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NASB | Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 4:4 There is one body [of believers] and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when called [to salvation]-- |
Bible Question: We were discussing Philipians and we got into Philipians 1:19, and got into a discussion of the "Spirit of Jesus Christ." We were wondering if there was a difference between the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God? Intuitively we thought that they are all the same, but were wondering where and how to figure that out? So, basically we're asking about the Trinity and what it looks like. |
Bible Answer: Hi, pucktricks! This is the mystery of our God: Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, over all, through all and within all. On each one of us God’s favour has been bestowed in whatever way Christ allotted it. (Ephesians 4:3-7) But how can there be just one Spirit?: You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But when Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has made his home in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you. So then, my brothers, we have no obligation to human nature to be dominated by it. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the habits originating in the body, you will have life. All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God; for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Sprit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God. (Romans 8:9-16) Paul is telling us that the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Christ live in the believer; but not only that but that the Holy Spirit himself (He who is the Third Divine Person) lives in the believer and unites with the believer’s spirit to afford him/her to call God “Father.” Did Paul invent the idea that God, as the Holy Trinity, lives in the believers? Not at all! Our Lord Jesus bestowed upon him the fullness of apostleship (Galatians 1:11-12), so he is able to speak with the full authority of Christ who revealed that God, in Three Divine Persons, lives in the believers: I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you for ever, the Sprit of truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you. Jesus replied: Anyone who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make a home in him. (John 14:16-17, 23) If God has chosen to reveal Himself as three distinct Divine Persons, how can a true believer contend to obey one Person but not the other two or to worship One without worshipping all Three? To believe is to have faith; to have faith is to hope in that which is not completely known (Hebrews 11:1-40). To know everything before we believe is devoid of faith, (hope, trust) in Him who commands that we place ourselves in His hands! The three Divine Persons of God may well be a mystery that will not be revealed totally till we meet God face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12 and 1 John 3:2); till them we must obey Jesus and believe, not because we have full understanding--only the Holy Spirit knows the depths of God: 1 Corinthians 2:10--but because we trust Him and His Word: …Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. (John 20:28-29) God Bless! Angel |