Getting An Understanding - The Grace of God
/By Joseph L. Watkins
We have taken our title from Eph. 3:2, and we here give it to you as we find it in the Greek text:
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of the grace of the (One) God the one
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given me with a view unto you
So the best way to think about the word dispensation is to think of the message. For in all truth, the only thing about any stewardship, or dispensation, is the new message that the Lord of all truth desires that His holy saints know, understand and have faith unto.
The Grace of the One God that the Apostle Paul had received was this new message. This was, and this is, the great divine favor that Paul was given for every saint of God, in Christ Jesus. Yes, always the one all-important aspect in all of this is the message, thus the Lord has said the message, as it has come from God, is what can and does produce living faith. A true living faith can never result from my words, or any man's words. You may come to believe my words, and I hope you do, yet that is only belief, not faith. Faith can only rest upon the words of God, so read and learn the words of God. Today the message of our God is found here in these letters of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon.
Each word of truth that we find in Ephesians Paul is working to help make known this new message from God. Some of his words were written "assuming" his readers had already heard this message before, and some of his words of truth are written for those saints that he desires might come unto a true living faith in this new message from our Creator God.
In Paul's last epistle, 2 Tim. 2:15, he makes known unto all saints what we have come to understand as the divine law of right division. Using this Bible study principle, under the direction of the Spirit of all truth, we have determined that we should first pray for perhaps 5 minutes, and study His words of truth 55 minutes. And it might be best to use 5 of these study minutes in understanding the other parts of the Bible, but 50 minutes of our study time should be in seeking to know and understand these 7 epistles of Paul, for it is in these letters that we have God's truth for today. If you are to know and understand this new message, or this last message from our God, you must find it in these 7 epistles, for this great message was never recorded by any other man, and Paul never recorded one word of this message in his first 7 epistles. How could he have done that, for he only received this message after he had written his first 7 epistles, after Acts 28:28.
This is how Paul could write the most interesting words of truth that we find in Eph. 3:8:
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(was) given of the grace this (message)
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in the nations proclaiming the
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unsearchable riches of the Christ
Yes, my dear friend, if you are in Christ Jesus you are a saint, a holy child of God, and your loving heavenly Father has given the Apostle Paul a message that he was to give unto you. Now, this is not a message concerning life in Christ Jesus, but rather a message concerning your work on His behalf in the coming ages. This message is concerning His invitation unto you, this is "His calling" unto you. Read Eph.1:17&18. He wants you as part of His inheritance.
jlw
Oct. 2005, Vol. 48, No. 3
