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"spirit", is the Spirit of Him Who wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.
Another facet of this truth is revealed in Eph. 2: 18. It is the Spirit of sonship:--
"For through Him we both have access by One Spirit unto the Father."
This is the Spirit in Whom we the both cry, according once more to Rom. 8:,
"Abba" (Hebrew), "Father" (Greek). The one Body and the one Spirit anticipate the one
God and Father of all. It has been suggested that the apostle's meaning here is that the
Gentiles share in the work and witness of "one and the self-same Spirit" of I Cor. 12:
When the apostle desired to express that truth he uses the phrase to hen kai auto pneuma,
whereas in Eph. 4: to auto, "the self-same", is omitted. Had the apostle intended to
emphasize "the self-same", what a weight the sevenfold expression would have! The fact
that we have the sevenfold "one" instead is sufficient to decide the apostle's intention.
ONE HOPE.--This item is extended:--
"Even as ye are called in one hope of your calling."
This is the one hope of the mystery. If the theme of the mystery pervades Eph. 1:,
then it is possible that the word rendered "his" in 1: 18 should be rendered "its",
referring to the mystery:--
"The eyes of your heart having been enlightened: that ye may know what is the hope
of its calling", i.e. the hope of the calling of the mystery.
"That blessed hope" is the "appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus
Christ", expressed in other words in Col. 3: 4:--
"When Christ Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."
The one hope of our calling is that we shall be manifested with Him in glory. The
hope of the one body antedates the second advent. By the time the Lord descends from
heaven with a shout, and the saints of the Thessalonian company rise to meet Him in the
air, the one hope of our calling will have been realized. We have a prior hope (Eph. 1: 12).
The signs of the times thicken around us. The movements of the nations and of the
nation of Israel are trumpet-tongued. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. If the
hope of the parousia is near, so much nearer must be the one hope of our calling.
There have been some who have foolishly asserted that we deny the coming of the
Lord. We trust that no reader will give credence to such a statement. What we believe is
that the coming of the Lord to the air or to the Mount of Olives is not the hope of the one
body, which is a very different matter.
ONE LORD.--As we have seen, the person and office of Christ as the one Lord is
vital to the unity of the spirit. The title Lord supposes resurrection.
"For to this end Christ both died, and lived again, that He might be Lord of the dead
and of the living" (Rom. 14: 9).