Sealed by His Spirit

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 18, 1913

Sealed by His Spirit

Chapter 1, Verses 13, 14, A.R.V.

(NOTE.— There is a great, threefold view in the first chapter of Ephesians, in the marvelous sentence beginning with verse 3 and ending with verse 14. We have, first, God's great plan concerning man before sin entered, that plan to be perfected in Christ Jesus, which carries us forward to verse 6; secondly, that plan as worked out under new conditions, but by the same power and love and grace, in the sacrifice of our Lord; and, thirdly, God's active agency in the development of character, verses 13, 14.)

Questioning the Text

1. What did we hear in connection with the revelation of Christ to us?

"In whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation." Verse 13. Note 1.

2. What did this gospel lead us to do?

"In whom, having also believed." Verse 13. Note 2.

3. In what did that belief result?

"Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." Verse 13. Note 3.

4. What is this Spirit of promise?

"Which is an earnest of our inheritance." Verse 14. Note 4.

5. Unto what does it look forward?

"Unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of His glory." Verse 14. Note 5.

Notes

1. "In whom"— that is, in Christ. "Also trusted," in our Common Version, is not in the original. "Ye also" is the subject of a verb which occurs later,— "are sealed." The participial clause, however, brings in a thought in the beginning of the verse which is worthy of our note,— "having heard the word of the truth;" and "the word of the truth" he declares to be "the gospel of your salvation." That is what the positive side of God's truth always is to His children. We read in Ps. 119:142, "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is truth." But all God's truth is not comprehended in His law as such. Our text declares that the gospel is truth. All the great positive, living facts of God's Word are truth. The truth differs from fact in this, that facts are mere dead things, statements of things that are so, or have been so; but truth is always living, and God's truth throbs with His life. The psalmist has expressed it: "The sum of Thy Word is truth." It includes both God's law and gospel. The law reveals to us sin; the gospel takes away the sin and writes in our heart the holy law, so that it no longer condemns us, but becomes a witness of the righteousness which we receive through the gospel. Therefore Paul was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because that in it was revealed the righteousness of God. Rom. 1:16.

2. "In whom, having also believed."— Bible belief, or living belief, is not mere assent to a proposition. There are thousands who assent to facts; that is not Bible belief. The belief which is effective is that which brings living union with Christ. The apostle has expressed it in another place thus: "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." It doesn't stop short of appropriating the righteousness which God gives us through Jesus Christ. It doesn't stop short of the righteousness which He wishes developed in our lives. It doesn't stop short of a faithful, dutiful, commandment-keeping heart, a heart that could say with the psalmist, "O how love I Thy law! It is my meditation all the day" (Ps. 119:97); or with the "beloved disciple," "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous" (1 John 5:3). Such is true Bible belief, of faith.

3. "Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."— Belief brings the Spirit of God. In fact, it is the Spirit of God that is the operating power of the Most High, in every process of conversion and regeneration. It is the Spirit of God that broods over the sinner as it did over the waste of darkness in the beginning. Gen. 1:2. It is the Spirit that presses home upon the sinner the fact that he is a sinner, that enables him to see himself as God's law reveals him, which presses upon his heart, as it did that of the apostle Paul, that "the law is spiritual," but he is "carnal, sold under sin." It is the Spirit that brings to his mind the word of the gospel, that there is hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And finally, it is that Spirit that writes upon his heart God's law, and thus seals the soul as one of the family of God. It gives assurance to the child of God, because it changes his heart from hatred of God's law to the love of God's law. "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." He does not see the law as an avenging sword hung over his head, but as a blessed guide, a monitor; and the Spirit writing that law within his heart brings him the twofold witness of the law without and the law within, revealing to him that he is truly a child of God. And thus the Word gives twofold witness: "The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." A seal is that which makes an impression, or stamp. It is used in official documents as a testimony that the one who sealed it has acknowledged and legalized the document to which it is attached. So it is that God stamps those children who yield themselves to Him as His own, placing upon them His own character.

4. "Earnest of our inheritance."— "Earnest" means pledge. It is a not uncommon thing for men to pay earnest or pledge money; for instance, a drover purchases cattle of the farmers and does not pay all the price until the cattle are delivered on a certain day, but he pays a portion of that money to bind the bargain. That is earnest money. It binds both parties: it binds the drover to take the cattle and pay the rest of the money when the farmer delivers them, and it also binds the farmer to hold those cattle for the drover, and prevents his selling them to any one else. It is, in fact, a part payment, sometimes called "caution money." It is a deposit in pledge of full payment. So God gives His Holy Spirit to His children a pledge of the glorious fulfilment at the end.

5. "Unto the redemption of God's own possession."— "The purchased possession," in the Common Version. The word originally means a making to remain over and above, preservation, preservation for one's self, acquisition, a thing acquired, or a possession; used here collectively for the people possessed; as the circumcision for those circumcised (Phil. 3:2), the election for those chosen (Rom. 11:7). "God's own possession," in the Revised Version, is simply an insertion of "God's own" for the sake of clearness. (See Vincent's "Word Studies.") So the "earnest" money of God— the Holy Spirit— is given to His children to assure them that they are God's own possession, and that the inheritance, the glorious eternal life which lies before, will be theirs. Trouble may intervene; God remains the same. Death may cut one off temporarily; but the inheritance waits, and the One who has given the Spirit, and has promised the inheritance, has broken the power of the grave, and will bring all His children home. They are His own possession. He counts them, tho their graves number millions, as still alive, because in His purpose they are alive, and will live when the Lord Jesus shall come the second time.

"Unto the praise of His glory."— Three times we have this expression, almost in the same words: the first in its application to God's plan (verses 3-6)— "to the praise of the glory of His grace;" the second in the working out of that plan despite of sin,— "unto the praise of His glory;" and the third the development of character in each individual by the power of the Spirit,— "unto the praise of His glory." So it all shall be. All the efforts of the enemy of all righteousness to thwart God's plan shall in the end redound to His glory. That is His purpose that He has predestinated. He invites all to fall in with His purpose, the pleasure of His will. He has not predestinated death; He has predestinated character and life. If we will yield to His Word, the character will be ours, the inheritance ours, the consummation of the work of the Spirit ours; and we shall be "to the praise of the glory of His grace" throughout all eternity.