# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1906_S12
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

12 Proceedings of the twenty-first convention

The Essayist [Referent].

We now come to the words: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." We have already said: With this the Apostle wants to show how self-evident it is that we preserve the unity in the Spirit. But one also hears from these words how a Christian must be minded. The main thought seems to be that the disposition of Christians must express itself in reverent love toward God and their Savior.

For the words "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" many interpretations have been found, and many questions have been attached to them. Evidently all the weight lies on the first word, "one Lord," and the two other words show in what relationship the Christians stand to this Lord. Therefore the one faith is not to be understood as the doctrine of faith, and if, with the third item, "one baptism," the question is asked why the Lord's Supper is not named, since the unity of the Church comes to expression precisely in the Lord's Supper too, one must give this answer according to the context: The Apostle calls attention to the fact that Jesus is the one Lord of the Church, and then names first faith as that by which we are grounded on this one Lord or stand in connection with Him; for faith is trust in the LORD Jesus. Then he names further baptism as that sacrament by which one is incorporated into the Church and stands in a reverent relationship to the true God and Savior. The Jews with their legalistic conception also acknowledge God as their Lord, and likewise the heathen speak of their God or their gods; but that is quite different from a Christian. The Jews recognize in God a Lord with whom one must haggle over salvation after the manner of the Pharisee; they thereby place themselves, in a way, on a level with Him. What is characteristic of heathenism is that one regards the deity by and large as a power hostile to man, fears it, and tries by all sorts of ceremonies of worship to secure oneself against its hostile influence. The Christian, on the other hand, acknowledges God as his Lord in the childlike reverence that is peculiar to Christianity and proceeds from faith.

This thought, that Jesus Christ is the LORD, is a main point in the first three chapters of the Epistle. Everywhere in the New Testament where Jesus is called the Lord, there lies in it a peculiarly warm tone, so that one can tell at once from the word itself and from the context how different the way of the Christians is from that of the Jews and heathen. Right in chap. 1:9 the Apostle comes to this thought: "Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, that it should be