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Dispensation (How God Works Among Mankind)
Meaning
Now it’s very important for us to understand that “dispensation” does not refer to salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The bedrock of the Christian faith is that salvation is only through Jesus, who is fully God, and fully man. Jesus is the eternal God of Heaven, who stepped out of eternity and took on humanity in the incarnation. And He did so in order to save us from the penalty of sin which is death. And salvation is a free gift of God for all those who place their faith in Him, for those who accept Him as their Lord and Savior.
Instead the term “dispensation” is used to try to explain how God administers His plan of redemption in His interactions with mankind. And dispensation is intended to explain how God fulfills His overarching plan of redemption here on earth with mankind. And how this relates to God’s promises and His covenants. Those which He made with His chosen people Israel and with us who have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. There are three basic ways to explain the dispensation of God and they include covenant dispensation, classical dispensation and progressive dispensation.
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth-in Him.” (Book of Ephesians 1:7-10)
“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)” (Book of Ephesians 3:1-4)
To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. (Book of Ephesians 3:8-12)
“I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.” (Book of Colossians 1:24-26)