Thoughts on Sealing and Earnest of the Spirit

2024-06-28

Thoughts on the sealing and earnest of the Spirit while reading Ridout’s Person and Work of the Holy Spirit.

We were sealed first by the Holy Spirit. We shall receive the inheritance of the Lord, but we have already received the “earnest,” or the down payment. “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). After we believed, we received the sealing and the earnest.

This is reaffirmed here: “Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

We are sealed by Him, but we can also grieve Him. “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). The sealing does not change, but we change. We are sealed until the day of redemption; we are sealed until the day of the Lord’s glorious appearing.

The “sealing” is likened unto Mordecai writing letters to the Jews abroad to defend themselves in the day of destruction. “And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus’ name, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries” (Esther 8:10). The command of the king was so “that it be not altered” (Esther 1:19). If this earthly king’s sealed decrees could not be altered, how much more the King of Heaven’s seal, who will not repent?

The seal keeps what is sealed secret. “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19). The Lord knows us, and the world may not. This causes us to depart from the world’s ways of iniquity.