Ephesians 4:4 - 6

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

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One Spirit

We are further told that there is one body and one Spirit. Similarly to the way we speak of having a spirit that gives life to each body, so there is the one Spirit who gives life to the one body of which we are made members. Indeed, it is through that same Spirit that we become members of the body. Think of it this way. Jesus Christ did the great work of atonement on the cross to save us from sin. It is the Holy Spirit, whom he said he would send, that applies the work of that atonement to us. Thus, it is the Spirit who breathes life into our dead spiritual bodies that we might hear the gospel and respond to it in faith. It is the Spirit who seals the benefits of Christ's work (1:13). It is in the one Spirit that we have access to God the Father. "In [Christ] [we] are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (2:22). It is the Spirit who has revealed the great mystery that we are all members of the same body (3:6). It is the Spirit who strengthens us with God's power (3:16). And as we saw in the previous verse, the very unity of the church is the unity of the Spirit (4:3).

This is the one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the only Spirit of God. There may be many spirits. We do believe in a spiritual world, and Paul makes reference to an evil spirit in 2:2. But there is only one Holy Spirit of God, who indeed is God, the third person of the Trinity. And it is that Spirit which Christ has sent to his people to make them his, to bind us to him and to bind us to one another. If the Spirit is in you then you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons (Romans 8:15). You belong to Christ and to his body.

One Faith

There is "one faith." It seems evident that by "faith" is meant the contents of "the faith," i. e. the gospel. Our world is big on the concept of faith. It says to "have faith" is what matters, regardless of what that faith is in, although faith in oneself is the highest form of faith. But for Scripture it is what one has faith in that matters, or what the faith consists of. Here, again, it is the gospel. And the gospel is spelled out in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: "that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." The gospel entails all that was just said about Jesus Christ being Lord — that he is the Son of God and that through his shed blood we are redeemed.

And then the "one faith" entails exercising faith in the "one faith." As Ephesians 2:8 states plainly: "For by grace you have been saved through faith." So then, it is by putting faith in these things, trusting in the work of Christ that his work on the cross is then made real in our lives.

To put it another way, and in a way that has most impacted me, it means believing God, taking him at his word. I believe in these articles of faith because I believe God. It is not natural for me to trust in what I cannot see and to give no credit to my efforts to be good, which is what the "one faith" teaches. But the "one faith" says that I am saved by grace through faith, not as a result of my works. To put faith in works is a different faith altogether, and as is made clear here, there is but "one faith."One Baptism

And then there is "one baptism." This element is surprising, not because of what comes to our minds today — namely, that baptism is the one article of faith Christian clearly disagree about. There was not conflict over the mode and application of baptism when Paul was writing. The ancient church was Presbyterian! The odd part of baptism's inclusion is that it is the only word that has not already appeared, or will appear, in the letter. Hopefully you noticed that in each discussion of an element I mostly used concepts already discussed in the letter. But this is baptism's first and only appearance in the letter.

I think the "one baptism" includes the sacramental sign that believers would have received, but even then the baptism is that of the Holy Spirit uniting us to Christ. Consider Paul's reference in Romans.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (Romans 6:3-5).

Note the emphasis on being united with Christ. And if we are united to Christ through baptism, we are also united to one another: "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free" (1 Corinthians 12:13).

Paul puts these unions together in Galatians 3:27-28: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

The result is that the "one Spirit" baptizes all believers of the "one faith" into the "one Lord" Jesus Christ, uniting them to the head and to his "one body."

One Lord

There is one body, one Spirit, and one hope to which we are called. We have one Lord, who is Jesus Christ. As Lord he is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come" (1:21). In Christ God the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Through Jesus Christ we have been adopted as children of God. In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. God's plan for redemption and for uniting all things together is carried out in Christ. He is the head of the body, his church. We have spiritually been raised from the dead and seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. God shows the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. It is in Christ Jesus that we were created for good works. It is Christ who has reconciled us to God through the cross. We have been brought near to God by the blood of Christ. Christ is our peace. Christ Jesus is the cornerstone in whom the household of God is joined together. It is in Christ that we know God's power and love. Our goal is to attain to the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God. We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, from whom the whole body is joined and held together.

And there is no other Lord. Christ is not one in a long line of prophets or sons of God. He is not a man who through hard work achieved a state of divine status. He is the only begotten Son of God. And it is before him that every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10). There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).