Let me emphasize, I interpret dispensations as periods of time in human history dispensed by God. I do not consider isolated events, like the Ascension of Christ, to be a dispensation. The Ascension of Christ occurred just prior to the beginning of the Church Age in the Age of Israel (two different dispensations). As such, the ascension was part of the Age of Israel, but not a dispensation in itself.
Having laid the groundwork, let's look at these dispensations.
In the five days preceding the creation of man God created and, after each instance, declared that what He had made was "good". There was no evil or confusion in the world, nothing to mar the beauty of creation. But God did not declare creation very good until after mankind was created. Why is that?
First, creation was not complete in God's plan until man was created. The Bible teaches that God is omniscient, so He knew when He put man in the Garden that Adam would fall. He knew this, and from eternity past elected the Son to one day bear the brunt of our sins. You might ask, "If God knew that we would fall, why even create us in the first place?". The only answer to this question is because He wanted to create us, because we were in His eternal plans concerning creation. Until man was made creation was only "good", but after our creation it was "very good".
Man was God's signature on the work of creation, the final flourish to let all who viewed it know who it's Author was. We were created in the image of God:
Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
We are His living signatures, the part of creation made to be the expression of God on the earth. The Hebrew word for image is TSELEM, which means "something created as if from a mold, a reproduction that bears a likeness to the original". Adam was created sinless, sanctified, righteous in God's eyes. He reflected the holiness of God. Just as God has free-will, Adam was given a will totally free of restraints. Of course, man's will was under the control of his own appetites (like hunger and sleep) whereas God's will was unrestrained by such limits. Yet man's will had, of yet, come to the state where it was enslaved to any outside sources (like sin).
God took Adam and placed him in the middle of a Garden full of luscious fruit, an infinite variety of things to eat and do. Man should have been happy with this, but the one thing he was restricted from taking (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), this he wanted.
Genesis 2: 8-17 "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
The pact made between God and man in the Garden is known as the Edenic Covenant. Man was given authority and use over all creation save one tree; he was forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. One small exception should not have caused any problems. Man was given a glorious endowment, absolute freedom, a perfect wife, and simple guidelines for obedience. It should have been easy.
1 Corinthians 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
Since God made the Edenic Covenant with Adam, Adam was the Federal head of creation. When this Federal head disobeyed and partook of the one forbidden fruit, not only he, but the entire creation plunged into the abyss of sin. Man's offspring followed in the same spiritual death, a will to disobey rather than to obey God. Man came into a state of being that John Calvin called total depravity. What do we mean by total depravity?
When we talk about total depravity, we do not mean absolute depravity. Total depravity means that everything man does prior to salvation is inherently sinful, whereas absolute depravity means that everything man does is externally evil.
Most men never reach a state of absolute depravity, though all unsaved men dwell in total depravity. Why did mankind as a whole enter a state of total depravity? When Adam fell, he introduced sin like a disease into the human race. This disease so permeates mankind that the Scripture states:
Psalms 14:3 "They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
Psalms 53:3 "Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
Romans 3:12 "They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
Mankind has two possible responses outside of God: Either
he does outwardly evil, breaking the laws of God and of man, or he inwardly
does evil while outwardly appearing to be righteous and moral. Adam had
a conscience that led him to act morally, and convicted him after he sinned,
making him hide from God (Genesis 3.8). But the conscience of man can be
hardened
by sin until it reaches a point of absolute depravity. This is
what triggered the Lord to bring a catastrophic flood on the whole earth
in the days of Noah.
When Noah came out of the Ark, the commission that God gave to him was nearly parallel to that which was given to Adam. Man was still given authority over creation, but now that authority was tempered by the sin that man introduced into creation. Whereas before man exercised dominion and ate of the Garden, now man exercises dominion and eats of both vegetables and animals.
Sin always brings a harsh tempering to whatever it touches. Adam ruled to animals in peace and tranquility before the fall, but Noah established rule by brute strength and fear. Adam ruled the animals and protected them from death, whereas Noah ruled the animals in order to feed from among them. Adam was to reproduce so that his progeny would rule the world in peace, whereas Noah reproduced so his progeny could rule the earth by force.
Both the Adamic and Noahic covenants were righteous, for they were enacted by a righteous God, but one was best and the other was second best. God often offers us the best, yet we reject it because of sin and have to settle for the second best. This is true in your life, it is true in mine. Had man accepted and clung to God's best (the Garden of Eden) we would have all prospered, yet we rejected the best for the second best (Noah).
Did the Noahic flood bring any lasting change on mankind?
Well, man, through a hardened conscience, turned farther and farther away
from God into absolute depravity. The Noahic flood was a chance to purge
this depravity from humanity, to re-direct man's focus back to God. Yet
later at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) God had to confuse man's language
because, once more, man moved into absolute depravity, seeking to usurp
God. The Noahic flood was a surgical procedure by God to eradicate depravity
like a cancer from among His creation, but He knew that this was, at best,
a temporary solution. Sin cannot be controlled from the outside, but must
be controlled from within the heart. Man must be willing
to change for the change to be successful.
Genesis 12:1-3 "Now the
LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will
make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;
and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee,
and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed."
In order to effect permanent change in mankind God had to plant a seed in a people. This was not something that God just one day "discovered" to be true, but He knew it from the start. He chose a people to be stewards of His Word, a people from which one day He would incarnate His Son.
God called this people according to His provisions of Grace, not according to their talents or predisposition to righteousness. It is evident that Abram knew God, and was faithfully serving Him as best he knew how. Yet Abram shows no particular holiness that sets him out above his peers. Abram did have a remarkable degree of faith, for when God told him to get up and leave his home place, Abram did so without hesitation. Abram believed..
Genesis 22:16-18 "And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."
Genesis 15:8-18 "And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:"
In Genesis 12.1-3 God called Abram and "pre-promised" the Abrahamic Covenant to come. Abram only had to get up and leave his homeland in order to inherit this blessing. Abram's response to the call conditioned when the blessings would start, yet he only had to give a positive response in order to be blessed.
The Abrahamic Covenant gave Abram personal, national, and spiritual blessings:
Romans 9:7-11 "Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)"
Ishmael was the child born of the flesh, born because of Sarah's faithlessness, but Isaac was born from Sarah, the child of Promise. The child of promise was the line that God desired, a line that would one day be known as Israel, the promised nation, but the child Ishmael would also be a great nation, the Arab nations.
Genesis 21: 13-19 "And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink."
The entire world, whether Jew or Gentile, were blessed through the Abrahamic Covenant. The Jew and Arab were blessed with greatness as direct descendants of Abram. The remaining Gentile nations were blessed, for Jesus Christ came out of Israel to bless all who believe with eternal life. God truly honored His word when He promised, And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
The Abrahamic Covenant was a conditional covenant in the sense that Abram had to obey the calling of God, but once granted was truly unconditional. In the Genesis 15.8-13 passage we see that God had Abram cut several animals in half, with the exception of the turtle dove and the pigeon. In the Old Testament when two people wanted to make a covenant with each other, they cut the animal in half and both walked between the two halves. This was to signify that both parties swore to the oath that they would not break the covenant until death parted them. Yet in the Abrahamic Covenant we see:
Genesis 15:17 "And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces."
.. only God walked between the two halves of the animals. When God walked between the two halves He never indicated that He expected Abram to do the same. God alone promised. The entire fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant was on God alone, not on Abram.
Jeremiah 31:35-37 "Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD."
The promises of the Abrahamic Covenant are eternal, for
they are totally established by God, irrevocable and without change. Those
promises will be fulfilled in their entirety, regardless
as to the obedience or disobedience of Israel. Israel's spiritual state
conditions the time of the covenant's fulfillment, but does not ever negate
the covenant which God, in Grace, gave to Abram.
The ten commandments were the foundation of the Mosaic Covenant and Law:
Exodus 24:12 "And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them."
Exodus 20: 1-17 "And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's."
These commandments were given to the nation Israel to
guard, protect, and obey. The commandments were based on
two absolute concepts of behavior. First, the commandments listed the duties
of man to the True God. Specifically, we were to:
Matthew 22:36-40 "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
The ten commandments all boil down to one point: love. Love God, love your neighbor. Treat both God and your neighbor the way you would want to be treated. The righteousness of God is only reflected from our lives when we exercise love both upward and outward, both Godward and manward.
Though the Law was given to Israel, it was issued to all mankind. Israel became stewards of the Law, but all were to follow its tenets. God established several things when He gave the Law to Moses.
First, man was given a definite guideline by which he was to live his life. This took away our ability to say, "Well, I just never knew". This guideline not only covered the moral codes, but also enacted dietary and sacramental/ religious codes.
Second, the Law was so stringent that it soon became evident that no one could enter Heaven by following it. God's righteousness was so far above that which we, on our own, could attain that it became evident that a Saviour would have to come, or else we would be hopelessly lost.
Third, the Law established governmental codes that helped form the theocracy of Israel. Before the Law Israel was formed along lines of tribal authority, but after the Law Israel had a more cohesive governing body.
The Law, though long lived, was only temporary, only maintained until the coming of the Messiah. The Bible teaches us:
Galatians 3:23-25 "But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."
Just as God waited until the right time to send us the
Mosaic Law, He waited until just the right time to send us Jesus Christ.
We had to see the need for the Law before we could receive it, and had
to see our failures highlighted by the Law until we could receive Christ.
Thank God for the Law, and thank Him that we who believe are no longer
under it's rigid code but now under the salvation that only comes by faith
in Christ Jesus.
John 6:47-50 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die."
With the coming of Jesus a new era in man's history was revealed. The satisfaction of Christ (the fact that God was satisfied with the atonement He made for our sins) made God's Grace available to all mankind. Our relationship with God (vertical relationship) and with man (horizontal relationship) changed. These changes were radical, unprecedented in human history:
I had a discussion with a young Christian the other
day who told me that once you're saved, nothing else really matters. Not
Biblical truth - nothing. This is a foolish and shallow position to take,
but one echoed by many people who write me. Several have written me to
say "What does all this matter, and why devote a site to Bible materials.
If we're all saved, then what else matters?". Yet salvation is more than
just a "saved then forget it" proposition. At the moment of salvation the
new Christian instantly receives multiple blessings from
God. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer called these real but non experiential blessings
"The Benefits of Grace". These benefits are:
Click on the link below to go to the second part of this
study. God Bless!
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