Hello Friends!
Welcome to a new 7-part Daily Devotions
series titled The Seven Dispensations:
Man's Failure & God's Grace. This exciting series
will investigate the eternal timeline of God’s creation and His perfect plan
for salvation. Please join us as we diligently search the Scriptures to rightly
divide the Word of Truth:
Be diligent to present yourself
approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
word of truth – 2
Timothy 2:15
The Holy Scriptures divide time – the entire
period from the creation of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis to the "new
heaven and a new earth" promised to all believers in the book of
Revelation – into seven unequal periods, usually titled dispensations (see Ephesians 3:2). These periods are also referred to as “ages” (see Ephesians 2:7). They are also referred to as “days” as in "day of
the Lord".
These time periods are “dissected” within the
Scriptures by changes in God's method of dealing with mankind – or a portion of
mankind – in respect of two aspects of man:
- Man’s Sin
- Man's Responsibility
Each of the dispensations may be regarded as a
new test of the natural man – each of which ends in God’s divine judgment –
marking man’s utter and complete failure in every dispensation. Five of these
dispensations, or periods of time, have been fulfilled; we are living in the
sixth – probably toward its close – and have before us the seventh, and last:
The Millennial Kingdom.
The changing order, from one dispensation to the
next, demonstrates again and again man's sinful condition and need for
salvation. However, contrary to a common misunderstanding, the various
dispensations do not represent differing ways of salvation. As the Scriptures
clearly reveal, personal salvation has always been by Grace alone, through
Faith alone. In Jesus Christ alone. Throughout all ages, the basis of salvation
is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The means of access to Salvation
is faith. The object of faith is God. The content of faith depends on the
revelation given by God for that time. The essential elements, running
throughout all ages are:
- The substitutionary blood sacrifice
- The promised Seed – the Savior
The Seven Dispensations: #1 – Man Innocent
INNOCENCE
This dispensation extends from the creation of
Adam in Genesis 2:7 to the expulsion from Eden. Adam – created innocent and
ignorant of good and evil – was placed in the garden of Eden with his wife,
Eve, and put under responsibility to abstain from the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. The dispensation of innocence resulted in the first
failure of man and in its far-reaching effects – eternally disastrous. It
closed in God’s divine judgment: "So He drove out the man."
Summary Principle:
Therefore, just as through one
man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all
men, because all sinned – Romans 5:12
Opening Event – God creates man:
Then God said, “Let Us make man
in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth
and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in
His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created
them – Genesis 1:26-27
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being… And they
were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed – Genesis
2:7 & 25
Man’s Responsibility – Believe & Obey:
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the
garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of
every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you
eat of it you shall surely die” – Genesis 2:15-17
Man’s Failure – Innocence Lost:
So when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable
to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband
with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew
that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves
coverings – Genesis 3:6-7
Man’s Tendency – Away from God:
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him,
“Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was
afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself” – Genesis
3:9-10
Closing Event – Judgment ~ Expelled
from Eden:
Then to Adam He said, “Because
you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I
commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for
your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns
and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the
field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the
ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall
return” – Genesis 3:17-19
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has
become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand
and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of
Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and
He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which
turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life – Genesis
3:22-24
Personal Salvation – By Grace through Faith ~ Substitutionary
sacrifice:
~ The blood of the Lamb:
Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and
clothed them – Genesis 3:21
~ The promise of the
Seed:
And I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise His heel” – Genesis 3:15
And Adam knew his wife again,
and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for
me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed” – Genesis
4:25
Thank you for reading! Don’t miss next week’s edition as we
investigate Dispensation #2 – CONSCIENCE…
May the Lord Jesus Christ continue to bless you with His perfect
love, mercy and grace!
Keep looking up and sharing the Gospel while there is still time… Hallelujah
and Maranatha – come quickly Lord Jesus!
Blessings!
Shane <><
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