“In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.”
The Truth
A seal, in Paul’s world, marked ownership and guaranteed authenticity, the way a wax seal on a letter proved it had not been tampered with and belonged to the sender. When you believed, Paul says, you were sealed with the Spirit. God has marked you, unmistakably, as his own, and that mark is not decorative. It is a legal, settled claim.
Paul adds a second image: the Spirit is the earnest, an old word for a down payment, the first installment that guarantees the rest of the payment is coming. You do not yet have the fullness of your final inheritance, glorified life, a renewed creation, unbroken presence with God. But you have the Spirit now as the guarantee that all of it is already secured and on its way.
This means your assurance does not rest on how you feel on a given day. It rests on a seal placed on you at belief and a down payment already given, both entirely God’s doing, not dependent on your fluctuating sense of spiritual temperature. Feelings move. The seal does not.
Whatever uncertainty you feel about your standing with God today, the seal was not placed by your performance and cannot be removed by your bad day. He sealed you. The rest is already guaranteed.
Live This Truth
- Notice today where your assurance rests more on feelings than on the seal.
- Thank God for the Spirit as a down payment on what is already guaranteed.
- Rest one anxious thought today on the seal rather than your performance.
Prayer
Lord, you sealed me with your Spirit and gave him as the guarantee of what is still to come. Let my assurance rest on your seal today, not on my shifting feelings. Amen.
Carry this today
The seal was his doing. It does not move when I do.