# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1906_S15
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1906. 15

only do the things which God has given us presuppose faith, in that through it we become partakers of them, but they also work faith. By the hope of our calling being held before us, the faith is worked through which we enter into the relation of children to God, our Father.

Paul next names the "one baptism," in order to call attention to the sacramental means by which men are incorporated into the Christian Church. Here too the thought shines forth: Christians stand to God and their Savior in the relation of reverent love. According to the fourth part of the chief article on baptism [in the Small Catechism], it has the meaning that we should drown and kill the old Adam in us and daily rise again. Thus it points to the new obedience. The act of baptism in the first Christian Church was an act of confession, since the candidates had first to make their confession before they were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this lies the trust that one confesses oneself to the LORD and swears Him fidelity.

Now the Apostle finally rises to the climax, saying: "One God and Father of us all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." That is a comprehensive thought. God rules over you all, over the whole congregation; He rules through you all, through the congregation; He rules in you all, in each individual member. The whole is again to express that God is our One and All. And because this is the case, the Apostle demands that we preserve the unity in the Spirit.

From the Discussion.

The essayist has very rightly left unmentioned the frequently favored reference of the last three points to the triune God, for this reference is forced. But there lies in the whole context a reference to the triune God, and many older and more recent interpreters rightly point to it. One gains again and again the impression that the three persons of the Godhead are actually the guiding thread in these verses, namely thus: There is one body, the holy Christian Church; its soul is the one Spirit, the Holy Spirit. He also directs our thoughts to the heavenly inheritance, the hope of our calling. Correspondingly, in the second member again a person is named: one LORD (Jesus), in whom we believe, and likewise in the third member: one God, the Father of us all. So as in the second member this person, "one LORD," has the emphasis, so in the first member the one Spirit and in the third the one God and Father. What makes Christians Christians, their possession, is, as comes out quite clearly here, the objective things and goods. Here now not only goods are named, but persons: Spirit, LORD, Father; their possession makes us Christians. We have the Spirit of God, stand in connection with Christ, and have God, who