Ephesians 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, NET
Paul uses often uses “Lord” rather than “Christ” when referring to Jesus since the Greek word for Christ translates as “smeared with oil”. The Romans understand “Lord” because they are required to visit a temple once a year and proclaim Caesar as Lord. The use of this title puts the early Christians on a collision course with Rome since the Romans hear this as Jesus being competition for Caesar. Nevertheless, Paul’s use of “Lord” fits well as Jesus is the bringer of the kingdom and his incarnation establishes Him as Lord.
It is different for us today because, like Peter in Matthew 16, we recognize that Jesus is the Christ and is the Son of the living God. In our baptismal (or confirmation) ceremonies, we acknowledge not only Jesus as Lord but Savior as well. (Savior indicates that we have a personal relationship with Him).
There is a theology that separates accepting Jesus as our Savior from submitting to Him as Lord thereby making it a multi-step process. We can see this to some extent in 1Corinthians 3 where Paul is criticizing them for not embracing Jesus as Lord, even though they are saved. The most likely reason that some see this as two separate experiences is that while we recognize Jesus as Lord at conversion (as otherwise he couldn’t save us), it still takes some spiritual growth to fully grasp who Jesus is and to surrender our lives to Him.
Romans 10:9 because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. NET
Faith can be both a noun or a verb and compounding the problem is that the same Greek word is used for both. As such, we can look at this two ways: 1) there is a body of knowledge of things that are believed in order to be a Christian, and 2) the saving faith we have by putting our trust in Christ. Faith comprises more than just information as we must agree with it and must also trust it (meaning that we give ourselves over to it).
There are five baptisms mentioned in the New Testament. First is the baptism of repentance practiced by John the Baptist. This was really nothing new here as the Jewish people have had ritual bathing (Mikvah) as a symbol of cleansing or purity long before John came along (and still do today). We see this mentioned in Acts 19 where there was a group of people who had been baptized by John the Baptist but what they experienced was not a Christian baptism. Second is what we would call a Christian baptism which is what Paul is referring to in this verse. This brings us to number three which is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Fourth is the baptism of fire which points toward judgment. We can’t see God without being holy and this can’t come about until we are purified. Most, if not all of us, will fall short of being sanctified when we die so something has to happen to make us holy. The traditional Protestant position is that a complete sanctification will take place at the instant we die. Catholics go in a different direction with the concept of Purgatory (from the Greek word “pur” meaning fire) where believers will be purified. This has gotten turned a little sideways at times with the focus being more on punishment than on sanctification. But this viewpoint seems to be changing to some extent within the Catholic Church. Interestingly enough, there are some within the Protestant church today, such as Dr. Jerry Walls of Houston Baptist, who visualize a Protestant type of purgatory.
“When I wrote my book on purgatory, the third of my trilogy on the afterlife, I was trying to come up with a good image for the cover. Most of the images of purgatory that I found pictured it in punitive terms that conveyed the satisfaction model more than the sanctification model. Purgatory looked more like hell where a debt was paid than a place of gracious cleansing by a God of holy love. I shared this with a friend, and he came up with a creative suggestion, namely, that I use a picture of Christ washing the feet of the disciples. That’s what I did, and at the front of the book, I have the verses from John 13:6-9, spelled out in the shape of wash bowl”:
John 13:6 Then he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “You do not know what I am doing now, but you will understand later.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” NHEB
“That passage depicts not only our initial resistance to sanctification, like a child sometimes resists his bath, but also our eventual joyful embrace of it. As we come to understand our need of a bath in order to have a “share” with our heavenly Father, in order to be fully at home in the heart of his love, we will welcome the cleansing like a child who comes to love his bath”. Interview with Dr. Jerry Walls from: https://www.seedbed.com/conversations-jerry-walls-on-heaven-hell-purgatory/
For a Catholic viewpoint using 1Corinthians 3:11-15 as the backdrop of their view of Purgatory, paste or click here: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/purgatorys-purifying-fire
Last is the baptism of suffering. When John and James requested to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus, His question to them was whether they would be be able to drink the cup that He drank or be baptized with the baptism that He experienced.