THE SEAL, THE PLEDGE, AND THE WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

EPHESIANS 1:12-14; 2 CORINTHIANS 1:21-22; HEBREWS 10:14-17

          To the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:12-14).

         

          Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us in God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge (2 Cor. 1:21-22).

          For by one offering He has perfected for all time all those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies for us; for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days says the Lord, I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them. He then says, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more (Hebrews 10:14-17).

INTRODUCTION

          A missionary from England died in India in the early part of the twentieth century.  Immediately after his death his former neighbors started carrying away his possessions. The English Consular was notified, and since there was no lock on the door of the missionary’s house, he pasted a piece of paper across it and affixed the seal of England on it. The looters did not dare break the seal because the world’s most powerful nation stood behind it.

          When you turn away from your sins and receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, there are series of events that take place simultaneously in your life of which you may not be even aware. First, when you are saved God justifies you. Second, the Holy Spirit baptizes you into the body of Christ. Third, the Holy Spirit takes up His residence in your heart immediately (we call it the indwelling of the Holy Spirit).

I.                  THE SEAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: EPHESIANS 1:12-14

After describing the spiritual blessings that God gives to His people in Christ, Paul adds another paragraph to emphasize that the blessings belong equally to Jewish and Gentile believers. The Apostle Paul moves from the pronoun we (himself and fellow Jewish believers) to you also (believing Gentile readers) to our inheritance (in which both groups equally share). Paul emphasizes that Christ is the One who reconciles both Jews and Gentiles, and that through union with Christ the people of God are one.

          The fourth event that takes place simultaneously at the time of salvation is the seal of the Holy Spirit. Young people, the word seal here is not a reference to the animal that bounces a ball on its nose. Women, I am not talking about something that you do with your fruit jar. Men, I am not talking about the fluid you put in the anti-freeze tank of a car when there is a leakage. The Greek word conveys the idea of impress or confirm. The word “seal” is used three times in the NT in connection with believers. It is also mentioned in the life of Jesus. The Gospel of John states, On Him (Jesus) the Father, even God has set His seal (John 6:27). Here we see that the heavenly Father sealed the Son, Jesus Christ. At the moment of conversion, you and I are sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30).

          When you put your faith and trust in Jesus you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13). The seal of the Holy Spirit of promise has two important values. First, the seal of the Holy Spirit means that you are the possession of God. Seal has to do with property and belongings. With the seal of the Holy Spirit at the time of your salvation, God is saying to you, you belong to Me; you are My possession; you are My property. That is what God said to Israel when God chose her. God said, Israel is My possession; Israel is My inheritance. A seal connotes the idea of ownership. In the OT, Jeremiah bought a piece of property (land), paid for it in the presence of witnesses, and sealed the purchase according to the Law and custom (Jer. 32:10). Jeremiah was now the owner. The allusion to the seal as the proof of purchase would have been especially significant to the Ephesians. The city of Ephesus was a seaport, and the shipmasters of the neighboring ports carried on an extensive trade in timber. The method of purchase was this: the merchant after selecting his timber, stamped it with his own signet—an acknowledged sign of ownership. In due time the merchant would send a trusted agent with the signet. He would locate all the timbers that bore the corresponding impress and claim them. The Holy Spirit seals you and me who have trusted Jesus as our Lord and Savior; that is, we are separated and set apart for God, and we are distinguished and marked as belonging to God. You and I are God’s property forever! To put a seal on something means it is yours. I have stamped all my books and the stamp reads, “From the library of Kennedy A. Adarkwa.” Therefore, if I loan a book to you with my stamp in it, it is an indication that the book is mine, not yours.

          In the Western part of the United States, ranchers put a brand on their cattle. Each rancher has his brand, his seal on the animal, indicating that it belongs to that ranch owner. When we are born of the Holy Spirit the Spirit comes into our hearts. The Spirit’s presence is God’s seal which says That one belongs to Me. I own that one and he/she is special to Me. Here is the difference: when ranchers seal their animals, when merchants seal their timber it is always external, but when God seals you with His Spirit it is internal. He alone sees the seal that He has placed on you. God seals you and I to make us like His Son Jesus Christ.

          A second aspect of a seal has to do with security. A seal in the sense of security is illustrated in the OT when the King sealed Daniel into the lion’s den so that he could not get out. In the ancient times when a king sealed a document with his signet ring, nobody could reverse what he had written. Pilate did the same when he ordered the soldiers to secure the tomb of Jesus (Matt. 27:65-66). Seal in Matthew 27:65-66 is the same Greek word used in the passages that speak of the sealing of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit seals you and I, we are secure in Christ. Have you ever thought about the fact that the Holy Spirit has sealed you? Yes, He has sealed you and I as believers. You and I are secure in Christ. Nothing can touch us (Rom. 8:38-39). A seal also indicates a finished transaction. Seals are used sometimes in important corporate documents. The seal means that the deal is done. Salvation is like a legal document. God has drawn out the term by which He would save fallen humanity. God signs it. When you say yes to Jesus you sign the document. Then God puts His Holy Spirit in your heart. The terms of the agreement are cemented. Heaven is a guarantee promise. It is just as much ours today by promise as it will be ours by experience in the future. It means we are just as much in heaven as if we had been there ten thousand years. How long will this seal last? Ephesians 4:30, tells us that we are sealed for the day of redemption. When God seals a person by the Holy Spirit, He says, this one is eternally Mine.

II. THE PLEDGE OF THE SPIRIT: 2 COR. 1:21-22; EPH. 1:14

          As you open your heart to Jesus Christ, God gives you the Holy Spirit not only as a seal, but also as a pledge. In some translations the word is earnest or deposit. In the day of Paul businessmen considered a pledge to do three things: it was a down payment that sealed a bargain, it represented an obligation to buy, and it was a sample of what was to come. Supposed you were to buy a car. The pledge would first be a down payment sealing the transaction. It also represents an obligation to buy the car. And it would be a sample of what was to come—the remaining amount of the selling price. The Holy Spirit likewise seals God’s purchase of us. And His presence shows God’s sense of obligation to redeem us completely. The presence of the Holy Spirit living in fellowship with us provides us with a foretaste, a sample of our coming life and inheritance in God’s presence.

          In Numbers 13, when the spies of Israel set out to scout the land of Canaan, they reached it at the time of the first ripe grapes. They came to the valley of Eshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes (Num. 13:23). This they brought back with them for the people of Israel to see. The cluster of grapes was the pledge of their inheritance. It was a small foretaste of what lay before them in the Promised Land. This was God’s pledge that as they moved forward in faith, they would receive in full what they now had in part. The NT refers to the pledge of the Spirit three times: 1. He [God] also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge (2 Cor. 1:22). Here the Spirit’s presence in our lives is God’s pledge that he would fulfill His promise. 2. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge (2 Cor. 5:5). The context here suggests that the Spirit in our lives is God’s pledge that we shall receive spiritual bodies at Christ’s second coming. 3. “[The Holy Spirit] is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:14). The Holy Spirit is God’s seal that we belong to Him and His pledge guaranteeing that He will do what He has promised. The Holy Spirit is like a down payment, a deposit, and a validating signature on the contract. The presence of the Holy Spirit in us demonstrates the genuineness of our faith, proves that we are God’s children, and secures eternal life for us. His power works in us to transform us now, and what we experience now is the taste of the complete change we will experience in eternity.

          A man heard a knock on his door one day. He opened his door, and a man said, “Sir, I’m here to tell you that you have received an unbelievable inheritance, a huge sum of money. It will be a while before you receive it all. I have been instructed to present you with a check.” He gave the man a check for fifty million dollars! As the man left he said, “I want you to know there’s far more than this.”

          Every blessing you and I receive, every sweet touch of God in our lives, every evidence of the moment of the Holy Spirit in our lives as believers right now is just a drop in the bucket compared to what God has waiting for us in the future. It is all part of what it means to be born of the Holy Spirit.

III. THE WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: HEBREWS 10:14-17

          Not only is the Holy Spirit our seal and pledge as Christians, but He is also our witness within, assuring us of the reality of our salvation. Jesus spoke to His disciples and gave them assurance when He was with them. In the same way the Holy Spirit witnesses in and to the hearts of all true believers. There are several passages that bring out this truth. First, the Scripture teaches us that the Holy Spirit is a witness to the finality and sufficiency of Jesus’ death on the cross for us (atonement). In Hebrews 10:14-17 the Scripture contrasts the Levitical sacrifices with the sacrifice of Christ, which was offered one for all and once for all. Animal sacrifice can never relieve your conscience from the burden of sin. Those who offer alms (saraha) can never relieve their conscience from the burden of sin because those things cannot atone for their sins. But on the other hand, by one offering He [Jesus Christ] has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us (Heb. 10:14, 15). It is a witness linked to Jeremiah 31, I will forgive their iniquity and their sins I will remember no more (v. 34). The witness of the Spirit relieves us of our fears in these days of uncertainties. Second, the Scripture also teaches that by faith in Jesus Christ, we have become the children of God. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16).

          When you were saved, you were baptized into the body of Christ, and also adopted into the family of God. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father! Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal. 4:6-7). Because the Holy Spirit declares us sons and daughters of God, we can cry out from our hearts, “Abba, Father.” This is the Magna Charta of a believer’s freedom from the power of sin to the privileges and wealth of Christ. Finally, the Scripture teaches us that the Holy Spirit witnesses to the truth of every promise God has given to us in His Word (the Bible). The Spirit who inspires the written Word (the Bible) of God also works in our hearts to assure us that its promises are true, and that they are for us. We know that Christ is our Savior and Lord and we know that we are the children of God, because the Bible tells us this and the Spirit assures us it is true. But when He the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth (John 16:13). Thy Word is truth (John 17:17). And the witness is this that God has given us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son does not have the life. These things I have written to you in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:11-13).

          Therefore, if you do not have the witness of the Holy Spirit in your heart, it is an indication that you are not a child of God. But it is not too late. You can become a child of God today. As believers the Spirit of God witnesses to our human spirit that we are the children of God. And as children of God, we are to witness to others of the love of God demonstrated to us in Christ Jesus. I believe the primary purpose of God in sending the Holy Spirit is to empower us to be His witnesses in a lost and dying world (Luke 24:45-49; Acts 1:8). All the other benefits of the Holy Spirit are secondary. I serve God because I realize that the privileges I enjoy from the Holy Spirit far exceed the responsibilities He has given me in this world. What about you? Give your life to Christ and become His follower so you can bring others to Him.