Ephesians

5. One faith

The next element is one faith. This does not refer to faith in general—the ability to believe. Everyone believes in something. Atheists believe in the proposition that there is no God, even while evidence continues to mount that our universe was carefully planned and delicately balanced. James 2:19 tells us, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder”—but that is certainly not the one faith Paul talks about here.

When Paul says “one faith,” he means that one body of truth that God has revealed in His Word. There is only one body of revealed truth, only one faith. This is what the New Testament refers to as “the salvation we share…the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 1:3).

The one faith is linked to the one Lord, because our faith is centered in the revealed truth about Jesus Christ. There may be many questions on minor details of the life and message of Christ, but there is no disagreement as to the fundamental elements of our faith—that Jesus was born, lived, died, and rose again to save us from our sins. God has not given us different faiths for different cultures—one faith for the Jews, another for the Gentiles. No, there is one faith, one total panorama of truth that God has delivered to us through the prophets and apostles, forming a seamless, self-explanatory truth.

No one can truthfully say, as we sometimes hear, “Well, I have my truth and you have yours. I have my Christ and you have yours. I have my faith and you have yours.” There is only one truth, only one historic Jesus, and only one faith.

6. One baptism

The next element: one baptism. Tragically, it is on the issue of baptism that many Christians divide. Some say, “Immersion is the only true mode of baptism.” Others reply, “Sprinkling is the only way!” Some believe in infant baptism, while others say baptism is only for adults. Some do not practice the symbol of water baptism at all, believing that baptism can only mean being spiritually immersed into the character and nature of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Despite all these arguments over the symbol for what Paul calls “one baptism,” we can agree that we are baptized into one body by one Spirit, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:13, and we are baptized into His death, as Romans 6:3 says.