Through faith we believe into the Lord (John 3:36), and through baptism we are baptized into Him (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3) and terminated in Adam (v. 4). Faith is the means for the Body to be joined to Christ as the Head, and baptism is the means for the Body to be separated from Adam, the old head. Through faith and baptism we have been transferred out of Adam into Christ, thereby being joined to the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17).
In the New Testament, faith denotes both the act of believing and the content of what we believe. Faith as our act of believing is personal and subjective, but faith as the content of what we believe is objective. The one faith in Ephesians 4:5 is not our personal act of believing; it is the object of our faith.
As Christians, we may differ concerning various doctrines, but we all have the one faith. We all believe in the person of the Lord Jesus and His redemptive work. We believe that Christ is the Son of God incarnated to be a man, that He died on the cross for our redemption, that He was resurrected on the third day, and that He has ascended into the heavens. This unique faith is held by all genuine Christians.
It is through this faith that we are joined to Christ. As soon as a person comes to believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he is made one with Christ. Before this he was outside of Christ, but now he is in Christ. When we believe in Christ, we enter into an organic union with Him; in this life-union we are joined to Christ as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). This Christ is our Lord, our Head, and we are under His authority. We are members of His Body, and He is our Head.
If we would keep the oneness, we must take care of both life and authority. The life-giving Spirit is working within us so that we may be transformed in soul, transfigured in body, and fully manifested as sons of God. This is a matter of life. But we have not only the life-giving Spirit within us but also the Lord as the Head of the Body. Hence, we must be submissive to the authority and headship of Christ.
The reality of baptism requires that we realize and confess that our natural being has been crucified and buried. Hence, baptism is the realization of death, burial, and resurrection. Through faith we are joined to Christ, and in Christ we are crucified, buried, and resurrected. Immediately after we believe in Christ, we should be baptized as a testimony of our realization of this fact. Baptism always follows faith. Through baptism, we have a complete and thorough transfer out of Adam and into Christ. Now we are in Christ who is our life and our Lord. No longer are we in Adam with Adam as our head. We are in Christ with Christ as our Head. Because the Lord, faith, and baptism are related in such a way, Paul spoke of them together in Ephesians 4:5.
According to the New Testament, baptism has two aspects: termination and germination. We have been baptized into both the death of Christ and into Christ Himself (Rom. 6:3). Being baptized into Christ’s death is termination, and being baptized into Christ is germination. By the one baptism, our history, our biography, in Adam is terminated. Baptism not only ended our history in Adam; baptism simultaneously ushered us into a new life. By the one faith and the one baptism, we have been transferred out of Adam and into Christ. Because Christ is not divided, we who are in Christ are one. Because we are one in Christ, the Body of Christ is one. The Body of Christ cannot be divided because the Body of Christ is in Christ, who cannot be divided.
We must realize that both the faith that unites us with Christ and baptism that separates us from Adam are lifelong matters. In our daily life, when we appreciate the Lord, esteem Him, worship Him, and go along with Him, we sense that faith is within us, uniting us with Christ. Likewise, in our daily life baptism is our realization and application of the death of Christ, which separates us from all the negative things, such as the world, sin, the self, and the natural life. In 2 Corinthians 4:12 Paul says, “Death operates in us, but life in you,” and in verse 10 he speaks of “the putting to death of Jesus.” Both the death which operates in us and the putting to death of Jesus are the realization and application of the death of Christ in us, that is, our experience of baptism in our daily life.
Ephesians 4:3, 4, and 6 indicate that we the believers are joined to the Lord with the Spirit and the Father for the Body life of oneness.