# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1906_S21
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1906. 21

whom (Christ) we also have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." It is thus the consequence of the divine decree that the Jews, who have the characteristic that they hoped in Christ beforehand, have come to the inheritance. And since we have already heard that the Church which He causes to be established by the Spirit in time is the one Church, there lies in this also that it is ordained by God and is carried out in time according to His ordinance. Then he says further of the Gentile Christians (v. 13): "in whom (Christ) ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, namely the Gospel of your salvation; in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." Thus through the Holy Spirit the same work is carried out by means of the preaching of the Gospel among the Gentiles also. The expression "sealed with the Spirit of promise" means: sealed with the Spirit who is promised. He alludes here to the passage in Joel: "In the last days I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh," etc. In this too there lies not only that the Holy Spirit establishes the one congregation, but that this happens in accordance with the promise, by God's ordinance.

The second thought, that Jesus has established the unity, we have already touched upon several times. It is expressed in the second chapter, where Jesus is called "our peace," who has abolished the dividing wall. To this comes then in the third chapter the exposition that the Christian congregation has now actually been established on earth by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel; it says there, vv. 2–5: "Ye have heard . . ., how that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery . . ., which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." This thought he then develops further in the course of the chapter.

From this there results as the doctrine of the Apostle concerning the unity in the Spirit that it is ordained by God, established by Christ through His blood and carried out by the Holy Spirit. And this is the reason why we should preserve the unity in the Spirit as a high good.

From the Discussion.

Here one may ask: In what relation do faith, love and hope stand to one another? The Holy Spirit carries out the unity in the Spirit: He works and sustains faith, love and hope. Now we must hold fast that this takes place in a quite definite order; we may not, for example, say: He works first love or hope and then faith. We must hold fast a definite sequence if we want to hold fast that the unity in the Spirit is carried out through the one Gospel. The Holy Spirit establishes the unity among Christians by