Ephesians 4:3-6 reveals the oneness in reality. The oneness in reality is the oneness of the one Spirit as the essence with the oneness of the one Body—the one place to stay. We all stay in this one Body. Moreover, God the Father stays here, God the Son stays here, and God the Spirit stays here. Spiritually speaking, we all are staying in the oneness of the one Body with the Triune God. Thus, the Triune God is staying with us. The Spirit is the essence of the oneness, this Spirit is staying in the one Body, and the one Body is our lodging place.
This oneness is also the oneness of the one hope of the believers' calling—the one destination to pursue (vv. 3-4). Where are we going? What is our destination? The coming Christ is our destination. Our destination is a wonderful person. He is here, yet He is coming. He is here as our hope, and He is coming as the goal of our hope. We are all on the same way to arrive at the same destination. We may have the intention of coming back to Reston, Virginia for another conference next year. We may feel that this will be our destination. But suppose the Lord Jesus returns two months before that time. Will we say, "Lord Jesus, wait a while; we haven't arrived at our destination yet"? I am illustrating in this way to show us that our destination every day, every morning, and every moment is the coming Jesus. Today He is our hope, and we are pursuing Him as our one destination. He is our goal, He is our hope, and eventually we will arrive at Him as our destination. Millions and millions of Christians all have one destination. We will all be together to meet our returning Lord.
The Spirit is the essence of the oneness, and the Lord is the element of the oneness. The essence is in the element. The oneness in reality is the oneness of the one Lord as the element with the oneness of the one faith—the one transfer into Christ. Faith transfers us into Christ. We used to be in Adam, but faith transferred us into Christ.
The oneness of the one Lord as the element is also with the oneness of the one baptism—the one transfer out of Adam (Eph. 4:5). Baptism is a transfer on the negative side. It transfers us out of Adam. It is terrible to be in Adam, but how can we get out of Adam? Faith joins us to Christ and baptism separates us from Adam. This is why we have to believe and be baptized (Mark 16:16). We have to get out of Adam and get into Christ. Baptism gets us out of Adam, and faith gets us into Christ. The one Lord with one faith and one baptism is a base of our oneness.