Faith is a funny thing, isn’t it? But what is faith?Faith is sometime loosely defined as an apprehension of something greater than what we know. This, of course, is false. Then for some it is the knowledge of certain doctrines of religion that are adhered to in life. That again is not the definition of faith. Faith for the Christian is complete trust or confidence in God and His Word. It is conviction and dependance on God.As you may know, Ephesians 4:5 states very clearly that there is just one faith. But we live in a world in which there appears to be many faiths. There are 12 major classifications of religions and with hundreds of subdivisions. There is a popular belief that many people hold says: “There are many ways to God and all religions are equally valid.” This is followed with the idea that all religions are basically the same.This is totally false. Certainly, there are some similarities to the ethics and ideas of the various religions, but there are huge fundamental differences among these 12 religions about who or what God is, what God is like, what God is doing in time and history, in how God saves, and what God requires from people.If God provided many different paths to salvation then that would lead to confusion and it would make the sacrifice of Jesus unnecessary. If people could be saved without the death of His own Son, then why would God offer that as one of the many paths to God? That doesn’t make sense.With this in mind, we must ask the question, what is this one faith that Paul says leads to unity? This one faith is a reference that that total trust, confidence, dependance on God that was revealed by Jesus Christ and His salvific sacrifice; it is the “faith” that was revealed by His apostles through the power of the Spirit. As Jude tells us, “Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all” (Jude 1:3).Ultimately as Paul taught in Ephesians 4, there is one faith, because there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one baptism, and one God and Father. There is one faith because there is one body of truth ...
