EPHESIANS: ETERNALLY ENCLOSED IN GOD’S PLAN

Part III: Eternally In Union With God The Holy Spirit

(Ephesians 1:13-14)

I. Introduction

A. Paul wrote Ephesians to encourage believers of God’s work to edify the Church regardless what happened to him in his imprisonment (Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672: “Intro. to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians”).

B. Ephesians 1:13-14 thus offers edifying insight on every believer’s eternal union with God the Holy Spirit:

II. Eternally In Union With God The Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1:13-14.

A. God the Father is to be praised for blessing us believers in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, Eph. 1:3 NIV! These blessings are based on “the selection of the Father (vv. 4-6), the sacrifice of the Son (vv. 7-12), and the seal of the Spirit (vv. 13-14)” (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 616).

B. The seal of the Holy Spirit provides unconditional salvation security and assurance of salvation, Eph. 1:13-14:

1. When one believes in Christ, he is eternally sealed with God the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1:13; John 14:16.

2. This sealing anticipates the “redemption of those who are God’s possession,” which redemption, according to Ephesians 4:30, is the rapture of the Church, Ephesians 1:14b. The believer is thus unconditionally kept saved from the instant he trusts in Christ until he enters heaven at the rapture and on into eternity future.

3. At that sealing event, the Holy Spirit also acts as an arrabon, “a deposit guaranteeing” one’s “inheritance” of “salvation and heaven . . . (T)he ‘deposit’ of the Spirit is a . . . guarantee of much more yet to come” (Ibid., p. 619; Eph. 1:14a), thus providing assurance of salvation for the believer as he awaits the rapture.

C. Accordingly, Ephesians 1:13-14 corrects various major theological errors that greatly trouble believers today:

1. Ephesians 1:13-14 corrects the Pentecostal view that one needs a “second blessing” to gain the Holy Spirit:

a. Pentecostals hold that the sealing of the Spirit occurs sometime after one trusts in Christ by a believer’s praying and waiting for God to give him the Holy Spirit allegedly with the gift of speaking in tongues (Asa Mahan, The Baptism of the Holy Ghost, 1870, p. iv). The basis for this belief is the Eph. 1:13 KJV phrase “after that ye believed” that is interpreted to mean one is sealed at some period of time after salvation.

b. However, the word “after” does not appear in the Greek text – only the aorist participle pisteusantes (U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 665) does, and it is properly translated “having believed” (NIV). One is sealed with the Holy Spirit the instant he trusts in Christ, his expression of faith being the logical basis for that sealing.

2. Ephesians 1:13-14 also corrects the Pentecostal error that a believer loses his salvation if he lives in sin:

a. Since the Holy Spirit’s sealing ministry preserves a believer’s salvation until he enters heaven (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Eph. 1:14), the Holy Spirit unconditionally keeps the believer saved!

b. Proof of this unconditional salvation security status is 1 Corinthians 3:15 where at Christ’s judgment seat after the rapture, a believer may witness God burn up all of his works but leave himself still safely saved!

3. Ephesians 1:13-14 corrects Calvinism’s errors on salvation security, on election and on predestination:

a. “The Reformed Faith” holds to “an eternal divine decree which . . . separates the human race into two portions and ordains one to everlasting life and the other to everlasting death.” (Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, 1972, p. 83; emphases ours)

b. If this view were true, there would be no need for the Holy Spirit to seal one to secure his salvation when he trusts in Christ, for God’s eternal decree of election and predestination would already have secured his destiny from eternity past to eternity future! Thus, the very existence of the sealing of the Spirit to provide salvation security means there is no eternal divine election and predestination of the elect to trust in Christ, and that the Reformed (Augustinian-Calvinist) view of divine election and predestination is in great error!

4. Ephesians 1:13-14 also corrects a lack of salvation assurance that Calvinism leads many believers to face:

a. Some believers who struggle with sin fear that they must not be truly saved or even be elected to be saved since they don’t persevere in the Christian faith like Calvinism teaches true believers do, Ibid., p. 182.

b. However, not all true believers necessarily persevere in godliness, for we earlier noted that 1 Corinthians 3:15 reveals that a believer after the rapture can have all of his works burned up by God but still be saved!

c. Thus, the Spirit’s arrabon ministry gives assurance of one’s salvation even if a believer lives a sinful life.

Lesson: When we trusted in Christ, we were instantly and eternally sealed with the Holy Spirit for unconditional salvation security, and the Spirit acts as God’s evidential deposit to assure us that we are truly saved by His grace.

Application: May we rejoice in the manifold, gracious, eternal blessings of the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit.