The Holy Spirit in the Christian Life

Ephesians 1:3-14 has been recognised as an amazing statement summarising important aspects of the divine work of salvation as the apostle Paul details activities connected to each of the persons of the Trinity. He mentions that the Father elected sinners and adopted them into his family, that the Son redeemed them and will share his inheritance with them, and that the Spirit is a seal for them as well as a foretaste or guarantee of what they will experience in the world to come.

Paul describes the Holy Spirit in these verses as the promised Holy Spirit. What does the apostle have in mind by the word ‘promised’? More than one option can be suggested. One is that Paul is referring to the predictions of Jesus himself when he said that the heavenly Father had promised to give him the Holy Spirit so he could send the Spirit to his people on earth. We can read about that arrangement in what Jesus said in the upper room (John 13–16).

Another option is that the coming of the Holy Spirit in a new way was promised in the Old Testament. One such promise is found in Isaiah 44:3: ‘For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.’

Maybe both options should be combined. Jesus would have read such descriptions in the Old Testament and realised that they referred to him and his saving work, and he would have regarded them as promises already made to him as well as promises about what his people would receive.

The Holy Spirit as a seal

Paul uses an illustration that would have been very familiar to his readers. Ephesus was a seaport and cargo landed there every day from all over the Mediterranean world. How would the owner of such cargo be identified by officials and others working there? His seal would be stamped somewhere on it. The city was also a government centre and official documents would be stamped with a seal indicating their importance. Announcements that affected the inhabitants would be given their place when people realised that the document was marked by the emperor’s seal, or the seal of someone important.

This illustration raises the question as to who stamped, as it were, believers with the Spirit as a seal of ownership? Did he have authority to ensure that it would happen? The person that sealed them is mentioned by Paul in Ephesians 1:3-14. They were sealed by God the Father as a sign that they were his possession as members of his family. Moreover, they were sealed by him because they were united to Jesus; it was in him that the Father sealed them. They were united practically to Jesus when they believed in him for salvation. Paul confirms this aspect of the seal in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22: ‘And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.’

Paul also refers to the sealing of the Spirit in Ephesians 4:30, when he says what the purpose of the seal is: ‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.’ The destination is the occasion of the second coming of Jesus, and all who have the seal are safe until then because the seal cannot be removed.

There is one obvious difference between a seal on cargo or on a parchment and the Spirit as a seal, and that is that the Holy Spirit is alive. The other seals were not living things even although they pointed to the issues of ownership and authenticity. Yet they could fade away and become difficult to recognise. The Spirit as a seal is different from them. He can do what they could never do, which is he can affect those who have been sealed with him.

Connected to the fact that the Spirit is alive is also the fact that the Spirit loves his people. His livingness indicates that he will be active in them, and his lovingness indicates that his actions will be beneficial for all those who have him as the seal of divine ownership. There is another fact that we can link here and that is the reality that seal is a sign of liberation, that believers in Jesus have changed owners. Before he was sealed, the believer was not converted and belonged to another master. Now he belongs to God.

What can we expect the Spirit to do as the living, loving, liberating seal? Surely, we would expect him to remind Christians that they belong to God. He will remind them of the great fact that having been chosen in eternity they now belong to the family of the heavenly Father; he will remind them that having been redeemed by the Son, they are now his purchased possession, and should live in ways that please him; he will remind them that holiness is the evidence of liberation from the power of sin. So we could say that as the seal the Holy Spirit will remind his people of their privileges and their responsibilities.

Are there certain applications that we can make of this work of the Spirit? One is that it is inevitable that the presence of the heavenly seal will make himself known. The possession of the Spirit is the distinguishing mark of a genuine Christian, as Paul says in Romans 8:9. Another application is that since every Christian has the same seal, we should expect the same evidence of his presence in all true believers. If those evidences are absent, it means that something has gone wrong or that the person is not a real believer. A third application is that we should heed Paul’s warning about not grieving the Spirit, because his warning suggests that sin in the life of a Christian may blur the visibility of the seal.

The Holy Spirit as an earnest or guarantee

The word translated earnest or guarantee comes from the world of commerce. If a person wishes to buy a house, he puts down a deposit. The deposit is an indication that he will pay the full price eventually. It is part of the amount that he will give for the house. Paul says that when God the Father gives the Spirit to his people, he gives him as a sample of the fulness that will be known when the day of redemption comes.

The idea of earnest or guarantee is similar to another picture that Paul uses when he says that believers receive the firstfruits of the Spirit (Rom. 8:23). The firstfruits were samples of a harvest that were given to God in gratitude for indicating that the future harvest was on its way. The obvious difference between the firstfruits and the harvest is one of degree – the harvest is much larger than the firstfruits. So with the provision of the Spirit. The degree to which believers will have him in eternity is much larger than what they receive from him now. Yet it will be the same Holy Spirit now and in the future. 

Paul says that the Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. This would mean that there are certain features of the inheritance that can have foretastes of. We know that there are some features of that future experience that we cannot have now. It is not possible for us to enjoy a foretaste of sinlessness, nor is it possible to have face to face interaction with Jesus. So we need to think of some other features that we can enjoy without having the fullness of it.

One such feature would be unity with the people of God. We know that the experience of heaven will be a great family gathering. This unity is realised through enjoying and expressing brotherly love. It is strengthened by a consideration of the spiritual things that they have in common. They have experienced the blessings of divine grace such as forgiveness of sins, acceptance with God through faith in Christ, privileges of family membership, and desire for more holiness or Christlikeness. The Spirit in them leads them to love those other in whom he lives. They are led by the Spirit to pray for one another often, including for those they have not met yet.

Brotherly love extends beyond ethnic differences and social differences and embraces all of God’s people in the bonds of love. When this happens to them, they are receiving from the Holy Spirit an earnest of their inheritance. It is easy for them then to realise the blessings that will be known when the number that no one can count will join together around the throne of God and of the Lamb and participate in worshipping the Lord. Such an experience is very precious because it come from the Spirit who is preparing them for their inheritance.

A second such feature that comes under the category of earnest or guarantee would be that of understanding the things of God. The Bible indicates that part of the experience of heaven is growth in understanding the greatness of God and his plans for his people. Sometimes, believers have anticipated aspects of this as they were dying. Melanchthon, the German Reformer, listed some things on his deathbed that he hoped soon to enjoy. He reminded himself and others that in heaven he would ‘learn those wonderful mysteries which pass our comprehension in this life, as the cause of our creation and present condition, and the mystery of the union of the divine and human natures in Christ.’ I suppose we could say that what he was looking forward to experiencing was getting to know Jesus better. Yet we would also say that he had spent a lifetime on earth discovering things about Jesus. It was Melanchthon who said that ‘to know Christ is to know his benefits’.

Sometimes, it is helpful for us to take time and consider some of the details that we have come to know as Christians, details of which the Spirit has revealed to us, but details that are also connected to the world to come. We understand some things more than others, and we know them truly even if we don’t know them fully. They include appreciating the kingdom of God, acknowledging that God is a Trinity, that the Lord planned salvation, that Jesus suffered divine wrath on the cross, and that the Spirit alone can give us spiritual life in our souls. In heaven, we will appreciate those things better, but we will increase in our understanding of them in this life as the Spirit fulfils his role as the earnest of our inheritance.

A third feature of the heavenly experience that we can have samples of in this life is access to God. While it is not possible for us to understand the nature of the access we shall have in the world to come, we do know that the Lord will dwell with his people and they will interact with him without interruption caused by the things that disturb as often here, such as sinful thoughts and temptations and distractions. But even in this life, we are given by the Spirit occasions when we draw near to God and such interruptions are prevented from happening. As Thomas Watson put it, ‘O that sweet serenity which drops as honey upon the soul while it is drawing near to God! How comfortable it is to draw near to the sun! and how sweet is it to approach near to the Sun of Righteousness.’