Articles
ONE in Christ – Ephesians 2
ONE in Christ – Ephesians 2
Paul continues his thought about all spiritual blessings are found IN CHRIST, but being in Christ included Jewish people Gentiles people, women and men slaves and free…
ALL are saved because of the graciousness of God in providing forgiveness in Jesus according to His mercy. PLEASE read Colossians 2:10-13 in parallel with Ephesians 2:1-9! Ephesians tells us the WHAT has happened and Colossians tells us what God does WHEN a believer is baptized into Christ.
NOW, in Christ the two groups, Jew and Gentile, are ONE. We disciples are ONE GROUP (vs. 14), ONE new man (vs. 15), ONE body (vs. 16), and have access ‘in ONE spirit to the Father) (vs. 18). Then study the ‘ones’ of Eph. 4:4-6.
This is the unity of the Spirit that we will be instructed to strive to maintain (cp. Ephesians 4). Such unity is maintained by ME developing the character of holiness, putting off the old man that I was and becoming recreated in the very image of the character of Jesus. When we all develop such, we will find the unity that God has provided in Jesus.
While today in our western civilization, WE emphasize the basis of faith, and that by wrongly adding ‘only’ to the phrase. Ephesians emphasizes the ‘what’ of our salvation while Colossians tells us WHEN God acted on us unto being forgiven (Colossians 2:10-13).
This letter is emphasizing the unifying power of our salvation. I am related to God the same way as all my believing brothers in the Lord. He accepted and blessed them, so must I.
Question: are you one who works at maintaining the unity among your brethren or are you destroying such unity?
Hugh DeLong