let's get the Ark and IT will save us” (1 Sam 4:3). God showed them that their God was not a wooden box and let the Philistines capture it. But then He showed the Philistines that His Ark of he Covenant was not something to be trifled with (1Sam. 4-6), and reconfirmed that with David when he tried to move it on a new cart (2 Sam. 6). This third dispensations of the Tabernacle presence of God lasted for 1,000 years with the Ark of the Covenant in Moses Tabernacle and later in Solomon's Tabernacle. God committed Himself with a covenant that He would meet with His people there. And He reconfirmed that even in the days of Daniel when he prayed towards Jerusalem (2 Chron. 6:36-38; Dan. 6:10).

The forth dispensation of the presence of God was unique lasting only 33 years when God became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn. 1:14, 1 Tim. 3:16). In a way that never existed before or since; if someone would ask, “Where is God?”, a person could honestly point to Christ and say, “There is God manifested in the flesh”. Phillip could ask Jesus, “Please show us the Father”. And Jesus replied, “Phillip, have I been with you so long and you don't know Me. He that hath seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:8,9). The presence of God in Christ was something that had never happened on this planet from the days of Adam on.

But the fifth dispensation of God's presence is an enormous mystery. That is where we are today. When Jesus left to return to heaven He promised to send His Spirit to live with His people. In a way far more real than God was there with the disciples and Christ's followers when they walked the roads of Israel, Jesus has come to be with us today wherever we are. The dispensation of the Holy Spirit is a mystery that transcends mans intellect to comprehend. Last week I wrote about the new-birth. Nobody can understand that. Somehow the Spirit of God is united with the human spirit to become one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). The Holy Spirit within us cannot sin (1 Jn. 3:9). And yet if we say we don't sin we lie and are not telling the truth (1Jn. 1:8). The Holy Spirit is both within us (internally) and beside us (externally). Jesus said as a fact that when two or three of His people would get together He was there with them (Mt. 18:20).This is true because Jesus in me meets with Jesus in you. Jesus didn't say to Saul, “Why are you persecuting My people?” but said, “Why are you persecuting ME?” (Act 9:4). The presence of Christ in His Church is a mystery that we don't fully understand.

From the beginning, God's whole purpose in creation was to have a people to be His own. This is both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The OT was external and the NT is internal. The basis of the OT was a set of laws and the rule of the NT is an indwelling Spirit of Life (Heb. 7:16). Basically both Covenants were (are) a marriage contract. I believe the reason God has given us the institution of marriage is to dramatically portray to us the relationship God intends to have with His people. The Church is known as the Bride of Christ. This is confirmed by Eph. 5 and several other places. In Rev. 19 and 21 we see the final culmination. But this has brought me to a problem that bewilders me.

For years the Song of Solomon has been, for me, the greatest jewel in God's treasure box of Scripture. Basically this describes the relationship of Jesus with His Bride. Samuel Rutherford, more than any other author, lived there, and in His letters all he talks about is His relationship with Jesus as Husband and Wife. Theologically he is 100% correct. Experientially this is the way it is supposed to be - but realistically this is embarrassing. Our fallen minds are so perverted it is next to impossible to live in this relationship and talk about it without this looking like sexual perversion. That is why Christians cringe at reading or listening to the Song of Solomon. You get the same feeling in reading the Letters of Rutherford. His letters are full of the language of the Song of Solomon where he talks much about His kisses, His breath, “when we will be in each others arms?”. Even in the gospels we read with a measure of embarrassment of John leaning on Jesus bosom (Jn. 13:23). I can understand why the unsaved read this with an odd feeling. Apart from Rutherford, I don't know of anyone who talks about their relationship with Jesus as Husband and Wife, but I am convinced that he is absolutely correct. We cannot discuss the most intimate relationship between a husband and wife without using the most guarded language. And yet if this is true in a human relationship, is it not reasonable that our oneness with Jesus should be on an even higher plane? I get enormously blessed by many verses in the S. of S. God speaks to me as much through that book as any place in Scripture, but the relationship there and what Rutherford talks about is totally off the board in today's thinking. Lord help us with this that we might be more intimate with You.

The six dispensation of the presence of God will be when Jesus comes aback and set up His Kingdom on 1,000 years on this earth. This is post-resurrection. We will all have new bodies and free of an Adamic nature while we are here ruling things with Jesus. And then there will be the seventh dispensation after the Lord burns up the heavens and the earth and makes everything new. But we know nothing about that.

What I am trying to say is that God has presented Himself with His created man in five different ways since the days of the Garden, but I believe what we have today is the most intimate yet, and our access to God is even closer than Adam, Abraham, Moses, and John experienced. And I believe it is God who is longing for fellowship with us. Thank God Jesus came, died, and rose again. But much more, thank God, Jesus has come back by His Spirit to be with us until that day when we will be with with Him forever.

Hallelujah, bill