THE DIVINE DISPENSING OF THE DIVINE TRINITY
We know that the Gospel of John is a book in the Bible that specifically speaks of God as our life. There are mainly four kinds of life. The first is the plant life, such as the flowering plants, the shrubs, and the trees. The second is the animal life. It is higher than the plant life, and includes such things as the insects, the livestock, the beasts, the fish, and the birds. God created all these after their kind. The third kind is the human life. It is higher than the animal life. According to the revelation of the Bible, man does not belong to the same kind as the other creatures; he is created in the image and likeness of God. Hence, as far as his life is concerned, man is of God’s kind.
Genesis 1 speaks of God’s creation. God created all kinds of living creatures. The lowest form is the plant life; next is the animal life. Then comes the human life. This is a high form of life, yet it is not the highest. God spent six days to create. After all the other things were created, He created man, and then He entered into rest. Hence, God worked, and man enjoyed His rest. In chapter two, we see another kind of life, which is the life of the tree of life. This is the uncreated life of God. It is a superior life and the highest kind of life. Although human life is not the highest, yet it resembles God’s life, and it is after God’s kind.
The Gospel of John is a book specifically on life. But it is not on the plant life, or the animal life. Neither is it on the human life. Rather, it is on God coming to be man’s life. God has given us His life. When we receive Him, He enters into us and becomes our life. To us, this is the gospel and salvation. Based on this, we can say that our former concept of the preaching of the gospel was not entirely correct. We thought that to preach the gospel was to speak of the cleansing of sins, redemption, justification, and reconciliation. When a person became clear and understood these matters, then after he prayed he was saved. But after this there was still the need of a pre-baptism oral examination. If this person passed the examination, then he could be baptized, and only then could he be considered to have completed the process. Today, we are much clearer concerning the truth. We realize that the way we took was wrong. As a result, we have changed.
Consider the Samaritan woman in John chapter four. We see that the Lord did not speak to her about the cleansing of sin, redemption, or justification. He did not speak of crucifixion or resurrection. The Lord only told her that He was able to give to her the living water. The woman believed, and she recognized the Lord as the coming Messiah. She left her waterpot and went into the city, testifying to all the people. This proves that she had believed and had received. Although her knowledge of salvation was limited, she was genuinely saved. We can consider another example, that of Zaccheus’ salvation. He was a chief tax collector, and he had often taken from others by false accusation. One day, the Lord came expressly to Jericho to seek after him. He told him, "Today I must stay in your house." Zaccheus gladly received Jesus. The Lord said, "Today salvation has come to this house" (Luke 19:1-10). Hence, a man is not saved through the understanding of some doctrines. Rather, man obtains God’s salvation through receiving the Lord Jesus.
My subject in this chapter is the divine dispensing and the union and mingling of the Triune God with the believers. The divine dispensing refers to God’s distribution of Himself into all the believers as their life. How can this be done? This is a mystery. I cannot describe it, but I know definitely that the complete God is in me. He is also in you. The same God is at the same time in all of us. Moreover, with this divine dispensing, there is the union and mingling of the Triune God with the believers. Union is outward, whereas mingling is inward. When we put on our clothing, we have a union with it. When we eat our food, we are mingled with it. We the believers have, on the one hand, put on Christ (Gal. 3:27) as our righteous garment for our covering. This is our union with Him through believing and baptism into Him. On the other hand, He is also our living water for us to drink of Him. He is also our spiritual food for us to eat Him. When we eat and drink of Him, He enters into us and is mingled with us to become our constitution and our element. Every time we break the bread, there are two symbols on the table. One is the bread as a symbol of the Lord’s body, and the other is the cup as a symbol of the Lord’s blood. For us to eat, drink, and receive Him is our true remembrance of Him.
Hence, the divine dispensing is simply God working Himself into all of us to be joined to us and mingled with us. The whole book of John shows us this matter clearly. God has not separated Himself from His life. Rather, He has dispensed Himself as life, righteousness, sanctification, redemption (1 Cor. 1:30), and everything to us. Whether or not we understand this matter, as long as we receive God into us, we have everything. Hence, it is not a matter of understanding, but a matter of receiving. If there are gospel friends here, all you need to do is to open up yourself, call on the Lord Jesus, and receive Him. Whether or not you understand redemption or justification is secondary. As long as you receive Him, you will gradually understand everything. Eat Him first, then talk about everything else later. This can be compared to the food that we eat every day. We do not understand all the nutrition contained in it. But when we eat all the different foods, we receive all the nutrition.
(The Vision of the Divine Dispensing and Guidelines for the Practice of the New Way, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
