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Ephesians 4:1–6
“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (vv. 4–6).
Early in Christian history, the church sought to put to writing succinct summaries of the biblical teaching on Christ. Probably the greatest of these summaries is the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381, which is commonly called the Nicene Creed. This statement includes key teachings on the deity of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, but it also includes a description of the church and four of its key attributes. When we recite the Nicene Creed, we confess belief “in one holy catholic and Apostolic church.”
Proceeding with our study of ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church, we will today consider the oneness or unity of the church. Here it is important to say that the church’s unity is a reality and is also aspirational. Note that in today’s passage, Paul states rather matter-of-factly that “there is one body,” referring to the church (Eph. 4:1–6). Yet just a few verses later, the Apostle sets forth unity as something toward which the church is moving but has not yet arrived at, for he says that God has given His church various offices to equip the saints “until we all attain to the unity of the faith” (vv. 11–14). Of course, even Jesus prayed for His people to be one (John 17:22–23), thereby indicating that church unity is something that we must work toward and that has not yet been achieved.
To understand how the unity of the church is both a future goal to which we aspire and a present reality, we must distinguish between the visible church and the invisible church. The visible church consists of all those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, having been baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is called the visible church because it reflects what is visible to us—professions of faith and water baptism. We cannot see the true state of another person’s heart. Some people in the visible church profess faith but have not really trusted in Jesus. Not all Israel is truly Israel (Rom. 9:6). The unity of the visible church is aspirational, for schisms have divided the church into many denominations.
The invisible church consists of all those who profess faith and have truly rested in Christ alone for salvation. We call it the invisible church because its scope is invisible to the human eye but not to God, who can see the hearts of all people (Jer. 20:12). The invisible church is already one in reality, for in being united to Jesus by faith, we are united to one another as His body even if it does not manifest itself outwardly in organizational oneness (1 Cor. 12:12–13).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in his book Everyone’s a Theologian: “There is indeed a genuine unity of the church, and it is found across denominational lines in the invisible fellowship, the communion of the saints. There is an unbroken fellowship, a spiritual unity, among all true Christians by virtue of their common union with Christ.” We can celebrate this unity by fellowshipping with Christians across denominational lines when appropriate.
For further study
- Psalm 133
- Ezekiel 37:15–28
- 1 Corinthians 12:12–31
- Galatians 3:28
The bible in a year
- Jeremiah 38–39
- Hebrews 2