When Paul speaks of “dispensation,” he is not referring to a system of timelines or speculative charts. The word he uses—oikonomia—means “household law,” “administration,” or “economy.” This is not a cold bureaucracy, but the living order of a Father’s house, where the riches of Christ are actively distributed to His heirs. Paul’s vision is not abstract: it is the present, practical reality of God’s household, where every need is met by the riches of Christ, and every believer is called to enjoy and live from this supply.
The Economy of God’s Household
Scripture reveals a household filled with sons and a Father whose wealth is inexhaustible. The children are not laborers earning their keep, but heirs—those for whom everything has been prepared and furnished. The health and vitality of this household depend entirely on the enjoyment of these riches by the heirs. God has established an economy—a dispensation—by which these riches are distributed, and He has appointed stewards to carry out this ministry.
Paul calls this the “stewardship of the mysteries” (1 Cor 4:1). His ministry, received by direct revelation from the ascended Christ (Gal 1:16), is to dispense the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8) to the heirs, bringing them into the “fellowship of the mystery” (Eph 3:9). This is not a ministry of law-giving, but of distributing Christ Himself as wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, clothing, hope, and spiritual nourishment (1 Cor 1:30; Rom 13:14; Col 1:27; John 6:53-57; 1 Pet 2:2). The result is that believers are equipped, nourished, and grow in all things into Christ, living by Him as their very life (Phil 1:21; Gal 2:20).
The Feast, Not the Field
The heart of this dispensation is a feast, not a field of labor. The stewards do not point the heirs to a list of demands, but to their food, their inheritance, and their supply. Service to God flows from being furnished with the riches of the household and “keeping the feast” (1 Cor 5:8; Luke 15:23, 30-32). Only by living from this supply can we serve and please God with strength and joy.
Contrast this with the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son, who thought his commandment-keeping and labor were service to the Father. In reality, only those inside the house—those enjoying the feast—were truly serving. The stewards, not the law-givers, are the ones who build up the household by distributing the riches.
What Is Lost When We Accept Legalism
If we abandon this Pauline dispensation and return to law-based service, we lose everything that makes the Christian life a present inheritance. Legalism severs believers from the enjoyment of Christ, reducing justification to a mere future hope and robbing the heirs of their sense of blessing (Gal 4:15). It points them to their own works and the old man, rather than to Christ as their life (Gal 2:19-22). The result is a futile cycle of striving, failing, and repentance—a barren labor that produces neither joy nor true service. The law is the strength of sin (1 Cor 15:56; Rom 7:5), and sowing to the flesh, even in religious zeal, reaps only corruption (Gal 6:8).
This is not a secondary matter. To accept the Galatian error is to collapse the very foundation of justification, inheritance, and sonship. It is to exchange the feast for the field, the riches of Christ for the poverty of human effort.
The Recovery of the Pauline Ministry
History bears witness to the consequences of rejecting Paul’s ministry. The church, seduced by Judaizing legalism, entered the “dark ages,” erecting systems built on law-teaching (1 Tim 1:7). Even the Reformation, while recovering justification by faith, left believers under the law as a rule of life, perpetuating the cycle of repentance without enjoyment.
It was into this context of re-enslaved Protestantism that God raised up the dispensationalists—not to invent something new, but to recover Paul’s full ministry. They restored the truth that we are not under law, but under grace; that the church is a heavenly mystery, not revealed to the prophets; that our life is Christ Himself, supplied as our present inheritance. Though they did not always speak of the feast and the enjoyment of the riches, they laid the groundwork for a clearer proclamation today.
The True Meaning of Dispensationalism
Pauline dispensationalism is not a system of speculation. It is the stewardship and distribution of Christ’s riches to believers as their present inheritance, enabling them to live by grace and enjoy God’s household. It is the ministry that points every believer to the table, not the treadmill; to the feast, not the field; to Christ, not to self. This is the only ministry that builds up the Body of Christ—the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Eph 1:23)—and fulfills God’s eternal purpose.
To accept any other dispensation is to forfeit the riches, the enjoyment, and the very life of Christ. The choice is stark: either the supply of grace, or the futility of law. There is no middle ground. The household of God is ordered around the dispensation of Christ Himself. Anything less is not Christianity, but a return to bondage.
