SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/7/2019 10:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Unity in the Son
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 4:5
Message of the
verse: “5
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;”
In our last SD we looked at unity in
the Holy Spirit, and now in verse five we will be looking at unity in the Son,
and then in verse six we will be looking at unity in the Father.
Paul writes that there is one Lord,
and of course he is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Acts 4:12 tells us “"And there is
salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been
given among men by which we must be saved.’”
In writing to the Galatians Paul writes “But even if we, or an angel
from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to
you, he is to be accursed!” (Gal. 1:8).
Then in Romans 10:12 we read “For there is no distinction between Jew
and Greek; for the same Lord
is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;”
What is Paul talking about when he
writes “one faith?” Paul is not talking about the
faith it takes to become a believer or the faith that it takes to live out the
Christian life, but he is talking about the body of doctrine revealed in the
New Testament. In true Christianity
there is only one faith as Jude writes of in verse three: “Beloved, while I was making every effort to
write you about our common
salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” MacArthur writes “One faith is the content of the revealed Word of
God. Lack of faithful and careful
study of His Word, unexamined tradition, worldly influences, carnal
inclinations, and many other things fragment doctrine into many varying and
even contradictory forms. God’s Word
contains many truths, but its individual truths are but harmonious facets of
His one truth, which is our ‘one faith.’”
Now
we move onto “one baptism.” Let us look
again at verse four “4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called
to one hope when you were called.”
Implied here in verse four is the baptism in which the Holy Spirit
places new believers into the body of Christ, while in verse five when Paul
writes “one baptism” he is referring to water baptism. Water Baptism is the common New Testament
means of a believer’s publicly confessing Jesus as Savior and Lord, something
that should be done shortly after a person confesses Jesus Christ as their
Savior. MacArthur writes of this baptism
from verse five “This is preferred because of the way Paul has spoken
specifically of each member of the Trinity in succession. This is the Lord Jesus Christ’s verse, as it
were.”
Baptism
was extremely important in the early church, although it was not a means of
salvation or even a special blessing, but it was a testimony of identity with
the unity of Jesus Christ. When a person
is baptized they are not baptized in the name of a local church, a prominent
evangelist, a leading elder, or even an apostle as Paul made clear when writing
to the Corinthians where he writes “13
Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of
Paul? 14 I thank God that I
baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one would say you
were baptized in my name. 16
Now I did baptize also the household of
Stephanas; beyond that, I
do not know whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel,
not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made
void.” Just a side note and that is if
baptism was something needed for salvation, that is water baptism, then Paul
would have baptized everyone right away that he led to the Lord, but water
baptism is a picture of what Jesus Christ did for believers as it pictures His
death burial, and His resurrection.
MacArthur adds at the end of his commentary on this section “Those who
by one Lord are in one faith testify to that unity in one baptism.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can say that I finally got it right
when I was baptized for the third time at the first church I attended as a born
again believer in Jesus Christ in April of 1978. It was there that I was baptized in a local
church as a born-again believer.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To praise
the Lord more for the wonderful things that He has done for me, and to continue
to learn humility from Romans 12:3 and Ephesians 4:2.
Today’s Quotation: “Faith: the art of holding on to things your
reason has once accepter, in spite of you changing moods” (C. S. Lewis).
3/7/2019 11:19 AM
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