(Audio/Video/Text)
Title: The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ
Intro:
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
When Paul uses the word “one” SEVEN times in two verses, he is obviously alluding to something huge that he wants to emphasize and drive home in our minds and hearts.
This single word, that we assume is fairly straightforward, is actually quite complex, and here is why:
The Greek word here translated as “one” is “heis”
In addition to “heis”meaning the numeric number one, it also signifies two other concepts that are extremely important.
It means “one” in the sense of being universal, and it means “one” as opposed to many.
Let’s dig into that a little bit. Let’s jump ahead to verse 6 for a second and consider the idea of “One God and Father of all”
If One means: singular, universal, and only, what opposing world views do these two verses absolutely destroy?
(take answers)
Jumping back to verse 5, what significance of “heis” then have if there is one body?
(take answers)
- There is ONE church, what then do we do with all these denominations? (We recognize the difference between the local church, or which there are many branches, and the Universal Church, of which all believers are members.)
What about Spirit? What is the significance of defining the Spirit of God as singular, universal, and only?
(take answers)
One of the conclusions is that we need to test the spirits as John says in 1 John, because the one, true, universal Spirit won’t can’t do two things:
- Won’t contradict itself
- Won’t contradict scripture
Why do we debate? Because YOU Can be right, or I Can be right, or we can BOTH be wrong, but we can’t BOTH be right…so we look to the Scriptures and test the Spirits.
Let’s continue to dig in…what about “one hope” What should this phrase “one hope” motivate us to do?
Share the Gospel, because if there is ONE true hope, by definitions ALL OTHER “hopes” are false, and lead to (in the immediate sense) disappointment, disillusionment, and restlessness.
And, (in the future sense) all other hopes lead to destruction.
Finally, I’m going to lump “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” into a group because they all point to the same conclusions in conjunction:
- We submit to a singluar, univeral God as our LORD and commander
- Because of that the only faith the we pursue is faith in HIM
- And we are thusly baptized (PPFR) into this ONE confession with the rest of the church.
Thoughts?
Let’s pray.