The Seal of God

"In him (Christ) you also, having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and having believed in him, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance unto the possession purchased, to the praise of his glory" (Eph. 1:13-14).

The sealing of the Holy Spirit in the believer represents:

Assurance of possession: in the manner of an indelible mark, the Holy Spirit signals that our heart belongs to God, no matter our former condition, nor our present condition. "But the foundation of God is firm, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His..." (2 Tim. 2:19). The fact that we are God's property means that he will come and get what belongs to him. The Lord Jesus Christ has a precious inheritance on earth today that the Father gave him. Will he forget it? Never.

Surety of security. God's seal secures our heart. No one who has been sealed by God can be lost. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand" (Jn. 10:27-28, See Rev. 9:4). No matter what a believer's present state is, the truth does not change; his spiritual reality is certain, he is a Son of God, therefore, he belongs to God. "Who shall accuse God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ is he that died; nay, he that is risen again, he that also is at the right hand of God, he that also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:33-35, 38-39).

Certificate that something is genuine. Who are the true children of God? Those who subscribe to this or that doctrine, those who possess a great wealth of biblical knowledge? Not necessarily; what distinguishes the children of God is having the seal of the Holy Spirit. This seal means that God says: "This child is mine; I recognize him; he was begotten by me; he has my genes, my very nature". Although this may seem too great, Scripture tells us that God has made us partakers of his nature (2 Peter 1:4). No one becomes a child of God except by the miracle of the new birth, and that by the Holy Spirit. It is not enough to be a creature of God to be a child of God. All men are God's creatures, but only those who have been begotten by the Holy Spirit when they receive Christ in their hearts are sons.

Granting of an "advancement". In ancient manuscripts, the word arrabon (arras) often refers to a certain amount of money given in advance when buying something. Thus, the Spirit is a sign or guarantee of the glory that we will receive in the future. Today we have a part of the whole, tomorrow we will have the whole. Today's glory, though marvelous, will be multiplied tomorrow in the glory of Christ.

The seal of God, which is the Holy Spirit, speaks to us of all this.

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