The highest purpose of God for the church is that all things would be headed up in Christ through the church (Eph. 1:10).
God’s purpose for the church is threefold: to have the divine sonship for God’s corporate expression, to subdue God’s enemy by being the display of God’s multifarious wisdom, and to cooperate with God for all things to be headed up in Christ through the church.
Firstly, God’s purpose for the church is to have the divine sonship in full through sanctification for the corporate expression of God. God wants to dispense Himself into us as life and make us sons of God in full, reaching full maturity in life for full sonship to be God’s corporate expression. For this, we need to remain in the process of sanctification to be brought into the full sonship.
Secondly, God’s purpose for the church is to subdue God’s enemy by displaying His wisdom through the church. God’s wisdom is Christ Himself, who wants to be dispensed and constituted into us to make us His enlargement and manifestation corporately so that we may display His wisdom to the entire universe and defeat His enemy.
Thirdly, the highest peak, the highest purpose of God for the church, is to head up all things in Christ: the things in the heaven and the things on the earth, in Him.
Positively, the church expresses Christ, and negatively, the church makes known the multifarious wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies to defeat God’s enemy.
Because the universe is in a heap of collapse, the whole universe needs to be headed up. Because of Satan’s rebellion and man’s rebellion, death, darkness, and confusion came in. But our wonderful Triune God as the all-inclusive Christ comes in as the life-giving Spirit to bring in life, light, order, harmony, and oneness in the entire universe.
In the fullness of the times, all things will be headed up in Christ; until then, we as the church need to cooperate with Christ so that through the church all things would be brought under Christ as the Head.
Unto the Economy of the Fullness of the Times, to Head up All Things in Christ (Eph. 1:10)
One of the deepest and highest verses in the Bible is Eph. 1:10 which says,
Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.
God purposed in Himself an economy, a dispensation, to head up all things in Christ at the fullness of the times. When the new heaven and the new earth come after all the dispensations of God in all the ages have been completed, that will be the fullness of the times, and at that time all things will be headed up in Christ.
We need to realize that in eternity past God purposed a plan, and according to His plan He created the universe with the heavens, the earth, the animals, the plants, the birds, the fish, and millions of items. Then, He created man as the center of the universe to be a vessel to contain God for God’s purpose.
God’s purpose is related to man, and God will fulfill His purpose through a corporate man. In the New Testament age this corporate man is the church who expresses God corporately by having the full sonship and defeats the enemy by being the display of God’s multifarious wisdom.
Through the church, God will head up all things in Christ. God’s desire is to head up all things in Christ through the church at the fullness of the times, and He does it through the dispensing of His life and nature into us.
This matter of “dispensation” doesn’t refer only to an age or to how God deals with man in a certain age. Dispensation refers to God’s dispensing of Himself into His chosen people to fulfill His purpose.
Throughout ages God had different ways of dispensing Himself into His chosen people, and the purpose was to head up all things in Christ through the church.
Right now Christ is dispensing Himself into our being in a very sweet and pleasant way as life, and He transmits Himself as Head over all things to make us the Body of Christ to be one with Him for the heading up of all things in Christ.
Enjoying the Dispensing of God’s Abundant Life Supply to be Freed from Death and to be Headed up in Christ
Throughout history many Christian scholars and Bible students have studied the matter of “dispensation” in Eph. 1:10 and 3:2, 9, and their best conclusion was that a dispensation is an age (like the age of the law, the age of grace, etc) and the way God deals with people during a particular period of time.
For example, during the dispensation of conscience God dealt with man in a certain way, and then in the age of human government, He dealt with them in a different way.
But the deepest understanding of this word “dispensation” is that it refers to God’s dispensing, God’s act of dispensing Himself into His people. According to His purpose, God has a stewardship, a dispensing of Himself into man to fulfill His heart’s desire.
Every house has a certain stewardship or arrangement so that things would work smoothly and so that order and peace to be there. Just as a mother may tell a misbehaving child, “If you don’t behave, there will be no breakfast for you!”, so in God’s economy He controls us and heads us up not by His governmental judgement but by His sweet dispensation.
In God’s sweet dispensing of Himself into us there’s a kind of administration, a heading up, and an intimate service. As we receive the abundant supply of the Triune God as the life factor, we rise up from any death and we are attached to the Body of Christ.
As we enjoy the abundant life supply of the Triune God, we rise up from any death situation and we’re attached to the other members of the Body for the oneness and testimony of the Triune God.
We simply need to remain under God’s dispensing, having the element of God with His life and nature being wrought into our being.
As God’s element is dispensed into us, the factor of life is ministered into our being and we are delivered from death, corruption, darkness, and confusion, and we are brought into God’s life, light, incorruption, and oneness for God to head up all things in Christ.
May we be those who cooperate with the Triune God today to be headed up in Christ by receiving God’s sweet and pleasant dispensing, so that through the church Christ can head up all things.
The way we can be freed from death and division is by being under God’s dispensing; God’s dispensing brings in the factor of life that releases us from death and division, and makes us one with the other members of the Body under Christ as the Head of the Body.
Lord Jesus, keep us under Your sweet and pleasant divine dispensing today. Head us up by dispensing Yourself into us to bring in the factor of life and deliver us from any death, corruption, darkness, and confusion. Lord Jesus, we open to You to receive the abundant life supply of the Triune God so that we may rise up from any death situation and be attached to and made one with all the members of the Body under Christ as the Head. Oh Lord, head us up in the church so that You may have a way to head up all things through the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians (msgs. 8-9), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 3 / msg 3, God’s Purpose for the Church (3) – To Head Up All Things in Christ.
- Picture credit for Ephesians 3:2 and more spiritual quotes via, Christian Pictures Blog.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God’s service in this dispensation / Requires that man should work with Him; / Thus God and man in close relation / And joint dependence work therein. (Hymns #740)
# God’s dispensing, His economy, / In His Trinity, / He’s transfusing, and He’s mingling / All He is to me. (Song on God’s dispensing)
# Through God’s dispensing, abundance of grace, / Christ’s saving life will reign and death displace; / God’s holy nature, our life sanctifies, / His saving life soon, our life glorifies. (Song on Receiving God’s Dispensing)
“Satan’s injection has no administration or stewardship because he subtly injects himself into us. But God is working Himself into His chosen ones by a sweet, intimate stewardship. Paul’s ministry was such a stewardship. It was a model of the stewardship of grace, of the dispensing of God as grace into His chosen ones. By this dispensation of grace, the dispensing of God Himself as our enjoyment, the factor of life is ministered into the chosen ones. As the life factor gets into them, they are raised up and attached to Christ in the Body. This is the dispensation that heads up all things in Christ.
God’s way to head us up is to work Himself as the factor of life into us that we may rise up and be attached to one another….Through this dispensation, the life factor is ministered to all the members of the church that they may rise up and be attached in the Body. This is the heading up in Christ.” (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 90-91, 86-88, by Witness Lee)
Amen. The dispensation of the grace of God is God’s dispensing of Himself into us, His chosen vessels, that we in turn would be dispenser of this grace, into the other members of the Body of Christ, for the building up of itself, the church, in love. Amen.