Well, that would be a surprise not only to the apostle Paul. But, to Jesus as well. Because Jesus Himself gave us the distinction between dispensations more than once. Between how God dealt with men when He was here on earth. Through a prophet as Heb.1:1 says God did. And that which Paul refers to as the dispensation of the grace of God.
We see this when Jesus said, “5 But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?
6 But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”
See how Jesus says I must go away. Because if I don’t the Holy Spirit can not come. Here He shows the difference between the dispensation, or administration as some like to translate it, when God spoke through prophets to the people when He was here on earth. And that which we are currently living in. When Jesus by the Holy Spirit speaks to men.
The difference is that Jesus was the teacher during the dispensation prior to and when He was here on earth. Speaking to Moses on the mount. And to the prophets who spoke to Israel. But, now the Holy Spirit is the teacher.
Jesus tells us this when He said, “13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”
So there you have it. Dispensationalism taught by Jesus Himself. And as we continue to read what Paul said in regard to this we find that what Jesus said has come to pass just as He said it would.
In Acts 1 Jesus also said to the disciples, “7 It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.”
Here we see Jesus once again making a distinction between the dispensation He lived in. And that which would come after He was gone and the Holy Spirit came. Speaking to the disciples of “times and seasons” the Father has predetermined to do what must be done in those times and seasons to implement and carry out His plan for mankind. A plan Peter tells us God made before He made the world.
Telling His disciples in the next dispensation they would be filled with and led by the Holy Spirit. And that this filling would be for the purpose of equipping them to be His witnesses. First to their own families. Then to surrounding areas. And finally to the rest of the world. Something they were never told to do in the former dispensation, ie times or seasons.
Then just as Jesus said would happen, He left. He was “taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” Fulfilling what He told them in John16 so that the Holy Spirit could now come to lead and guide them in the truth. This is why Paul tells us in Rom.8:14 that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.“
And this leading that happens on the inside of every believer now. A leading of the Spirit of God who is speaking with our spirit that was created in us when we trusted in Jesus. Was before only possible by hearing prophets and the law who spoke and were able to lead only by external means.
This is true because before Jesus came men were only natural, not spiritual. But, after Jeus came men could be born again of the Spirit of God.
New Covenant believers have “Christ in us the hope of glory.” Because the Holy Spirit in us assures our eternal inheritance. Being “sealed unto the day of redemption” by The Holy Spirit’s indwelling.
And here we see concrete evidence for distinctions in God’s ministry toward men, ie dispensations, when we see a change of teachers. From Jesus in the Old Testament. To the Holy Spirit in the New. And interestingly enough we see a return to Jesus being the teacher again in Rev.2,3 during the great tribulation .
Jesus teaching in the Old how men were dealt with before the law. And how Israel was to be dealt with as they lived under the law. Contrasted with the Holy Spirit giving Paul a message of grace during this dispensation that was not only a message that said salvation would be for the Gentiles also. But, also that this salvation would make of the believing Jew and believing Gentile “one new man”. Eph.2:15. A spiritual man that never existed before.
And in the New Covenant Jews and the rest of the nations are no longer separated by the wall of partition that was the law of commandments written in stone. Because Col.2:14 tells us that those laws were nailed to the cross with Jesus.
So that during this dispensation there would no longer be Jew and gentile. But, that through faith in Jesus they would be God’s called out ones. His ecclesia. Paul said it this way, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” This is His ecclesia. “A new creature” according to 2Cor.5:17 that never existed before in any other dispensation.
This is what Paul was teaching them when he wrote in Eph.3, “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.”
So it is that only in this dispensation is there a man who not only has the natural flesh and blood Adam had when God made him. But, would now be spiritual by being “born again”. Yet another reference to different dispensations or administrations Jesus made in John3.
Here Jesus told Nicodemus that when men are born from their mother’s womb they are only flesh. Saying, “6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” Not should be, and not might be, but MUST be born again. Because this is the only way a man is equipped by God to inherit God’s kingdom.
Jesus says also here in reference to this new birth, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” So that Nicodemus might understand that the birth that takes place when a mother’s water breaks is only a flesh birth. And that with only this water birth a man can not enter into the kingdom of God.
And that only by the creation of a spirit in man that was never in any man before Jesus came can he inherit the kingdom of God. A new birth that was not possible during any dispensation before Jesus’ death and resurrection. But, was only made possible by His death and resurrection.
Paul restates what Jesus said in 1Cor.15:50 saying that “flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God.” But, during the dispensation of grace by the spirit God creates in us when we trust in Jesus this is possible.
And… this is the “greater miracles than these” you shall do than I have done that Jesus was talking about in John14:12. Why? Jesus said it was because He goes to the Father. Why? Because His leaving made it possible for the Holy Spirit to begin His ministry called the dispensation of the grace of God.
This is also why we see Jesus speaking to the 7 churches in Rev.2,3. After 2,000 years of the Holy Spirit leading and teaching men the truth. And reproving the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Now we suddenly see Jesus speaking to His people again.
Why? Because as Paul references in Rom.11 this shows a return to finish Daniel’s 70th week. A return to the dispensation of the law as believers are characterized in rev.14:12 as those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
What else did Jesus say would happen when He goes away? He said the Holy Spirit would come to lead the ecclesia in the truth. He would “guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”
Notice the Holy Spirit does exactly what Jesus said He was doing when He was here ministering to Israel. Jesus said that He only did and said what the Father told Him to do and say. Which is exactly what Jesus says the Holy Spirit will do with what Jesus tells Him.
This shows a consistent message regarding salvation and what creates man’s need for it. That it has always been because man is natural and not spiritual since the time God made Adam. And only those who are spiritual can understand and relate to the Spirit of God.
And shows that the Godhead is consistent in how they do things in the earth as one of the 3 are here working in and among men. That they receive instructions from one another as one part of the Godhead is here on earth. Very interesting that. And something to be considered in another study.
This is again why Jesus said “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Once again referring to a future dispensation when it became possible by Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension for men to be born of the Spirit of God.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit for power to be witnesses of Jesus and His love for us. Something that was never possible before Jesus came.
So now being led by the Holy Spirit the apostles taught about dispensations that only Jesus could knowingly speak of before. Saying that when the Israelite rejects Jesus he remains blinded in part. And that this blindness would remain for them until this dispensation that Paul calls here in Rom.11:25,26 the fulness of the gentiles.
Saying after this fulness has come in “26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”
So the times God has in His hands determined before He made the worlds are divided into what the apostles call dispensations. Showing here in ch.11 that when this dispensation of the grace of God will end then God will resume His dealings with Israel under the law.
But, not with sacrifices done in the temple. Those sacrifices were caused to cease with Jesus’ once for all sacrifice for sins under the law. Under the law this time includes only following Jesus just as Jesus told the rich young ruler in Mt.19.
This time is also referred to in Dan.9. When Daniel was shown a time of 70 weeks of years in which God would finish His dealings with national Israel. Saying that when messiah comes He will confirm the covenant He made with with Israel.
We know that Jesus confirms this covenant because Paul says plainly in Gal.3:17 “that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.” Showing us that it was Jesus, and not the antichrist as some teach, that “confirms the covenant” referred to in Dan.9:27.
When Jesus came it was at the end of 69 of the 70 weeks. So there was only one week of years left to be fulfilled when He came. And since His ministry only lasted 3 1/2 years before He was “cut off” by the crucifixion. There are 3 1/2 years left before the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy is fulfilled.
This final 3 1/2 years is a return to how God dealt with Israel under the law. Because the 70 weeks prophecy was for Israel while under the law. A time when God would use the Great tribulation, the time Jeremiah referred to as “the time of Jacob’s trouble”, that will remove Israel’s blindness to bring all Israel to be saved as Paul said in Rom.11.
Her blindness is removed when she sees Jesus for who He is when He returns at the end of the great trib. Just as the prophet Zachariah said in Zach.12:10, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
So to understand what is to come as we near the end of this dispensation. And to understand God’s dealings with men since the garden. We must know how to rightly divide the word of truth by seeing that the dispensational teaching as Paul taught it is Biblical. Every bit as much as Jesus taught it.
In our dispensation Paul teaches that men are saved by grace through faith not of works. While during Jesus’ He said to the rich young ruler he would have eternal life by keeping the commandments and following Him.
This shows the main distinction between the dispensation before Jesus died and the one we are currently living in. And what is to come during the great tribulation. And must be understood to be able to understand Paul’s gospel.
As he writes to both Jews who were under the law, and to gentiles, the rest of the nations, who never were. Many times going back and forth between the 2 in the same letters. As he explains salvation to both.
This is why Paul said we must “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Because by rightly dividing we will understand why God separated the times in His hands into what He calls dispensations. Administrations that were to culminate with the pinnacle “one new man” Paul preached in Eph.2.
Jesus taught dispensationally. Because the new birth was not for them at that time. But, for us now in this dispensation. All of us whether Jew or gentile. To become one new man by faith in Jesus and His resurrection.
And if you want to but have not yet come to a saving faith in Jesus to be made a part of this one new man. A never in any dispensation before existing spiritual man whose life is led by the Spirit of God. All you need to do is confess the Lord Jesus. And believe in your heart that He has raised from the dead.
Because it is with the heart man believes and is righteous. And with the mouth confession is made for salvation. For eternal life now, and immortality at the resurrection.
Do this and you will be made a child of God and heir to His kingdom. Do this and you will forever be sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption. Do this and become a part of God’s one new man by a spirit created in you by God. The new wine that is this spirit placed in the old wine bottle that is your earth suit. Do this… and I will see you there or in the air!
