Isaiah - Verse By Verse | Walking through Ephesians

Walking through Ephesians - Day 71

versebyverse | January 20, 2008 16:53

Thought: To me, God's dealings with mankind are powerfully beautiful: He uses His strength to bring us all together into one faith "system"--His!

Question: Am I a part of this "one faith"?

Scripture: Ephesians 4:5 (NIV): "one Lord, one faith, one baptism;"

God's kingdom is immense. It is in the hearts of many, many individuals. There in their hearts reign "one Lord", the Lord Jesus Christ. Living the Christian life becomes a process of continually yielding to His Lordship, piece by piece, bit by bit, until the whole of us is overcome. Christ, the Son of the Living God, is our Lord because God The Father ordained Him to be.

We have "one faith"; that is, our believing is confined to learning of and trusting in Jehovah only--no other god. Christ is Jehovah's Son, they are One Godhead together with the Holy Spirit, and all our beliefs are connected to what we know of them from The Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and knowing God's Word--it is God revealed to us. God will insure that only one faith exists because God has overseen the writing of the Scriptures, protects His Word on earth, and fills His Word with Spirit to those in whom the Spirit resides.

"One baptism" means, I believe, that each believer is immersed in only one spirit, The Holy Spirit. There are not many godly spirits, but only one--the Spirit of (the one, true) God. (There are many spirits in the world and in spiritual realms, but only The Holy Spirit in Christians.) Baptism means a plunging down into something, an immersion. We compare it to bathing because we understand how we plunge under water, how it closes over our heads keeping us underneath. Thus water becomes the perfect symbol, and medium, for the outward ordinance of baptism. But this verse, to me, speaks of being immersed only in the Holy Spirit. (Water baptism is not necessary for salvation: soul salvation is a spiritual thing entirely.) There is only one Holy Spirit, therefore only "one baptism." All people who are saved enter into and are "overcome" by this Holy Spirit, like water over the head of one submerged.

Prayer: I bow, dear Father, in simple, humble thanks for Your skill at pulling all believers into awesome oneness. Amen.