Unity of the Father (Eph. 4:6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/8/2019 1:40 PM

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  “The Unity of the Father”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 4:6



            Message of the verses:  “6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”



            I have to say that this will be a short SD as we look at the last member of the trinity’s role of unity, having looked first at the Spirit’s role and then yesterday the Son’s role.



            We want to first look at a number of verses that speak of the basic doctrine of Judaism which is “The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” as seen in Deuteronomy 6:4.  Let us look at a couple of more verses from Deuteronomy 4:35 and 32:39 “35 “To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him.”  “39 ’See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.”   Isaiah 45:14 and 46:9 “14 Thus says the LORD, "The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush And the Sabeans, men of stature, Will come over to you and will be yours; They will walk behind you, they will come over in chains And will bow down to you; They will make supplication to you: ’Surely, God is with you, and there is none else, No other God.’"”  “9 “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.”

            Now we want to look at some verse from the New Testament that show us of His oneness.  1 Cor. 8:4-6 “6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”  Eph. 4:3-6 “3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4  There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5  one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6  one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”  James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”

            MacArthur adds “Yet the New Testament also reveals the more complete truth that the ‘one God’ is in three persons—‘Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’ (Matt. 28:19; John 6:27; 20:28; Acts 5:3-4).”

            When we look at the NT we see many times that God the Father is often used as the most comprehensive and inclusive divine title, even though it is clear from many texts in the NT that He is never separated in nature or power from the Son or the Holy Spirit.  Paul does not want to separate the Persons of the Godhead, but he wants to note their unique roles and also focus on their unity in their relationship to each other and also their relation to the church—manifested in the several different aspects mentioned in these three verses that we have been looking at.

            John MacArthur concludes this short sub-section and also this 10^th chapter, which by the way we began on the 18^th of February, with the following paragraph.  “Our ‘one God and Father,’ along with the Son and the Holy Spirit, ‘is over all and through all and in all.’  That comprehensive statement points to the glorious, divine, eternal unity that the Father gives believers by His Spirit and through the Son.  We are God created, God loved, God saved, God Fathered, God controlled, God sustained, God filled, and God blessed.  We are on people under on sovereign (‘over all’), omnipotent (‘through all’), and omnipresent (‘in all’) God.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that the God that I worship is one God in three Persons, for if that were not so then how could I have been saved, and how could I have the third Person of the Godhead living in me.  There is another thing I want to remember and that is that because God is three in One He can have love, and demonstrate love towards us because the trinity demonstrates love to each other.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Praise the Lord for His unity, and also for Him teaching me more about humility as I have studied these verses in the beginning of this 4^th chapter of Ephesians.

Today’s verse that went along with yesterday’s quotation:  “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).”

3/8/2019 2:11 PM