DISPENSATIONS

Introduction

To understand the dispensations is very important that we may be able to rightly divide the Word of God. The word "dispensation" comes from a compound Greek word, Oikonomia. The first part, Oikas means "house or household." The last part, nomis means law." Together it has the meaning of "law of the house." So it has the meaning of "the law of arrangement," or "to set things in order." So when we think of the dispensations, someone has management of a household, not the owner, but the manager of the household. Dispensation is also rendered "steward, or stewardship," it occurs in the Scripture five times. Lk. 12 &16.

Four times the word "dispensations" is used in Scripture: I Cor. 9:17; Col. 1:25; Eph. 1:10 & 3:2. Paul says in I Cor. 9:17-19 that the dispensation or stewardship of the gospel was committed unto Him. Paul was called to be the steward of this Church Age or dispensation. A steward is paid by the one who owns the house. God was going to be Paul's reward. There is more than one person that are stewards in this age.

In Paul's stewardship of the gospel, he poured out his life which caused afflictions in his life as we read in Col. 1:24-27. God revealed to Paul a mystery that had been hid through the ages. The word "ages" (v. 26) in the Greek is aion. We get our word "eon" from this, eons of time. It has the thought of a period of time marked out. During this Age, God has revealed things that have never been known before in any other Age, "what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

In Eph. 3:1-8, Paul calls this Church Age the dispensation of the grace of God. Of course God manifested His grace in every Age. But in this Age, God has manifested His grace more than any other time, because Jesus is the grace of God personified (Titus 2:11,12). Paul received this dispensation of the grace of God by revelation. The manifestation of grace in this age is "that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." So Jew and Gentile have been made one during this Age. Peter, James and John had not known this message of grace, it was especially given unto Paul. Jesus came unto His own, He ministered to the Jews. The Gentiles had a lesser place at the time Jesus came. In Rom. 15:16, Paul called himself the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. This gospel was fully preached among the Gentiles during Paul's ministry, Rom 15:19,20.

In Eph. 1:10 we read of the dispensation of the fulness of times. Times is plural, more than one time. The Greek word for times is kaipos and refers to previous durations before the second coming of Christ. When the fulness of all these times were come, there will be no more time, time will be full. Before God created anything, there was eternity, there was no such thing as time. Time has to do with rotation. Time is a big parenthesis in eternity.

What is God going to do in the dispensation of the fulness of times? (Eph 1:10-12) "Gather together in one all things in Christ (just think of it, all the believer from Adam until that time gathered together in one) both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ." God is going to have a people like Him, a New Creation that was predestined before the foundation of the world. We became a part of a predestined body, a New Creation when we received Jesus as our Savior.

God has divided time into seven dispensations or Ages. In each of these periods of time God tested man in a different way. God also revealed Himself in a different way in each one. In every dispensation man failed and each one ended in judgment. Five dispensations are past, one is present, and one is future.

PAST

First dispensation: The Age of Innocence - Gen. 2 & 3

Second: The Age of Conscience - Gen. 4-7

Third: The Age of Human Government - Gen. 8-11

Forth: The Age of Promise - Gen. 12 to Ex. 20

Fifth: The Age of Law - Ex. 20 to the Cross

PRESENT

Sixth: The Age of Grace - the Cross to Christ's second coming

FUTURE

Seventh: The Kingdom Age - second coming to eternity

Next issue: The Age of Innocence

by E. J. Davis