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that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken My covenant' (Gen. 17:14). This was a Divine command
and could not be broken with impunity. Yet when we come to the epistle to the Galatians we read:
`Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing' (Gal. 5:1-2).
No believer today brings an animal sacrifice to God when he has been overtaken in a fault, but there was a time
when failure to do this would have been disobedience, which would have been directly punished by God. It was
truth in Old Testament times, but it is not true today.
Clause (1) may be termed basic or fundamental truth, and clause (2) dispensational truth. Some need to be
reminded that the word dispensation oikonomia is a Scriptural word which occurs eight times in the New Testament.
It is not a human invention. It is often confused with the word `age' and treated as though it is a period of time.
Some have taught that there are seven dispensations which they equate with time divided up into seven periods.
This is a mistake, as time, basically, does not enter into this word. Three times it is translated `stewardship' in Luke
16:2,3,4, and `edifying' in 1 Timothy 1:4, and the root idea is of one who is put in charge of the administration of a
household, an overseer or bailiff. Twice the apostle Paul declares that he had been given a dispensation (Eph. 3:2;
Col. 1:25). No period of time had been entrusted to him, but a body of truth connected with the Church, the Body of
Christ, had been committed to him by the risen and ascended Christ Jesus, and for this he was its steward or
minister, as these verses testify.
Because some have misunderstood or abused the word dispensation, this does not justify the rejection of
dispensational truth as error. In every class and society there are those who act in an unbalanced way. One might as
well reject Christianity because some have been such poor practical exponents of it. It should surely be obvious that
these two aspects of Scriptural truth must be distinguished or confusion is bound to result. Nor must one be stressed
and the other forgotten, otherwise an erroneous conception of God's Word will dominate the mind. In practice,
every one who accepts the Bible as the Word of God and the regulator of their daily life is bound to be a
dispensationalist. The very fact that such do not make any attempt to carry out animal sacrifices for sin, as
mentioned before, shows that they regard such regulations as not being truth for today, however much they believe
the Bible, and however true these commands were in the Old Testament times. The Mosaic ritual of the law was a
dispensation, or administration of Divine truth, for a limited period only, and Moses was its steward. It was not
basic for all time and has been superseded since the coming of the great Antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who has
fulfilled the type and shadow of the ceremonial law.
A practical following out of the historico-grammatical system of interpretation will assuredly lead to a
distinguishing between these two most important aspects of revealed Truth, leading to a greater clarification and
understanding of the great redemptive purpose of God. In fact it will lead to a practical realisation of what the
apostle Paul prayed for the Philippian believers, a spiritual perception enabling such to `try the things that differ'
(1:10, margin) or as the main text `approve things that are excellent'. When things differ, they do so not only in
external ways, such as shape and size, but in internal quality, and it is only by recognising and distinguishing these
that we can get the best. Abraham was a practical example of this attitude of mind. God had unconditionally given
him and his posterity an earthly inheritance (Gen. 13:14-17; 15:12-18). The Epistle to the Hebrews records by
inspiration what the Old Testament leaves out, namely that to Abraham God gave a vision of the heavenly
Jerusalem, very much as the apostle John received in Revelation 21. Chapter 11 of Hebrews describes this as a
`better country' (11:16), and a city which God has built (v. 10).
Abraham `tried the things that differ' and found what was `more excellent'. `Better' is one of the key words of
Hebrews; there are seven things described by God as `better' (Heb. 1:4; 7:7,19; 8:6; 9:23; 10:34; 11:35). If we want
the best, then we shall have to consider carefully and prayerfully the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians where
the high-water mark of revelation is reached. If Abraham had been like many Christians today, he would have failed
to distinguish between earthly and heavenly revelation, and would have missed the better things God had in view for
him.
To many, the meek who shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5), and the citizenship that now exists in the heavens
(Phil. 3:20), are all one and the same thing. The spirit of discrimination that Abraham exercised is completely