Ephesians 1:13,14: Sealed for His glory

"In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation -- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory."

I think it was at the five year mark of married life that my wife and I concluded we would never own a home. We had started a family, and I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, only I was already grown up. Things didn't look great.

Thanks to a friend who only saw the world through the lens of possibility, we managed to scrape enough money together for a down payment on a wonderful little house - all 998 square feet of it! We took our savings, and some dollars from my parents, and put it all down as a pledge that we would pay off the mortgage loan we had took from the bank. On that day I learned about downpayments, and the risk you take if you put money down and then have to back out of the deal. You lose the money you put down. Turns out  the size of the downpayment translates into just how committed you are to keep your promise to pay. We put down all we had, and that meant we would let nothing stand in the way of keeping our promise.

In these verses, Paul declares that the "downpayment" God has pledged as a sign that He will keep His promise to redeem us fully and finally from this sin drenched world is the 3rd Person of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit Himself. Pretty big downpayment! And yet, the biggest shocker in this text is the fact that Paul insists that Gentiles now can possess this downpayment. Let me explain:

As Paul transitions from enumerating the divine blessings God grants in salvation, to the more specific topic of the inclusion of the Gentile believers in those blessings, perhaps the greatest evidence is their possession of the Holy Spirit. The same was true when Peter returned to Jerusalem to explain just why he - a Jew - had gone into the house of a Roman centurion - Cornelius - and not only preached the Gospel, but also witnessed the pouring out of the Spirit on these Gentiles. Standing in front of the Jewish council in Jerusalem Peter described the scene:

"And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' Therefore, if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?" (Acts 11:15-17).

And while this may not be shocking in our day, it certainly was in Paul's day! This changed the very paradigm the Jews used to explain God, His work in the world, and more to the point, their prized position as nation. If the Gentiles could now possess the Holy Spirit, and be united to Christ, then God was openly fulfilling the promise of Genesis 12:3: "And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." The gracious redemptive activity of God was now extended to all who would believe and follow Christ, regardless of their ethnicity.

And Paul now asserts this privilege with the little words in vs. 13: "In Him YOU ALSO ..." In chapter 2 he will more fully explain the significance of all this, but here let's just take a minute to pause and reflect. The "you also" includes every Christ-follower who lies outside of ethnic Jewry. We can now be numbered among God's chosen people; we are now part of Christ's body, members of a people called to be God's own possession, a chosen race, a holy nation, a royal priesthood unto God (see: 1 Peter 2:9). No longer is it necessary to come to a people (Israel) or a building (The Temple) to enter into relationship with God. No longer are we required to be circumcised, to keep the Sabbath, to adhere to the Mosaic Law, or any other prescriptive act in order to be part of the covenant community. Now, that community - including Jews and non-Jews - is recognized only by their repentance for sin and faith in Jesus Christ.  Now we come to a Person, not a people, for inclusion in the family of God. And the proof is the presence of the indwelling Spirit of God. In chapter 2 Paul will declare that this new covenant community, formed in Christ Jesus alone, is now the "temple" in which God Himself dwells, and from which His glory shines into all the world.

What a great privilege is ours who, though once without God and without hope in this world, are now numbered among those He has chosen to be His own. And the evidence is the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. But just how did this "downpayment" come to be ours?

Notice the progression Paul illustrates in these verses: 1) you listened to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation; 2) having also believed 3) you were sealed in Him 4) with the Holy Spirit of promise 5) who is given as a pledge of our inheritance 6) with a view to God's own possession 7) to the praise of His glory.

Tomorrow's blog will take up these particulars because there is too much here to miss. But for now, glory in the fact of God's mercy. It is wide in that it includes every tribe and tongue and ethnicity under heaven. Yet, it is also narrow in that all must come through Jesus Christ, having heard and believed the message of truth, the gospel of salvation.

Hope this helps,

David