Spiritual Gifts part 126: We are sealed in Christ by the Father with the Spirit

Pastor-Teacher

John Farley

Thursday,

June 2, 2011

F. The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit, 2 Cor 1:22; EPH 1:13-14; EPH 4:30.

The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit is our assurance from God of our eternal security, our secure future.

Sealing with the Spirit means that God the Holy Spirit, by virtue of the fact that He indwells us permanently, is the seal placed by God the Father upon every believer,

 marking  us with His ownership, approval, protection, and signature guarantee of our eternal security.

Whenever you think of the sealing ministry of God the Holy Spirit, think “eternal security”.

 

σΦραγίζω

sphragizo; to stamp (with a signet or private mark) for security or preservation (literally or figuratively)

The noun is sphragis ; a signet; by implication, the stamp impressed (as a mark of privacy, or genuineness), literally or figuratively.

sphragis can refer either to the instrument that makes the mark, or the mark itself  - the impression made.

 

Ownership
Authenticity
Privacy
Security
Safekeeping
Authority
Identity

 

ἀρραβών

arrhabon  a pledge, i.e. part of the purchase-money or property given in advance as security for the rest:

earnest-money deposited by the purchaser and forfeited if the purchase was not completed.

In the NT it is used only of that which is assured by God to believers; it is said of the Holy Spirit as the divine "pledge" of all their future blessedness, 2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; in EPH 1:14, particularly of their eternal inheritance.

In modern Greek, arrabona is an "engagement ring."

The first or initial payment of money or assets, as a guarantee for the completion of a transaction or pledge.

Money which in purchases is given as a pledge that the full amount will subsequently be paid.

God the Father is the agent who sealed us.

We have been sealed… IN Christ BY the Father WITH the Holy Spirit!

God the Father sealed us by giving us the Spirit as a pledge or as the first fruits of things to come.

The Holy Spirit and His work inside us make up what is probably the most “tangible” evidence we have of our so-great salvation, and indeed of the entire plan of God for our lives.