The Seal Of God
THE SEAL OF GOD
EPHESIANS 1:11-14
The Holy Spirit is God’s promise that over time he will make you more like Jesus.
One of the distinctive characteristics of Ephesians is its awareness of God’s trinitarian nature. More emphatically than in his other letters, Paul is conscious that all three persons of the Godhead participate in the work of redemption. In the initial blessing, Paul says it is God the Father who determines to reconcile people to himself (1:3-6), redemption is accomplished by the Son (1:7-12) and the Holy Spirit applies redemption to our lives (1:13f.). Although the order in which Paul refers to the three Persons differs, over and over again he emphasizes the mutual cooperation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in reconciling people to God (See 2:4-10,13-18; 3:1-6,14-19; 4:1–6,30–5:2,15-20; 6:10-18).
1:11-14 conclude the remarkable sentence begun in verse 3 in which Paul reviews the redemption of the triune God (1:3-14). Until the end of verse 12 Paul consistently uses the first person plural (“we”/“us”). However, with 1:13, Paul abruptly begins to use the second person plural (“you”). This change makes sense when the entire passage is seen as a fragment of a baptismal charge to Gentile Christians. “We” who first hoped in the Messiah (1:12) are Jewish Christians like Paul who have come to faith; “you also” (1:13) refers to Gentiles who have responded to the word of preaching and become Christians. Thus Paul introduces here a key theme of Ephesians: that God has reconciled both Jews and Gentiles through the cross of Christ (see 2:1-7,11-22; 3:6).
Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit as the “pledge” or “guarantee” of our heritage (1:14; see also 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5). The term denotes the first portion of a payment that will eventually be made in full. The Spirit’s presence with the believer is therefore God’s promise that he will perfect his work in the believer. The Spirit sets a seal upon the true child of God which assures them that they belong to God and that they are entitled to personal fellowship with God (see 2 Timothy 2:19). Even now, believers enjoy a rich foretaste of what they will experience fully in God’s presence when the Holy Spirit has completed his work in the Christian.