Sealed With the Spirit
EPHESIANS 1:13-17
NAS Ephesians 1:13-14 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, 14 who 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.
IN THIS WEEK’S BLOG, WE WILL COMPLETE PAUL’S INTRODUCTION to his letter to the Ephesians. You will remember from earlier studies that, following his greeting, the apostle, employs a specific form of praise rooted in Jewish worship (called the berakah) to introduce his theme in the letter with one long sentence. In the Greek text, vv. 3-14 comprise one uninterrupted sentence, the longest sentence in the entire Bible…
A JEWISH “BERAKAH” IS AN EXTENDED BLESSING: the Hebrew phrase (ba-rook a-tah a-do-nai): Blessed art Thou, O Lord! Such outbursts of praise in various forms are found throughout the Jewish O.T. Here are a couple of examples…
NAS Psalm 103:1 A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
NAS Psalm 34:1 A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. I Will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
NAS Psalm 134:1 A Song of Ascents. Behold, bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD, Who serve by night in the house of the LORD!
THAT IS WHAT PAUL HAS BEEN DOING IN THESE INTRODUCTORY VERSES, blessing the Lord…
LOOK AGAIN AT HOW PAUL BEGAN HIS INTRODUCTION IN V. 3…
NAS Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
HE USES THE WORD “BLESS” NO LESS THAN 3 TIMES. A Jewish berakah is a blessing. Paul is a former Jewish rabbi who is writing to Christians who were for the most part Jewish. In my studies of Ephesians, I find this particular letter of the N.T. to be very Jewish…
BUT IT MUST BE QUICKLY ADDED THAT THE CHRISTOLOGICAL FOCUS OF Paul’s introduction marks off this specific berakah from its Jewish counterparts. Christ here is the glorious centerpiece. In vv. 3-14, the phrase “in Christ” may be found explicitly and in other words 11 times…
IN VV. 3-6, PAUL’S FOCUS HAS BEEN ON GOD THE FATHER; IN VV. 7-12, Paul’s focus shifted to God the Son; in this passage covering vv. 13-14, the last two verses of the introduction, the focus is on the Holy Spirit. Therefore, there is a distinct “Trinitarian” dimension to Paul’s opening eulogy. A eulogy is speaking well of someone…
IN HIS INTRODUCTION, PAUL SPEAKS WELL OF GOD and the marvelous things God has done for believers in salvation…
AS ANYONE WHO HAS EVER READ THIS GRAND PASSAGE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE, Paul has used exalted language to praise and exalt God. If I could somehow play for the famous opening strains of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in an effort to dramatize just how lofty is Paul’s language and subject matter in this introductory passage, I would do just that…
IT IS NO EXAGGERATION TO SAY THAT THERE IS NO MORE EXALTED PASSAGE in the N.T. than Paul’s introduction to the book of Ephesians. Including this week’s blog, we will have spent no less than 13 weeks covering these special 12 verses…
“ALTHOUGH A ‘TRINITARIAN’ ELEMENT CAN BE EASILY DISCERNED in Paul’s introduction, what emerges even more clearly from the concentration of the language in this passage is an unmistakable emphasis on the purpose or will of God.” – Lincoln…
LISTEN AGAIN TO VV. 4-5, FOR EXAMPLE…
NAS Ephesians 1:4-5 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
AND V. 9…
NAS Ephesians 1:9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
“GOD’S SOVEREIGN WILL, INITIATING AND WORKING OUT SALVATION for His people and for all things in the person and through the agency of Jesus Christ and to the praise of His own glory, captures the major thrust of that which fills Paul’s thoughts in these opening verses and cause him to bless God.” – Lincoln…
GOD THE FATHER IS THE ORIGIN OF SALVATION; GOD THE SON IS the Mediator of salvation; and God the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of salvation…
YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THE REPETITION OF THE BEAUTIFUL PHRASE “to the praise of His glory.” While this phrase may be difficult to interpret precisely, there can be no doubt of its meaning…
THE PHRASE “TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY” IS FOUND AT THE CONCLUSION of each of the three Trinitarian sections of Paul’s introduction. Verses 13-14 again…
NAS Ephesians 1:13 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, 14 who 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.
OUR LIVES TODAY ARE TO BE LIVED “TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY”…
“PAUL’S INTRODUCTORY BERAKAH MAKES USE OF A LITURGICAL STYLE, but not simply to address God in a hymn. It takes up traditional Jewish formulations, but not simply to instruct. Rather, in reminder of God’s blessings of salvation in Christ and in praise of God, it functions in such a way as to appeal to the recipients’ experience of these blessings and to stimulate them to participate in the grateful praise of God it has inaugurated.” – Lincoln…
WHEN WE RECALL WHAT GREAT THINGS GOD HAS DONE FOR US in our salvation in Christ, it should lead us to effusive gratitude and praise. It is my observation that so many who say they believe in Christ lead defeated lives simply because they do not see their lives in this fundamental perspective. When you focus on what God has done for you in Christ, you cannot help but thank God and praise God. A person who regularly thanks and praises God is not likely to lead a defeated life…
NAS Psalm 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
NAS Psalm 34:1 I Will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
THIRTEEN WEEKS IN VV. 3-14 OF EPHESIANS SHOULD HAVE HAD THE RESULT of causing us to thank and to praise God – “to the praise of His glory”…
THAT IS OUR JOB DESCRIPTION AS CHRISTIANS: the purpose of our lives, one could say, is “to the praise of the glory of God”…
“USING A JEWISH BERAKAH TO INTRODUCE THE CONCERNS OF THE LETTER reveals something of Paul’s own convictions and priorities. Obviously, he has a pervasive sense that ‘the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,’ and this means that the vision of the Church’s life and task which he presents in the letter is one that is deeply rooted in that Church’s worship, firmly located ‘in Christ,’ and profoundly aware of the splendor of God.” – Lincoln…
NO MATTER YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES, PAUL IS EXHORTING US TO BLESS GOD…
(ba-rook a-tah a-do-nai): Blessed art Thou, O Lord!…
NAS Ephesians 1:13 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, 14 who 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.
NOTICE IN V. 13 THAT PAUL SAYS THERE ARE THREE EXPERIENCES every Christian should have in the course of salvation: first, “you heard the Word of truth”; second, “you believed in Christ”; and third, “you were marked in Him with a seal”…
THE “SEAL” IS THE HOLY SPIRIT…
NOTICE ALSO THAT IT IS “WITH” NOT “BY” THE HOLY SPIRIT.” “Sealed in Him – in Christ – with the Holy Spirit”…
“GOD THE FATHER SEALS BELIEVERS IN CHRIST WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT when they have not only heard but believed the gospel of salvation. The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit is to identify believers as God’s own and thus give them the security that they belong to Him. The very fact that the Spirit indwells believers is a seal of God’s ownership of them.” – Hoehner…
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “SEALED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT”? Ralph Steadman, a great Christian writer of the past generation and the mentor of Chuck Swindoll, said that “This is undoubtedly a reference to the ancient practice of sealing letters or other official objects with sealing wax and then impressing the hot wax with a raised seal worn on a large ring bearing an identifying image.”…
THE USE OF SUCH A SEAL DENOTES TWO CONCEPTS: ownership and protection…
THE SPIRIT WHO SEALS YOU IS GOD’S MARK OF OWNERSHIP UPON YOU…
“JUST AS THE OFFICIAL SEAL ON A LETTER PRESERVED IT FROM TAMPERING, the Holy Spirit’s presence speaks of God’s preserving seal upon our lives. As Paul writes in vv. 13-14, God has guaranteed our inheritance by means of the Holy Spirit.” – Steadman…
THE GREEK WORD FOR “SEALED” IS σφραγίζω (s-fra-geed-zo). It means 1. to provide with a seal as a security measure, seal 2. to close someth. up tight, seal up 3. to mark with a seal as a means of identification, mark, seal – BDAG. This forms a basis for understanding the imagery which speaks of those who enter the Christian community as being sealed with or by the Holy Spirit Eph 1:13…
NOTICE THAT PAUL SAYS “THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE.” A promise (ἐπαγγελία [ep-anhg-e-lee-a]) is 1. a declaration to do something. with implication of obligation to carry out what is stated, promise, pledge, offer. – BDAG
HE IS “THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE” BECAUSE He was promised by the Father… The Holy Spirit was not in the hearts of believers in a permanent sense while the Lord Jesus was on earth; but He was promised…
NAS Acts 1:4 And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me;
HE IS “THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE” ALSO BECAUSE He was promised by the Lord Jesus…
NAS John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
“THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE GUARANTEE THAT ALL GOD’S PROMISES to the believer will be fulfilled.” –Hoehner (B.K.C.)…
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS INDWELLING BELIEVERS TODAY. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit as God’s guarantee that all He has promised you in His Word will one day come true! That should cause us to celebrate and to live thankful, obedient lives to the glory of God…
I HAVE OFTEN SAID THAT ON THIS BASIS OF AN UNDERSTANDING of this single passage in Ephesians 1:13-14, I cannot see how it is possible to intelligently hold the position that a true believer in Christ can ever lose his or her salvation…
WITH ALL DUE RESPECT TO THOSE WHO WOULD DISAGREE, I honestly cannot see how any thinking Christian can read Paul’s introduction to Ephesians, vv. 3-14, and say that it is possible for someone who claims to be genuinely saved to lose his or her salvation…
PAUL SAYS IN VV. 3-11, BELIEVERS HAVE BEEN BLESSED with every spiritual blessing; they have been chosen before the foundation of the world, predestined, adopted, accepted in Christ, redeemed through His blood, forgiven, given the wisdom and insight to be able to comprehend the mystery of God’s will, and received an inheritance from God. Is it even logical to believe – let alone theological – that with all that being fact, it is still possible to lose your salvation? I don’t see how…
PLEASE HEAR ME WHEN I SAY THIS: A TRUE BELIEVER IN CHRIST – that is to say one who has placed his or her trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation – can never lose that salvation… That person is eternally secure…
AS IF V. 13 WERE NOT REASSURING ENOUGH, PAUL ADDS a confirming relative clause in v. 14…
NAS Ephesians 1:14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance…
“PLEDGE” OR “GUARANTEE” AS THE NKJ HAS, OR “DOWN PAYMENT” AS the NET Bible has, is the Greek word ἀρραβών (ar-ra-bone). [Friberg] ἀρραβών, ῶνος, ὁ transliterated from the Hebrew; literally, as a legal and commercial technical term, an advance transaction that guarantees the validity of a contract or a full purchase price down payment, first installment, pledge; figuratively in the NT, of the gift of the Holy Spirit to believers…
PAUL USES THIS GREEK WORD ALSO IN 2 CORINTHIANS 1:22…
NAS 2 Corinthians 1:22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
THE ἀρραβών (ar-ra-bone), Our “first installment,” “pledge,” “deposit.” Down payment. The Greek word ἀρραβών (arraboÒn) denotes the first payment or first installment of money or goods which serves as a guarantee or pledge for the completion of the transaction. In the NT the term is used only figuratively of the Holy Spirit as the down payment of the blessings promised by God (it occurs later in 2 Cor 5:5, and also in Eph 1:14). In the “already – not yet” scheme of the NT the possession of the Spirit now by believers (“already”) can be viewed as a guarantee that God will give them the balance of the promised blessings in the future (“not yet”).
NAS Ephesians 1:14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession…
“THE GREAT, OVERRIDING PURPOSE OF GOD’S REDEMPTION of men and women is the rescuing of what is his own possession. All creation belongs to God, and in His infinite wisdom, love, and grace he chose to provide redemption for the fallen creatures he has made in His own image – for His own sake more than for their sakes, because they do not belong to themselves but to Him.” – MacArthur…
PAUL SAID IN 1 CORINTHIANS 6:20…
NAS Corinthians 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
YOU AND I ARE POSSESSIONS OF GOD! How could we ever think He would let us wander away?…
NAS Ephesians 1:14 who 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.
“TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY”… What beautiful words to end on…
“AS PAUL HAS ALREADY TWICE DECLARED IN HIS INTRODUCTION, God’s ultimate goal in redeeming men is ‘to the praise of His glory.’ We are not saved and blessed for our own glory but for God’s.” – MacArthur…
“WHEN WE GLORIFY OURSELVES WE ROB GOD of that which is wholly His. He saved us to serve and to praise Him. We are saved to be restored to the intended divine purpose of creation – to bear the image of God and bring Him greater glory. All of this is fully accomplished at the believer’s glorification – when we get to heaven – when we receive full glory and are made the perfect possession of God forever and ever more.” – MacArthur/TAR…
SUMMARY: “Using a form of praise rooted in Jewish worship (the berakah) and a language and style which suggest the impact of the Hebrew psalms and Qumran hymns of Hellenistic Judaism, the writer introduces his theme in the letter with a eulogy. In one long sentence of liturgical prose he blesses God for all the blessings God has showered upon His people.” – Lincoln…
“TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY”!…
FOR THE CHRISTIAN, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!…
(ba-rook a-tah a-do-nai)… “Blessed art Thou, O God”!…
– Professor Thomas A. Rohm
