“…one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” Eph. 4:5-6 NASU

More ones but all the ones are one. All find their completeness in God the Father who sums it all up. The Godhead, or Deity as our translation says is composed of this oneness.

One Lord refers to Jesus Christ who was made Lord and Christ. One faith refers to the belief in that one Lord and obedience to him. One baptism refers to that act of obedience which brings about the death of the sinful man and his burial but at the same time provides his resurrection into the new man who is added to the body of Christ. Not a fleshly death, burial, and resurrection but a spiritual one. It is the circumcision of the heart spoken of in Col. 2:11-13. In that passage, Paul connects the circumcision of the heart with baptism which is the working of God.

Sometimes people object to the idea of baptism for the remission of sins because they think it is work but Paul says it is the working of God. Man is submissive in baptism leaving God in control of the death, burial, and resurrection just as Jesus was in his death, burial and resurrection. Baptism is how we join him in those three things.

This idea of a kingdom in a body is God’s not man’s. Some think that because the man was rebellious and rejected Jesus that God changed his plans. No, not so. God knew about man’s rejection, and he planned to save mankind in spite of that rejection. Jesus came to save the lost by dying on the cross, and that is what he did. They did not take his life, he offered it as the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He did not fail. It was God’s plan to create a new kingdom which would be composed of his Son’s body, and in that kingdom, he would live and reign. He does that through the oneness of the Son, the Spirit, and the Father.

Our God and Father is the God and Father of all. He is overall. He is through all and please believe this, He is in all. He is. He lives in his body, the church of the Lord. We are his temple, a holy place made holy by the washing of his blood in the cleansing ritual of baptism.

Accept Jesus as your Savior and obey his will. Let him circumcise your spiritual self (your heart) through the death, burial, and resurrection. Let him then add you to his body, the church, the kingdom of the Living God. He will dwell in you and bring you safely to the other side of life to dwell with him forever.