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In Ephesians 4:3-6 Christ is revealed as the center of the processed Triune God for the Body of Christ. “Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace: one Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” The Father as the source is in Christ the Lord, who is the embodiment of the Father (John 10:38; 14:10; 17:21); the Lord is the Spirit, who is the reality of the Lord; and the Spirit is in the Body. In the Triune God the Father is the source, the Lord is the course, the means, and the Spirit is the transmission. The source is in the course, the course is in the transmission, and the transmission is in the Body.
In exhorting us to safeguard the oneness, the apostle Paul points out seven things that form the base of our oneness: one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God. These seven “ones” are of three groups. The first three form the first group, that of the Spirit with the Body as His expression. This Body, having been regenerated and being saturated with the Spirit as its essence, has the hope of being transfigured into the full likeness of Christ. The next three form the second group, that of the Lord with faith and baptism that we may be joined to Him. The last of the seven forms the third group, the one God and Father, who is the Originator and source of all. The Spirit as the Executor of the Body, the Son as the Creator of the Body, and God the Father as the Originator of the Body — all the three of the Triune God — are related to the Body. The third of the Trinity is the first mentioned in Ephesians 4:4 through 6 because the main concern here is the Body, of which the Spirit is the essence and the life and life supply. The course is then traced back to the Son and to the Father.
In verse 5 Paul speaks of one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. This verse reveals Christ as the Lord to whom the believers are joined through faith and baptism.
It is significant that verse 5 does not say “one Son” but “one Lord.” In the Gospel of John it is the Son into whom we believe (John 3:16), but in the Acts it is the Lord into whom we believe (Acts 16:31). In the Epistles of John, the Son is for the imparting of life (1 John 5:12), whereas in the Acts, the Lord, after His ascension, is for the exercising of authority (Acts 2:36), a matter which concerns His headship. Hence, our believing in Him is related to both life and authority, for He is both our life and our Head. As the Head of the Body (Eph. 1:22), He is the Lord. Christians are divided because they neglect the Head; that is, they neglect the Lord’s headship and authority.
One Lord in Ephesians 4:5 refers to the Son in the Divine Trinity. Christ came to be our life (John 10:10), and He as our life became the element within us, that is, the element of the Body of Christ. Formerly, we were all in Adam, and our element was the element of Adam, the element of death. When we believed and were baptized, we were severed from Adam and were united with Christ. Consequently, we the believers have within us another life, a new element, that is, Christ as our life and our element. Hence, Christ the Lord is the element of the Body; He is the element that constitutes us to be the Body of Christ. From Christ as the element of the Body of Christ comes the Spirit as the essence and reality of the Body.
For us to be the genuine church as the organic Body of Christ, we must have the element of Christ. Although we have believed and been baptized, in actuality we may still remain in Adam and have Adam as the element instead of Christ. Therefore, in our daily living we must accept the operation of the cross that deals with our old man and natural life; we must let go of Adam and let Christ live in us. Only when we live by Christ and even live Christ will we be the genuine church as the Body of Christ, having Christ as our life and element.
Because Christ is the element of the Body of Christ, the living of the Body of Christ takes Christ as the Head, life, content, principal object, center, and goal (Eph. 5:23; Col. 3:4a, 11b; 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 1:23; Phil. 3:14). Because Christ is all these things, we, the members of the Body, should take Christ as our Head, our life, our content, our principal object, our center, and our goal. Christ is the nature, the meaning, the expression, the capacity, and the function of the Body of Christ. When we take Christ as our Head, our life, our content, our principal object, our center, and our goal, we will give Him the opportunity to manifest the capacity and function of the Body within His nature. In particular, Christ is the center of the Triune God; the Body of such a Christ certainly takes Him as its Head. We, the members of the Body, should all be under the authority of Christ as the Head of the Body.
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.
In verse 3 Paul says, “Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.” The oneness of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself. To keep the oneness of the Spirit is to keep the life-giving Spirit. If we act apart from the Spirit, we are divisive and lose the oneness. If we stay in the life-giving Spirit, we keep the oneness of the Spirit.
To walk worthily of God’s calling, that is, to have the proper Body life, we first need to care for the oneness. This is crucial and vital to the Body of Christ. Strictly speaking, oneness differs from unity. Unity is the state in which many people are united together, whereas oneness is the one entity of the Spirit within the believers, which makes them all one. This oneness is a person, Christ Himself, who is the Spirit dwelling within us. It is similar to the electricity flowing within many lamps, making them all one in the shining. In themselves, the lamps are separate, but in the electricity they are one.
Christ abolished on the cross all the differences that were due to ordinances. In so doing, He made peace for His Body. This peace should bind all believers together and should thus become the uniting bond. The uniting bond of peace is the issue of the working of the cross. When we remain on the cross, we have peace with others. This peace becomes the uniting bond in which we keep the oneness of the Spirit.
Verse 4 says, “One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling.” The Body is mentioned before the Spirit because the oneness among us is related to the Body and is for the Body. The reason we need to keep the oneness is that we are all one Body.
The Spirit as the oneness of the Body of Christ is the essence of the Body. Without the Spirit, the Body is empty and has no life. The Body here is the Body of Christ, and the essence of the Body of Christ is the Spirit. Hence, the Body and the essence of the Body are one. It is impossible for the Body of Christ to have more than one essence. The unique essence of the Body is the Spirit.
The Spirit is the essence and substance of the Body. Therefore, the church as the Body of Christ must be essentially and substantially the Spirit Himself. If there is no Spirit, there is no Body; apart from the Spirit, all we have is a human congregation. Without the Spirit, there is no substance of the church; without the Spirit, the church is merely a social organization. The church must be one Body with the Spirit as its substance.
The Spirit is not only for the Body but also in the Body. The Spirit is in the Body, not just in individual members. First Corinthians 12:13 says, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.” This verse reveals that the one Spirit is not only the essence of the Body but also the life and the life supply of the Body. Without the one Spirit, the Body would be empty and lifeless.
Moreover, 1 Corinthians 12:13 indicates that one Spirit is wrought into us and constituted into our being in order that we may be constituted into one Body. The Body is the constitution of the one Spirit, and the one Spirit has been wrought into the being of the one Body. Eventually, because the Body is the constitution of the one Spirit, we can say that the one Body is one with the Spirit.
The Spirit in Ephesians 4:4 refers to the pneumatic Christ, the all-inclusive Spirit who is within the Body and gives life to the Body. According to 1 Corinthians 12:13, the one Body came into existence through the baptism of this all-inclusive Spirit. Having been baptized in one Spirit, we must proceed to drink of this Spirit. This indicates that the existence of the Body depends on the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. Furthermore, the Body continues to exist through our drinking of this Spirit. By our drinking the life-giving Spirit, our inward being becomes mingled with the one Spirit; this mingling of the Spirit as the processed Triune God with His chosen people as the members of the Body is the oneness of the Body of Christ.
To build up the Body of Christ is to have the Spirit wrought into us and constituted into our being in order to saturate every part of our being, making us one with the Spirit. The Body is the constitution of the divine Spirit. This indicates that the one Body and the one Spirit are not two separate entities. Rather, the one Body is one with the Spirit, and the one Spirit is one with the Body. For this reason, there must be no division in the Body. Since the Spirit is one, there can be only one Body.
The Spirit as the essence of the Triune God has become the essence of the one Body. The essence of the Body of Christ is the Spirit, who is the consummation of the processed Triune God (John 7:39; Rev. 22:17a). The essence of the Body of Christ, containing the divinity of the Triune God, has the capacity to supply the divine life (Phil. 1:19); the essence of the Body of Christ, containing the excelling humanity of Jesus, has the capacity to supply this excelling humanity (Acts 16:7); the essence of the Body of Christ, containing the all-inclusive death of Christ, has the capacity to put to death the negative things (Rom. 8:13); and the essence of the Body of Christ, containing the surpassing resurrection of Christ, has the surpassing capacity of resurrection (Phil. 3:10).
The Spirit as the reality of the Triune God is also the reality of the Body of Christ. The reality of the processed Triune God is the consummated Spirit of reality (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6). The Spirit of reality makes everything of the processed Triune God a reality in the Body of Christ (John 16:13-15); the Spirit of reality makes all the riches of the Triune God real to the Body of Christ. Without the Spirit, there is no Body of Christ, no church.
The Spirit is the inward essence and the expressed reality of the Body of Christ. The Spirit is the secret to all that the Triune God is to the Body of Christ. This Spirit now dwells in our regenerated spirit and is joined to our spirit as the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 6:17). Therefore, we must turn to our spirit, set our mind on the spirit, and walk according to our spirit. When we live in the mingled spirit, we will be able to live out the Body of Christ and become His corporate expression.
In Ephesians 4:4 the one hope of glory (Col. 1:27) refers to the transfiguration of our body (Phil. 3:21) and the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19, 23-25). As saved ones, we have the hope that one day the Lord Jesus will come as our hope of glory and that through Him our vile body will be transfigured (Phil. 3:21). On the one hand, we appreciate our bodies because they are useful and because without them we cannot exist in this world. On the other hand, our bodies are troublesome, for they are often weak and subject to illness. Therefore, we believers in Christ have the hope that one day our troublesome bodies will be metabolically transfigured by Christ to become glorified bodies.
We may find it difficult to believe that our vile bodies will be transfigured into glorious bodies. Consider the process a carnation seed undergoes to produce blossoms. In itself a carnation seed has no beauty, but by being sown into the soil and by growing normally, the seed is transfigured into a plant with beautiful blossoms. In speaking about the transfiguration of the body in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul compares our bodies to seeds (vv. 35-44). We have the solid hope that the day will come for the “seed” to blossom.
According to Romans 8, our hope also implies our manifestation as sons of God. We are sons of God today, but our sonship is hidden and even somewhat mysterious. For this reason, the worldly people treat us the same as everyone else, without any realization that we are sons of God. However, the time is coming when our sonship will be manifested. Then it will no longer be necessary to tell others that we are Christians. It will be apparent to all that we are sons of God in glory. The manifestation of the sons of God will also be the glorification of the sons of God. This is our hope.
Neither the transfiguration of our body nor our manifestation as the sons of God will merely be a sudden, unexpected occurrence. On the contrary, both our transfiguration and our manifestation are gradually taking place today. To be sure, there is a sense in which transfiguration and manifestation will take place suddenly. But according to the truth of the New Testament and according to our experience, transfiguration and manifestation are also a gradual process in which we are involved today. This process is being carried out by the one Spirit, who is the essence, the life, and the life supply of the Body of Christ. The Spirit is presently working within us to transfigure us and to manifest our sonship. This is the reason Paul linked the one hope and the one Spirit to the one Body.
As believers, we are members of the Body of Christ, and we need to be transfigured. Within us as members of the Body and within the Body as a whole, there is the one Spirit, who is the essence of the Body and the life and life supply of the Body. This Spirit is neither dormant nor idle; on the contrary, He is working energetically within us toward the goal of bringing us into the fulfillment of the hope of our calling. This is the reason that the transfiguration of the body will not be accidental. Today the indwelling Spirit is carrying out both the transfiguration of the body and the manifestation of the sons of God. Because we are in the process of transfiguration and manifestation, the rapture should not come as a surprise. Rather, it should be a normal experience.
Ephesians 4:4 implies that the indwelling Spirit today is carrying out the process of bringing the Body of Christ into glory as the fulfillment of our hope. Therefore, in this verse we have the one Body, the one Spirit, and the one hope. Because we all are in the one Body with the one Spirit and have the one hope, we are one. There is no reason for us not to be one, and there is no cause to be different. We are one Body, and we have the one Spirit working within us to bring us to the goal of our hope.
The one hope of our calling is for the one Body. Only those who truly live in the Body with the one Spirit have this genuine hope. The hope of our calling is to be in glory, that is, to be in the divine inheritance in the New Jerusalem. The Body of Christ has the coming New Jerusalem as the genuine hope.
In Ephesians 4:6 Paul speaks of “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 of Christ. The Trinity is implied even here. Over all refers mainly to the Father, through all to the Son, and in all to the Spirit. The Triune God eventually enters into us all by reaching us as the Spirit. The oneness of the Body of Christ is constituted of the Trinity of the Godhead — the Father as the source and origin being the Originator, the Son as the Lord and Head being the Accomplisher, and the Spirit as the life-giving Spirit being the Executor. The Triune God Himself, when realized and experienced by us in our daily life, is the fundamental basis and very foundation of our oneness.
Ephesians 4:6 reveals that the divine dispensing of God the Father into the Body of Christ is in His being over all (as the begetting Father overshadowing us), in His being through all (as the Son caring for us), and in His being in all (as the Spirit living within us), enabling all the members of the Body of Christ to experience and enjoy the Triune God. This indicates that the Father who is over us, through us, and in us is triune; He is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
God being over all signifies His sovereign authority. We need to realize that God is over us, and we are all under Him. This means that He is sovereign over us and that He is the authority over us. Therefore, we must submit ourselves to His authority and must be under His sovereignty.
God being through all indicates that we should allow God to pass through our being. Most of the time, God cannot get through us because the avenues in our being are blocked to God; He does not have a free way in us. Hence, we must give God a thoroughfare in our being.
God being in all means that, as a result of our being under God’s sovereignty and of our giving Him a thoroughfare, God can abide in us. In Ephesians 4:6 Paul unveils the God of the Body of Christ, the God who is over the Body, through the Body, and in the Body. Such a God is the subjective God for our daily existence. Therefore, day by day we must be under God, allowing Him to pass through us and giving Him the ground in our inner being so that He may abide in us.
Ephesians 4:4-6 reveals four persons — one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God the Father — mingled together as one entity to be the organic Body of Christ. Because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all one with the Body of Christ, we may say that the Triune God and the Body are four-in-one. The church as the Body of Christ is a group of people who are united, mingled, and incorporated with the Triune God. This mysterious union, mingling, and incorporation of the Triune God with the Body of Christ are for the purpose of the divine dispensing of the Triune God into the believers. The Lord as the element of the Body is constantly dispensing His life into us, the Spirit as the essence of the Body is continually dispensing Himself into us, and the Father as the origin of the Body is gradually dispensing Himself into us, while He is over us, overshadowing us, while He is passing through us, caring for us, and while He is in us, remaining within us. The church as the Body of Christ is the issue of such a dispensing of the Triune God into the believers.
Out of the Father as the source there is the element, Christ the Son, and within Christ as the element is the essence, the Spirit. The Father is the source, the Son is the element, the Spirit is the essence, and the Body is the constitution. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is mingled with the believers. This mingling is the constitution of the Body of Christ.
The keeping of the oneness is a matter in the Triune God. Our oneness is the Triune God realized and experienced by us in our Christian life. In our experience, 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. If we see this, nothing will be able to distract us or lead us astray. We will have the proper discernment regarding the oneness and how to keep it.
The oneness of the Body of Christ 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. The oneness of the Body of Christ 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.
The most crucial point in this message is that the Body of Christ is the embodiment of the processed Triune God. The Triune God is inseparable from and embodied in the Body of Christ. The expression in Ephesians 4:4 one Body and one Spirit indicates that the Spirit of the processed Triune God is inseparable from the Body of Christ. As the Body is one, so also the Spirit is one; as the Spirit is one, so also the Body is one. Where the Body is, the Spirit is. Hence, if we live and walk in our natural life and not in the Spirit, we are not the Body of Christ in reality, but if we live and walk in the Spirit, we are the Body of Christ in reality, for in the Spirit we are saved from everything natural. Verse 5, which speaks of “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” indicates that through faith and baptism we have been brought into Christ the Lord; this means that Christ has become our constituent, that is, we have been constituted with Christ. Verse 6, which speaks of “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all,” reveals the triune presence of the Father who is over all, through all, and in all; this indicates the full soaking, saturating, and mingling of God with man. Therefore, Ephesians 4:4-6 unveils that the processed Triune God is one entity with the Body of Christ and that the Body of Christ is not only the enlargement of Christ but also the embodiment and expression of the processed Triune God.
