As we are filled with the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, put sin to death by the Spirit, and show the fruit of the Spirit, we can be assured by God that the Spirit lives savingly within us now and is our seal and pledge of greater things to come. What encouraging truths these are!

The Father sealed us in the Son with the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Spirit is a pledge of greater things to come. This is Ephesians 1:13–14 in a nutshell. But what exactly is this sealing, and how is the Spirit a pledge?

Sealed with the Spirit

Sealing something in the Old or New Testament has a number of emphases. One is security. As the king sealed and secured the stone over Daniel in the lion’s den (Dan 6:17), so also Rome’s seal secured (they thought) the stone in front of Christ’s tomb (Matt 27:66). Another emphasis is authenticity. As Ahab and Ahasuerus sealed and authenticated letters as their own (1 Kgs 21:8; Est 8:10), so also the Father authenticated the Son of man (John 6:27). Yet another is ownership. As men would buy fields and seal deeds to claim them as their own (Jer 32:44), so also angels will seal the foreheads of 144,000 future Jews to mark them as God’s servants (Rev 7:3–5, 8).

In Eph 1:13, the ownership emphasis is in view. Having listened to the gospel and believed, we were sealed by God as His own in Christ with the indwelling Spirit. The Spirit within us means that we belong to God. Moreover, this sealing secured us for our glorification. Ephesians 4:30 reminds us that “the Holy Spirit of God” is the One “by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

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