17: Common Ways the Holy Spirit Manifests Himself in All Believers – Sealing by the Holy Spirit

Sealing a document, or a bottle, or a door, with an engraved stone, metal, or wooden stamp served several purposes. It could secure what was sealed. For example, a document’s seal had to be broken to read the document, so you could know, if you received the document with the seal intact, that you were the first to read it. It could also identify the owner of the thing sealed, as each seal had a unique etched design. Finally, it could also be used to indicate the value of what was sealed.

The apostle Paul tells us:

^{Ephesians 1:13} And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

What function of a seal was Paul focusing on? The “promised” Holy Spirit is sent by Christ but is usually described as particularly promised by the Father. So we can think of the Father “stamping” us with the Holy Spirt. The Spirit is the seal. Is this to show that we are valuable? That is certainly true. Is it to identify that we belong to the Father? That, too, is certainly true. Or is it to safeguard us, secure us? That seems to be the emphasis Paul focuses on in his next statement.

Paul uses another metaphor of the Spirit, speaking of Him as the “deposit” or downpayment that guarantees our future inheritance of the kingdom. As we have seen, the Holy Spirit at work in our lives is a, or maybe the, key blessing of the kingdom. Though the fullness of the kingdom has yet to become ours, we have, in the Spirit’s presence in our lives, a deposit or downpayment of what will ultimately be ours.

It is hard to imagine that, having been sealed with the Holy Spirit coming to dwell in our lives, we could lose our salvation. It is true that the Spirit’s presence and empowering in the lives of God’s kings in Israel could be lost (1 Samuel 16:14). But the Spirit’s presence in their lives was not a salvation indication for them as it is for us. And Jesus told his disciples that when he sent the Spirit He would be with us and in us forever (John 14:16). Once God has sealed you, you are forever guaranteed your future inheritance and redemption.

The sealing by the Spirit is the objective act of certifying our salvation forever that He gives affirming testimony to in our own spirits.