The Dispensations
By Hazel I. Brown
The
Grace Dispensation is the one in which we live. "If you have heard of
the dispensation of the Grace of God ... "(Ephesians 3 :2). Though this
Grace Dispensation is now 1900 years old, still today, so many seem not
to have heard! you should go to 10,000 doors and ask if they had heard,
how many would tell you, "yes "?
What
is God's offer for this Grace Dispensation? The offer is individual
salvation oll'the sole basis of depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ,
His work, not yours! Please read Romans 4:5 several times and think:
what does it say? "To him that worketh not but believeth on HIM
that..justifies the ungodly,-his- faith is counted, for righteousness."
(Justified means given a righteous standing.) Justification and
reconciliation for the alienated, for the ungodly. is offered free, .no
works involved, nothing to payor to do (2 Corinthians 5:19, 20). That is
the AMAZING GRACE OF G0D!
How
many hundreds of people I've talked to who said, "Oh, if only I could
know if I've done enough (works, charities, rituals, etc.)." Of course
you have not; no one has; it's not that way at all; Heaven is not up for
trade! It is by GRACE only.
any say,. you make it too simple,. or it's not that easy, I reply: when
you add law-keeping, you make it too hard, in fact, you make it utterly
impossible! For the Lord is not receiving any on the basis of human
works in this Dispensation. If any think some works or rituals are
involved for them to do for salvation or to keep salvation, they are
trusting in works and not in the Lord Jesus Christ only, and so they are
still lost. Any who trust in works, that is, think that salvation is by
some human work or partly by some human works or goodnesses, are under
the curse (Galatians 3:10).
Salvation
is not part law and part grace, not part your works and part Christ's.
Works and grace, being opposites, are not to be mixed (Romans 11 :6).
For by Grace are you save by believing, Ephesians 2:8,9. Not by works of
righteousness which we do (Titus 3:5). There are 147 Scriptures
passages that teach salvation by believing only.
Grace
is the only hope for the guilty. Grace is the -gift for beggars-for
those who recognize themselves condemned by the Law. Some say
spiritually bankrupt, but bankrupt implies you once had something; so it
is even more the realization-not only I have nothing, but I never had a
thing to merit God's acceptance. Have you so realized yourself?
Though
Grace is free, it is not "cheap." It cost all the Lord suffered to make
salvation possible for you. Those who think they should be accepted by
their works or partly by their works are insulting the work the Lord
did, for they are saying it was not enough, not sufficient. God saves by
Grace because He is satisfied that the work on the cross was
sufficient, and by it every claim against you has been paid. Why aren't
you, likewise, satisfied with a salvation by Grace?
The
saved person of this Dispensation 'is one' who, seeing himself as a
sinner, has believed on the Lord for salvation and who, because of
having believed, knows: I have believed on the Lord and I know I am
thereby saved.
Since
salvation is by Grace, it is completely secure (John 3: 16; Romans
8:35-39). How life may be lived after one is saved is given in another
chapter. Works pleasing to the Lord are possible after one is saved, the
works flowing from the salvation already possessed (but it is not doing
works to try to attain to salvation-there is a whole world of
difference).
The
Law was given to Israel; the Announcement and the Offer of the Kingdom
were to IsraeL In the Dispensation -of Grace, to WHOM is the offer made?
The offer of salvation by GRACE is open to all, Gentiles and Jews. In
this Dispensation, there is no difference for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22,23). At Israel's fall the Nation
became in the same class as the Gentile nations, that is, alienated from
God. If a Jew is saved, it is by depending on the Lord's death on the
cross for him. If a Gentile Is saved, it is by the same way. The
responsibility to believe is personal; the offer today is to
individuals. No one has a priority. There is equal opportunity for
Gentiles and for Jews to be saved.
In
the previous 2000 years before the Grace Dispensation began, the only
way a Gentile could come to the Lord was on the "skirt" (Zech. 8:23)--we
would say "coattail"--of a Jew, that is by becoming a proselyte to the
Hebrew religion. Also previous to the Dispensation of Grace, some work
was required as well as faith for salvation. For instance, Abel and Noah
did the required works (see Hebrews 11:4,7, for explanation of the
Genesis record). Under the Law Dispensation, it was obvious works were
required constantly. And in the periods.of the Announcement and the
Offer of the Kingdom, there were works to do including a law ritual. So
the Dispensation of Grace was a complete change from anything that had
gone before. As the Law Dispensation with its continual sacrifices, "do
or be cut off," was entirely different from what was offered before it,
so the Grace Dispensation is entirely different from what went before-no
works at all for salvation.
"The
only chapter to be interested in is the one on Grace for that's what I
need," a friend said on hearing of the prospects of this book. So say we
all. However, Grace is appreciated the more as we see mankind's
complete failure under all the other dispensations. The unique'" jewel
of Grace shines all the brighter against the background of mankind's
failure under the other offers God made previous to the offer of Grace.
It is serious error when the offers of other Dispensations are preached
in this Dispensation of Grace .. Some may preach good things but if
salvation by Grace is omitted, it is the "fatal omission." By
inspiration, Paul wrote that even though an angel from Heaven preach any
other gospel unto you than that which he, Paul, preached, let him be
accursed (Galatians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 11:14,15).
The
Grace Dispensation was not prophesied. ("What if' Israel had accepted
that bonafide. offer by Peter? The prophesied tribulation could have
come and passed swiftly and be followed immediately by the Millennium.
The Gentiles would have been blessed, hear of salvation, through Israel,
rather than now apart from Israel.)
The
Grace Dispensation was "hidden." It was a "sacred secret," a mystery
made known to Paul by revelations (Ephesians 3:2-5; Colossians 1:24-26;
Galatians 1:1,11,12 and 2:2,7,9).
The
word mystery ( secret) means God "kept His mouth closed" about this'
until He revealed it to Pau1. Paul (Saul) who had been the leader
against the Messianic church, was saved in Acts 9. Then by abundant
revelations from the Lord in glory he was made the leader of the new
Dispensation (Romans 11: 13). Salvation by Grace alone was not
proclaimed until Paul made it known. Paul did not learn about Grace from
the 12 Apostles. They learned from him, and later Peter told people to
grow in the thing Paul taught-Grace. "Grow in Grace" (2 Peter 3:18).
At
Israel's rejection of King and Kingdom, what a hopeless predicament the
whole world was in! For since Israel was God's witness to the" world,
how could anyone come to God now that Israel would be set aside as the
Gentiles had been? What utter darkness the whole world would have been
plunged into-except that then God revealed the "sacred secret" of the
heretofore hidden Dispensation of Grace.
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