One Body
The Worthy Life - Part IV
One Body
June 24, 2007
"There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:4-6
1. There is one body: The church is a living organism composed only of living members (i.e., blood-bought, born-again, Bible-believing saints). And this one body has one Head and many members. (1 Cor 12:12-13; Eph 1:14-17)
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-14
“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.” Ephesians 2:14-17
2. There is one Spirit: The Holy Spirit who is the life and breath of that body, who was responsible for the regeneration of each member, and who now maintains the connection of each member with the other members and with the Head. (Eph 2:18-22)
“For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:18-22
3. There is one Hope. The one hope of your calling is the same ultimate, glorious reality for both Jews and Gentiles. (Eph 1:11-14, 18-23)
“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
Ephesians 1:11-14
4. These first three points seems to progress from the visible ‘body’ (the one church universal reconciling Jew and Gentile) to the invisible Spirit who gives it harmony and peace in Christ, and thence to the future hope of full harmony of which the Spirit is now received as but the first installment (Eph 1:13–14)
5. Verse 6 naturally affirms of the one God totally sovereign over and in creation. It is on this supposition that all hope for final unity is built (cf. Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:4b–6; Col. 1:15–20), and it points back to the God of 1:3–10.
6. Matthew Henry in his commentary on this passage says “To unity and love, purity and holiness, which Christians should very much study. We do not walk worthy of the calling wherewith we are called if we be not faithful friends to all Christians, and sworn enemies to all sin.”
7. 1. There is one body (4:1–4a): Christ’s body. 2. There is one Spirit (4:4b): The Holy Spirit. 3. There is one hope (4:4c): Eternal life. 4. There is one Lord (4:5a): The triune God. 5. There is one faith (4:5b): The Christian faith. 6. There is one baptism (4:5c): The baptism of the Spirit into Christ’s body. 7. There is one God and Father (4:6): The heavenly Father.
GracePointe Baptist Church
2209 N Post Road
Oklahoma City, OK 73141
Phone: (405) 769-5050