Divine Life

Rev. Asa Mahan, D.D.

Chapter 6

THE DISPENSATIONS.

BY REV. A. LOWREY, D.D.

"Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." Hosea vi. 3

THE gracious dispensations of God to men, like the antecedent plan of redemption, are progressive and ever brightening. Beginning with the twilight of vague, obscure revelation, it steadily advances like the morning light until it broadens into the splendours and perfections of Gospel day. Each successive revelation grows less typical and more didactic and intellectual-less national, and more personal-less ceremonial and outward, and more interior and directly, saving-less prophetic and remote, and more promissory and immediate-less earthly, material and sensuous, and more Divine, spiritual and life-giving.

This gradual development of the Divine preparations, looking directly to the simplicities of the Gospel, and the holiness which it provides for and requires, finds its correspondences in nature everywhere. It is like the dawn of day coming out of the womb of midnight, and proceeding to a high noon. It is like the germ in seeds that begins to swell, and then send forth plants and trees that cover the earth with verdure and beauty. It is like the recondite process of human existences which begin with the mysterious quickening of the embryonic germ, and then developes into the conscious state, then into manhood and maturity, stopping not until it dominates the world and fills the earth with the brilliancy of its genius. So with the dispensations. They begin with the bud of incipient preparations founded upon the prior plans and purposes of mercy and grace in the Eternal Mind, but go on unfolding leaf and flower until the earth is made gay with the blush of their full bloom, and rich and sweet with the redolence of their inexhaustible fragrance. Generically considered, there are but two dispensations-a dispensation of law, and a dispensation of grace. But under these general heads there are several subdivisions called covenants, promises, revelations, visions and prophecies. These have been periodically bestowed to amplify and spiritualise religion.

The beginning of legal dispensation was the requirement delivered to our first parents that they should not "eat" of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Gen. ii, 17. This was adapted to responsible beings in a state of rectitude. In that case nothing but obedience was necessary to secure the continuance of the Divine favour, and obedience then came easily within the possibilities of natural ability. It therefore involved no promise of grace. The next and most prominent dispensation of law was the Ten Commandments, or Decalogue. This was given after the disability of the fall had smitten the race, but in itself contained no provision for, or proffer of help. And yet compliance must have necessitated a certain pre-appropriation of the merits of the promised Saviour. In this way the law began early to be a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, in whom help and healing would be abundant. The spirit and principles of the decalogue were afterwards expanded into the Levitical code and diffused through the preceptive parts of the prophesies, and finally transferred with increasing stringency and exactitude to the Gospel. The Gospel, therefore, is no less a code of laws than a covenant of mercy. It no less provides for high morality and perfect holiness, than it requires such excellence. That teaching is most faulty which represents the attainment of holiness as optional, or as a state simply to be aimed at-a mere privilege which it is well to embrace. It is more. It is a duty, it is heaven's all-comprising requirement. It has all the binding force and penal sanction of law. "Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Heb. xii., 14. And this legal aspect of the Divine dispensation has steadily pointed, like the needle to the pole, to personal purity. Down through the ages the exactions have multiplied and become more explicit, rigorous and comprehensive. It is now the indispensable condition of full acceptance, the necessary enduement to give to service the highest efficiency, and the quality and image without which no man can ever enjoy the beatific vision of God. All who enter heaven must first "wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb." Rev. vii. 14. This gracious dispensation of God received its first enunciation in the obscure promise, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. iii. 15. Here the conflict between holiness and sin was first waged. It was a declaration of war on the part of God and in the name of Jesus. It was also a prediction and assurance that the seed of the woman should triumph. Thus six thousand years ago the antagonism of sin and holiness was established. From that day to this the artillery of truth and righteousness bas gleamed and pealed along the whole line of the ages against sin. Nor is this a war of mere subjugation-it is a war of extermination. Nor can there be any perfect peace until this enemy is swept from the soul by the Divine bosom of destruction. As the Lord commanded the barbarous tribes of Canaan to be entirely destroyed that there might be peace and uncorrupted worship in the land among His chosen people, so God originally decreed, not the abatement, but the destruction of the works of Satan. This purpose he indicated by aiming the blow at the serpent's head, or the seat of sinful life.

Again, the dispensation of grace was announced more distinctly and full to Abraham: "And in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed." Gen. xxii. 18. This covenant of mercy was enlarged, defined, and diversified in the repeated promises of a Saviour in the Jewish ceremonial, and in the more spiritual definite promises of the prophets.

Finally, it opened up like a rose bursting into full bloom in the glory of the Gospel dispensation. And as the successive instalments of truth were made known, the spiritual element became more and more prominent and pervasive, and the design of focalizing all the fires and forces of religion on the heart, and making it the chief object of purification and culture, became manifest. But when the great orb of Christianity rose, a conversion took place, which caused nearly all the material and outward in worship to slough off. Types and symbols, ceremonials and circumcision, animal sacrifices and bloody baptisms, feasts and offerings, priests and prophets, tinsel and show, all disappear. It is a sublimation that excludes all the grossness and crudity of former dispensations. The whole of religion was resolved into pure truth, simple faith, perfect love, and spiritual worship.