Unity

“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 us all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Verses 4-6.

“Baptized by one Spirit into one body.” This body belongs to Christ. Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ?

When the body is presented as an instrument of righteousness, it becomes a sacrifice for God. We mustn’t allow friends or relatives according to the flesh to hinder the leading of the Spirit in our life, because our body belongs to the Lord. Our callings vary, but we are called with one hope of our calling. We all have sin in the flesh, therefore the same sufferings must be accomplished in our brethren in the world. This one faith always points in one direction: judgment over the body of sin in order that salvation—leading to a greater fullness of God—may be our portion in the one body. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. No other Lord will be accepted by the one God, the Father of all.

Here in the world, this “one body” can be sub-classified as follows:

1. The body of flesh: That body which, when we were in the world, served sin and was presented as its instrument. This body has now been put off by the circumcision of Christ and buried under water. (Colossians 2:11-12.)

2. The body of sin: That body wherein sin dwells even after we have been saved. This sin is called “inherited sin”; it does not condemn us, provided we do not obey its lusts. When the old man is crucified and refused nourishment, the body of sin is gradually done away with. (Romans 6:6.)

3. The body of death: That body which we carry about as long as there is anything left to put to death. Paul exclaims in Romans 7:24: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” The same thing applies to both him and us: we must carry about this body as long as we live. As long as we are in this tabernacle, in this body of death, we are sojourners away from the Lord. But when we depart from here to be with Him, we put off this body of death, and our spirit is free and ready to receive a glorified body.

Just as we are now baptized by one Spirit, in one body, in order to be led by the one Spirit into the one death unto salvation—this death being the death of Christ—we shall also, in the power of His resurrection, which led us into death, be united in one body with Christ when His glory is revealed.