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No.72.
The Practical Section (4: - 6:).
The Sevenfold Unity of the Spirit (4: 4 - 6).
pp. 21 - 26
In Eph. 4: 4-6 we have brought before us the sevenfold unity of the spirit, which we
are urged to keep.
One LORD.
One HOPE.
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One FAITH.
One SPIRIT.
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One BAPTISM.
One BODY.
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One GOD and FATHER.
Some of the elements of this unity are found in chapter 2::--
"For through Him (the one Lord) we the both (the one Body) have access by one
Spirit unto the Father (the one God and Father)" (verse 18).
The Gentiles, being originally "without hope", can hold but the one hope of their
calling. They have no other. They had also been saved by grace through faith, and
that not of themselves, it was the gift of God. This accounts for every item except the
one baptism. That is found, as we shall see more clearly presently, in the threefold union
with the risen Lord expressed in the word "quickened together, raised together,
seated together".
It is important to see that the central feature of this unity is the One Lord. Without the
risen and ascended Christ there is no church which can be called the One Body. Not
until Christ is seen as Head can the church be seen as body. This is clearly stated in
Eph. 1: 21-23. Apart from the ascended Son of God the one God would never be known
as the one God and Father. Apart from the risen and ascended Lord the one baptism of
the one spirit is impossible. The unity of the faith embraces the Son of God, and the
one hope is nothing less than Christ Himself. Like the central shaft of the seven branched
lampstand of the Tabernacle, all are united together in Him, all receive their fullness from
Him. Severed from Him they are worthless. What hope have we outside of Christ? In
whom can we have faith apart from Christ?
Let us now, having seen the essential position of Christ in this unity, look at the
seven items in detail.
ONE BODY.--It is true that the figure of the body is used in I Cor. 12:, but the
context reveals that it is used in illustration of the distribution, diversity yet unity of
spiritual gifts. The church of the One Body is a new creation, connected with the
ascended Christ as its Head, in a sphere of glory that transcends all others, "far above
all", and is directly related to the revelation of the mystery where it is given its peculiarly
distinctive character, "a joint-Body" (Eph. 3: 6), a standing unknown before the Mystery