Ephesians 1:13, 14: The seal

The fact that people who have been saved can reject their salvation (Salvation) and hence be cut off, is clearly shown in several passages from the Bible, a few of which we have already discussed in my other posts. (Christ is Salvation, The Necessity of Abiding in Christ, Loss of Salvation: The Process, and Covenant)

Something that many people tend to get confused on is the Bible’s promises and assurances to the believer.  This goes back to our recent discussion on Covenant.  God does make promises to the believer, but they are conditioned on the believer abiding in Christ.  It would be a pretty lopsided arrangement otherwise, if God sent His Son to die for us, gave us all the strength and grace we needed to overcome sin, yet we reject Him and choose to live in a life of sin, should we then still expect God to reward us with eternal life?  No, and that’s what the warnings in the Bible are meant to address is the fact that God will not reward such a person, but will punish them with the rest of the ungodly. 

One of the most commonly referrenced verses to try to prove eternal security is Ephesians 1:13,14.  

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: 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, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13, 14)

Eternal securists put the emphasis on the word “sealed”.  When I began examining the verse, the first First I looked at what the word for seal meant exactly, so I looked its definition up in a concordance and from what I can tell it has two possible implications in this context. Briefly stated, 1) a mark, in this case it would be a mark put on us by God’s that we are indeed His. 2) It said that another possible use for a seal would be as security from Satan.  I think that definition #1 fits the context the best, though let’s discuss definition #2 first.  We are indeed kept by the power of God and are not under the control of Satan, but of course this doesn’t change the facts 1) we are tempted by Satan, though God gives us the power to overcome that temptation and 2) we still have the free will to choose to sin, which I would say also has the implication that we have the choice to even choose to go back to a lifestyle of sin as well.   

I think that definition #1 fits best, though as I will explain.  Let’s take another look at that verse: “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: 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, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13, 14)  Notice very carefully the language employed here; Paul is using legal terminology.  The seal of the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. 

This brings us right back to our discussion on God’s covenant with His people.  God more than lives up to His part of the bargain by providing us His Son, His Spirit, His grace to overcome sin, and eternal life to the faithful.  However, we still have a part in this process because God still allows men the freewill to choose whether they will serve Him and follow His ways or whether they would choose follow a life of sin.  So the seal that God gives us is the mark that we’re His and the earnest of our inheritance, but if we choose to break our covenant with Him, God Himself cuts us off from salvation (John 15:1-6 and Romans 11:17-22), which is His right and would be so even in the manner of human transactions. 

So it is God Who puts His seal on us and it is also God Who has the right to remove it as well. 

 “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:28-31)

“But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” (Hebrews 10:39)

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Covenant

My husband and I needed and purchased a car during our Christmas vacation 2006. When we bought it, we contracted ourselves to repay the bank for lending us money to get the car from the dealership. Sure we drove it off the lot, but the car was only ours as long as we kept our agreement with the bank. If at any time we defaulted on our payments, since it was the bank who ultimately bought it, the bank would have had every right to repossess the vehicle. These kinds of legalities are a common part of our day to day existence and we’ve come to understand them.

Salvation is much the same really. I’ve mentioned before that Christ is Salvation and as such that it is necessary to abide in Him. Another aspect that I’d like to discuss is that this salvation, this eternal life that we’re promised is also contractual or to put it Biblically, a covenant that we enter into.

“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?” (Hebrews 12:22-25)

When we accept Christ, our Salvation, we not only enter into an unfathomable relationship with the Divine, but we also enter into covenant with Him. Now the awesome thing about a covenant with Christ is that God gives us absolutely everything needed to live up to our end with the strength and grace to overcome sin and live for Him and even the mercy to forgive our shortcomings.

“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20, 21)

We are still given a choice, though, as to whether we will serve Him or whether we will serve sin. Now if we breach our contract or covenant with Him by choosing not to live for and serve Him, God is released from obligation of any promises that He has made. Just as it was the bank bought the car and had the power and right to repossess it for breach of contract, in the same way God is not obligated to give salvation or eternal life to those who would not keep their covenant with Him.  To the contrary, in Hebrews 10 God calls those who break covenant with Him (those who were sanctified by the blood but deliberately keep on sinning) enemies and promises judgement and “raging fire”.   

“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:28-31)

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