“Marked with a Seal” Ephesians 1:11-14

Uncertain times can challenge us in ways we never imagined. We may question many of our institutions that have long stood for stability and assurance. We can question our neighbors, both literal and figurative. We can come out of a challenging situation with new ideas about life, about society and even about God.

During this time of illness and social distancing, it’s a good time to reflect on that which is real and true. It is time to recall the promises of God.

Background

We have been looking at a series of statements from the Bible that are reminding us of where we truly are in our relationship with God. The focus on the verses is to remind us of what the Bible teaches, not what our feelings show. There are times we may feel that our relationship with God is on shaky ground, but the Bible assurances that the true believer is a new creation, secured in Him to walk in His ways with confidence and peace. This walk of faith always triumphs over the feelings Satan uses to try to distract us from who and what we are in Christ.

As we look at the current passage, there are a few things that need to be pointed out. First, these verses are the conclusion of one long sentence that Paul began in Ephesians 1:3. Paul dictated his letters, and he often spoke quickly, not stopping to take a break. Imagine what it must have been like to write as Paul spoke. He would get caught up in his wonder and awe of God and break into praise in mid-thought. The benefit is that God conveys to us the words He wants us to know and to read in order to grow in our understanding of Him. The overarching theme of the long sentence is to tress the work of the Trinity in salvation—the Father’s plan, the Son’s action, the Spirit’s presence and current activity—all designed to bring glory and praise to God.

The tranlsators of the original Greek were able to break Paul’s one long sentence into simpler sentences that would help us in our understanding of the verses. In the four verses we are considering, the verses are broken into three sentences. The first sentence is in verses 11-12, with the second sentence taking up the first part of v. 13. The final sentence begins at the second half of v. 13 and concludes in v. 14. In reading these three sentences, we come to the following conclusion:

Central Truth: It was God’s plan to include us in Christ and to seal us with His Holy Spirit to the praise of His glory.

God’s plan:

Was Set in Motion before the Creation (11-12)

Paul uses first person and second person pronounces in these sentences he wrote. He uses “we” in the first sentence. This sentence reads (in the NIV), “In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory.”

“We” refers to the Jewish nation. It was God’s predetermined plan to select Abraham and his descendants to be the vessel through which God would work in our world. To this nation, Israel, God gave His law to point us to Him and it was through this same nation that God would send His Messiah. This plan was all of the Father’s making, to ensure His will would be accomplished—the salvation and redemption of all believers and the restoration of all creation (cf. Romans 8:18-25).

God’s consistent nature is what Paul is referring to in the statement “according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.” God had a plan worked out before the creation of our world and our universe, and the plan was that redemption would come through His Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.

The sentence concludes with the affirmation that it was the Jewish nation that had first hope in the coming Messiah. It was prophesied in the Old Testament and the people had been anticipating the Messiah’s coming for ages. This is what Paul means when he writes, “in order that we, who were the first to hope in [the] Christ.” The original Greek includes the word “the” before Christ, indicating that they were looking forward to the generic messiah, not Jesus Christ specifically.

So, to summarize, God has always had a plan, and that plan was that He would reveal Himself through Abraham’s descendants to reach out into the world. He was preparing the world through Israel for the coming of the Messiah, who is Jesus Christ, Son of Man and Son of God. And because it was all a part of the Father’s plan, the praise and the glory are reserved exclusively for Him.

Includes Us in Christ (13a)

It is in this sentence that Paul’s use of the plural personal pronoun shifts from first person to second person: “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” (I have added the italics to stress the second personal.)

The emphasis changes from the generic messiah to the specific Christ and the saving work that came solely through Him. God had used His chosen people, Israel, to bring the revelation and the Christ into our world, but He was also working in the lives of those who would receive Christ by also preparing us to respond to the gospel by faith and acceptance.

It is a fact of this verse that, because we heard and received the gospel, we are now included in Christ. This inclusion means that we are now part of God’s people. Not that we are now Jewish and obligated to obey the laws given through Moses, but that we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into the wondrous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10). God’s grace has set us free from sin and established us firmly and permanently in His family (cf. John 1:12-13; John 10:27-30).

This inclusion comes about through the truth we learned in the gospel. We learned the truth of God’s word, but we also learned the Truth of God’s Word. Jesus Christ Himself is the Word, and He is the Truth. If we “hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). This inclusion means that we are now children of Truth, and we are obligated by our commitment to Him to be people who are honest and trustworthy ourselves. Being people of truth, we owe it to God and ourselves to be well-informed and accurate in all matters, not just matters of religion. If we prove to be unreliable in one area, we call into question our reliability in other matters, as well. Be honest, be truthful, be trustworthy (cf. Matthew 5:33-37). By this is Christ glorified and praised through those who follow Him.

Seals Us with a Promise of that We are His (13b-14)

In Paul’s final sentence, he uses both “you” and “our” to show the inclusion of the gospel for all who believe, Jew and Gentile. “Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory.”

This is the verse that is where we want to spend some time. It is filled with truths that impact our faith and our relationship with God. The first part is based on things that happened in the past of our lives. “Having believed (past tense), you were marked (past tense) in Him with a seal.”

The use of a seal was most often used in official documents written during Paul’s lifetime. Most documents were written on papyrus scrolls. When the document was complete and the ink was dried, the papyrus was rolled up and tied. The knots of the string were then sealed with wax. The writer of the letter would further seal the letter by inserting his insignia into the still warm wax, thus making the letter official and safe. If the seal was broken prior to the recipient opening the document himself, then it was assumed that someone had tampered with the contents of the document and it was no longer valid. The seal, then, was very important.

The moment you and I first believed, we were immediately sealed with God’s Spirit. This marks us as officially belonging to Him. We are marked as part of His family and His chosen people through the seal of the Holy Spirit. This seal is a guarantee to us that we are His and that we cannot and will not fall from grace. This is a faith statement that we must use to refute the times that Satan uses our emotions, our feelings, to cause us to doubt our relationship with God.

The second part of this sentence points out that the Holy Spirit was promised to us. The promise comes from God and it is given to us. God is faithful (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Thessalonians 3:3), and all of God’s promises are made “Yes” in Jesus Christ (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:18-22). The moment we believed, the promised Holy Spirit entered into us and we became alive in Christ. Sin was washed away by Christ’s redemptive act on the cross, and the Spirit came to guide us into His words and truths, to open our eyes to the Scripture and to act as Christ’s presence in our lives and in our world. It is the Spirit within us that enables us to know and do God’s will, and that interprets our prayers to God. All of this is a faith statement of fact. God’s word tells us this and more about the promised Holy Spirit. Through His Spirit, we have access to God, to the praise of His glory.

The third thing about this statement is that the Spirit acts as a down payment on a promise yet to be fulfilled. “The promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession.” The phrase “deposit guaranteeing” is from a Greek commercial word, and it is a common practice in our world. It means an earnest down payment that is made with the promise/assurance full payment will be received at a designated later date. We buy a car, we put down a down payment. We make an offer on a new home, we put down earnest money that will be applied to the final purchase price of the home.

The same is true of the Holy Spirit. Not only does He seal us in God, but He also acts as the guarantee of all that will come to us when Christ returns and we see Him in all His glory. On the day when all things are made new, the promises made through the Holy Spirit will be fulfilled and we will enter into our full inheritance—eternal freedom from sin and its suffering, freedom to be all that God has always intended us to be. We will enter into the place of many rooms Jesus referenced in John 14, that place that is being prepared for us will become ours. We shall behold Christ face-to-face. And all of this is guaranteed to us through the indwelling presence of God’s Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

In this time of uncertainty, we can turn to God’s word to see that we are assured of some rock-solid truths. We are included in Christ. We are people of truth. We are marked by God’s seal, the Holy Spirit. And we are guaranteed a full inheritance.

All this is a statement of faith-fact that must take hold in our lives. It must bring forth fruit and assurance as we walk with Christ. Knowing we are His, knowing we are sealed by Him, knowing that we have the promise of eternal fellowship with Jesus is a comfort and a security when so much is awash in unknowns.

We know God. More importantly, He knows us and loves us and secures us with His presence in us.

To the praise of His glory.