The Platform of Christian Unity: There is One Body
Thinking about Ephesians 4:4.
A few days ago, I shared an article about the life worthy of the calling of the gospel.
You can go back and read it here…
Ephesians 4:1-3 is also known as “The Attitude of Christian Unity.” After Paul describes the mindset required for unity among God’s people, he then mentions seven “ones.”
These seven ones, beginning with the “one body” in Ephesians 4:4, are sometimes called “The Platform of Christian Unity.” If we desire to be united as Jesus desires (John 17:20-21), we must stand where the Bible stands concerning the one body.
For this study on the “one body,” we will mostly confine ourselves to what Paul wrote in Ephesians.
The Relationship between Jesus and His Body.
The church is Jesus’ body (Ephesians 1:22-23).
And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Jesus is the head of the church. He has been given this position and authority by God the Father.
Jesus’ church is His body. The church is connected to Jesus, and it belongs to Him.
Jesus’ body - His church - is the fulness of Him who continues to fill all in all. Jesus would not be complete in some sense without His church, which is His body. His church fully completes Jesus - the One who “fills all in all.”
There is only one (Ephesians 4:4).
There is one body…
There is one body; there is one church.
But what is this one body, this one church? It’s the one Jesus promised to build upon His identity as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16-18).
There are not multiple bodies; Jesus does not have multiple churches. There is only one body - one church - Jesus’ body.
Compared to a marriage (Ephesians 5:22-33).
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Once again we see that Christ is head of the church (Ephesians 1:22-23).
Christ is also called the Savior of the body. There is only one Savior of the one body – Jesus Christ. The saved ones are the ones who are in the one body - the one church - of the Savior
The church is subject to Christ. Jesus’ church is submissive to Him and obeys Him.
The love that Christ has for His church is demonstrated in how He gave Himself for her - shedding His own blood for His church (Acts 20:28). His love is also shown in the holy life for God’s glory He gives His church. The Lord’s church has a wonderful future because of what Jesus has done and His great love for His church.
The Results of Being in Jesus’ Body.
Reconciliation and peace (Ephesians 2:13-18).
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
In Jesus’ one body, Jews and Gentiles are reconciled to God through the cross. To be reconciled means “to transfer from a certain state to another which is quite different” – Mounce.
Although both Jews and Gentiles were sinners and enemies of God because of their sin (Romans 5:6-9), Jesus reconciles both groups back to God “in one body through the cross.”
And those in Christ now have peace with God - the peace proclaimed in the gospel of Christ.
Fellow heirs (Ephesians 3:1-7).
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
Under the Law of Moses, a distinction was made between Jews and Gentiles. Even Gentile converts to Judaism were not viewed as equal to full-blooded Jews.
There is an allusion here to a physical “wall of partition” in the temple by which the court of the Gentiles was separated from that of the Jews. A sign hung in the court warning all Gentiles that should he proceed any further “he was liable to instant death.” - Wacaster, Studies in Galatians and Ephesians, 305
However, the “mystery” in Christ is that this distinction has been removed. The gospel is truly for all (Romans 1:16-17).
The Jews and Gentiles are both heirs in the same body of Christ. This means Jews and Gentiles are co-heirs or fellow participants. Jews and Gentiles are partakers of the same promises in Christ through the Gospel.
What is Revealed about God by Jesus’ Body?
The wisdom of God in His church (Ephesians 3:8-12).
To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.
God's manifold (immense, multi-sided, infinite) wisdom is made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
The church declares God’s infinite wisdom.
Too many people today want to disregard the church - or what they know as “church” - and just have a relationship with Jesus. But we shouldn’t want to toss aside something that, when we follow God’s plan, declares His immense wisdom.
Rather than discarding the church, we should look to God’s Word and return to His plan for His church - rather than follow our own desires for “our churches.”
God receives glory in His church (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
God receives glory in the church by Christ Jesus. The One who is powerful beyond our ability to fully comprehend receives glory in the church by Jesus Christ to all generations, forever and ever.
Which church is this? It’s Jesus’ church, His one body.
How Jesus’ Body is to Interact with Itself.
Every member is equipped to serve (Ephesians 4:11-14).
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
The saints are equipped for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. In the first century, this was partly accomplished by the miraculous spiritual gifts. Today, we are equipped to build up the body of Christ by the completed revealed Word of God (1 Corinthians 13:8-13).
Those who teach God’s Word and shepherd God’s people are to equip every member of the body of Christ to serve (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).
Love is the motive for growth (Ephesians 4:15-16).
but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Christ is the head, and from Him, the whole body is joined together. The body works together for the edifying of itself in love.
The church is to be motivated by a love for the truth, a love for Christ, and a love for others.
To which church did the Lord add the 3,000 on Pentecost who responded to Peter’s Gospel sermon (Acts 2:47)? It was the Lord’s church He had promised to build (Matthew 16:18).
Just as they repented and were baptized by the Lord’s authority and were added to Jesus’ church (Acts 2:38), we too must respond to the Gospel message and be baptized into His one body (1 Corinthians 12:13).
There is one body, one church. This is the Lord’s body, the Lord’s church, the one He promised to build.
If we desire to be united in Christ, we must teach and follow God's words regarding His one body – this is non-negotiable.
The first “plank” in “The Platform of Christian Unity” is “there is one body.”
