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The Daily Word of Righteousness
You Are My People, #30
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)
One Body of Christ. There is only one Divinely ordained faith. The division of the one Church into many denominations is proof of the carnality of the believers in Christ, of the dominance of our adamic nature.
We know from the context of the above passage that Paul is thinking first of Jewish believers, and then of the Gentiles who have been added to the one family of God.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, (Ephesians 3:14,15)
It is not possible that Paul here was thinking of Gentile believers only. In fact, if there were an exception in Paul's mind it would have been the Gentile believers.
The Jew, Paul, was sent by the Lord Jesus to preach to the Gentiles.
But the Lord said unto him [Ananias], Go thy way: for he [Saul of Tarsus] is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: (Acts 9:15)
Paul knew well that he was called to bear the name of Christ to the Gentile nations. He knew also that Gentile believers would be brought into the one family of God—that they would never constitute a separate church.
And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; (Romans 11:17)
One new Man. It is the concept of the one new Man, as set forth in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, that reveals beyond all argument that the Gentiles have been made an integral part of the one Israel and that there is no such entity as a "Gentile Church."
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; (Ephesians 2:11)
Notice that believing Gentiles no longer are "Gentiles in the flesh." They were Gentiles in the flesh "in time past." Now, upon receiving Christ, they have become part of the one family of God, a part of Paul's own people.
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12)
Before receiving Christ, the Gentiles of Ephesus were without Christ. They were aliens to the nation of Israel. They had no part in the Divine promises.
But now in Christ ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)
Since they are abiding in Christ, the believing Gentiles, who at one time had not been a part of Israel, have now been made an integral part of the one holy nation.
To be continued.