Verse 5 says, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” This verse does not speak of one Son, but of one Lord. In the Gospel of John it is the Son in whom we believe (3:16), but in Acts, it is the Lord in whom we believe (Acts 16:31). In the writings of John, the Son is for life (1 John 5:12), whereas in Acts, the Lord, after His ascension, is for authority (Acts 2:36), a matter which concerns His headship. Here, as the Head of the Body (Eph. 1:22), He is the Lord. Our believing in Christ is related to both life and authority. Not many Christians, however, realize that they must believe in the Lord for authority as well as for life. As lost sinners, we were not only spiritually dead, but we were also without the Lord, without a head. But after believing in the Lord, we have both life and a head.
In Ephesians the oneness of the Body is related not only to life but also to headship. Christians are divided because they do not care for the Head. In verse 4 Paul covers life, which is closely related to the Spirit. But in verse 5 he deals with authority. Today few Christians care for life, and even fewer have any care for authority. By the Lord’s mercy and grace, we in the Lord’s recovery care both for life and for headship. We have not only the one Body with the one Spirit and the one hope, but also the one Lord with the one faith and the one baptism.
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 verse 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. 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.
In faith we believe into the Lord (John 3:36, Gk.), and in baptism we are baptized into Him (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3) and terminated in Adam (Rom. 6:4). Through faith and baptism we have been transferred out of Adam into Christ and have thus been joined to the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17).
The reality of baptism consists in realizing and confessing 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 verse 5.
Verse 6 says, “One God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in all.” God is the Originator of all things, and the Father is the source of life for the Body. In verse 4 we have life; in verse 5, headship; and in verse 6, origin or source. Because everything has a source, it is possible to trace things back to their origin. However, most Christians today, being superficial, do not care for the origin or source of things. We in the church life, on the contrary, must have sober discernment. This means that we must consider the matters of life, headship, and source, or origin. If we trace something back to its source, we shall not be cheated or deceived or led astray.
The Apostle Paul was a very discerning person, having received a keen discernment from the Lord. Beginning with the one Body, Paul traced the source all the way back to the one God and Father. This means that he went all the way back to the very source, to the origin.
In verse 6 Paul speaks of the one God and Father “Who is over all and through all and in all.” The thought of the Trinity is implied here. “Over all” mainly refers to the Father; “through all,” to the Son; and “in all,” to the Spirit. The Triune God eventually enters into us by reaching us as the Spirit. Our oneness is constituted of the Trinity of the Godhead: with the Spirit as the life-giving Spirit, with the Son as the Lord and Head, and with the Father as the source and origin. If we see this, nothing will be able to distract us or lead us astray. We shall have the proper discernment regarding the oneness and how to keep it.
The keeping of the oneness is a matter in the Triune God. This means that the Triune God Himself is the base of our oneness, its fundamental basis and very foundation. The Originator of our oneness is the Father, the Accomplisher of our oneness is the Lord, and the Executor of our oneness is the Spirit. In our experience, however, the Spirit is first because He is directly related to the oneness, to the carrying out of the oneness in the one Body. Following this, we have the Lord as the Accomplisher and the Father as the source. Therefore, our oneness is the Triune God realized and experienced by us in our Christian life.
Although many of us have been Christians for years, we have never heard that oneness is actually the Triune God becoming our experience. Our oneness is the Triune God— the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father—wrought into the Body. Along with the Triune God, we have the faith, the baptism, and the hope. One day we received faith and were brought into Christ. What a glorious visitation was this coming of faith! After we believed into Christ, we were baptized. We became members of the Body with the hope of glorification. This is our oneness. This oneness is the Triune God wrought into the Body, which comes into existence through faith and baptism and which has the hope of one day being glorified. May we all have the heart to care for this oneness.