MAN IS ACCOUNTABLE TO GOD

From the day Adam was created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26), until the completion of God's plan to transform man back into His image and likeness (1 Jn. 3:2), God intended for mankind to serve Him as stewards over all of His creation, and entrusted him with His revelation.  A steward is one appointed to oversee the "administration of the distribution of another's goods.  The Greek word translated "stewardship" in Luke 16:2-4, is οἰκονομία (oikonomia), is the same Greek word translated "dispensation" in four places (1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 1:10; 3:2; Col. 1:25).  Here are the stewardships or dispensations which are clearly revealed in God's Word (some Bible scholars believe that a dispensation of governments between Noah's departure from the Ark and the dividing of nations at the Tower of Babel, and the dispensation of patriarchs from the choosing of Abraham to the giving of the Law, should be included): 
 
The Dispensation of Innocence - Gen. 1:31 - "And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."

The Dispensation of Conscience - Gen. 3:8 - "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden."

The Dispensation of the Law - Ex. 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."  This dispensation is said to have ended with the coming of Jesus Christ.  Luke 16:16 says, "The law and the prophets were until John," and John 1:17 says, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

The Dispensation of the Gospel - 1 Cor. 9:17 - "For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me."  (Note:  it is also called the dispensation of Grace in Eph. 3:2).

The Dispensation of the Kingdom - Eph. 1:10 - "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him."

Today, two dispensations exist at the same time; the Jews, by rejecting Christ (Jn. 1:11), remain under the Dispensation of the Law, while the Church, accepting Jesus as Lord (Jn. 1:12), exists in the Dispensation of Grace.  The Dispensation of the Law will end when Israel recognizes Jesus Christ at the end of the Tribulation (the Time of Jacob's Trouble - Jer. 30:7).  The Dispensation of Grace will actually end before the Dispensation of the Law ends, with the Rapture of the Church (Jn. 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:50-54; 1 Thes. 4:16-17)! 

 

In the mean time, we are stewards of the Gospel of Jesus Christ:  go tell somebody!