Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20091101.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Ephesians: Overcoming Our Insecurities In Christ
Part I: The Believer's Secure Position In Christ, Ephesians 1:1-3:21
G. Overcoming The Fear Of Losing Our Salvation
(Ephesians 1:13-14 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. A haunting fear that many believers have is the dread that they can lose their salvation and go to hell!
    2. Understanding the salvation security we believers in Christ positionally possess as taught in Ephesians 1:13-14 in its context counters this fear, providing the basis for relaxing in our God-secured salvation:
  2. Overcoming The Fear Of Losing Our Salvation, Ephesians 1:13-14 et al.
    1. The instant the believer trusts in Christ for salvation from sin, he is sealed with the Holy Spirit, Eph. 1:13:
      1. Some take the King James Version phrase "after that ye believed" to mean some time after people trust in Christ when they seek the "baptism of the Holy Spirit" allegedly evidenced by "speaking in tongues", God seals them with the Holy Spirit. (Asa Mahan, The Baptism of the Holy Ghost, 1870, p. iv)
      2. However, the word "after" is not in the Greek text, but the phrase "after that ye believed" translates the aorist participle, pisteusantes which can mean EITHER (a) sometime after salvation one is sealed OR (b) logically based on faith in Christ, one is sealed when he believes in Christ, cf. U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966 ed., p. 665; J. H. Moulton, Grammar of N. T. Greek (3rd ed., 1908) as cited in E. K. Simpson and F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians (NICNT), 1979, p. 35.
      3. Nevertheless, 1 Corinthians 12:13 claims all believers have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ "and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" though not all have spoken in tongues or worked miracles according to 1 Corinthians 12:29-30; thus, in Ephesians 1:13, Paul meant one is sealed by God with the Holy Spirit logically based on and at the time he trusts in Christ for salvation!
    2. That sealing ministry provides UNCONDITIONAL SALVATION SECURITY, Ephesians 1:13-14 et al:
      1. The sealing of the Holy Spirit lasts "until the day of redemption", Ephesians 1:14 with 4:30.
      2. We know this "day of redemption" is the rapture of the Church by the historical context (as follows):
        1. Paul's readers knew of the practice where buyers of floats of logs in the Ephesian harbor would put their seals of ownership on the floats they bought until they could return with ships to tow the floats away to their homes, Wm. Edward Biederwolf, Help to the Study of the Holy Spirit, 1904, p. 40.
        2. Thus, Paul alluded to this practice to teach the believer is sealed by God's seal of ownership, the Holy Spirit, until the rapture when Christ returns to take him back with Him to His heavenly home!
      3. Now this "seal of the Holy Spirit" is also the "earnest of our inheritance" according to Ephesians 1:14, revealing God's ownership of the believer is irrevocable, that it can NEVER be changed:
        1. The word "earnest" translates the term, 'arrabon, "a part given in advance of what will be bestowed fully afterwards," Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.; Moult. & Mill., The Voc. of the Grk. N. T. , 1972, p. 79.
        2. In other words, the "Earnest" is God's PROMISE of the attainment of a full future inheritance!
        3. Well, the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable, Romans 11:29 NIV, and since the sealing of the Spirit is God's gift and promise as an "Earnest" of a coming fuller inheritance, which gift was given entirely by God apart from any effort by the believer to gain it (as we noted in section "A" above), the sealing of the Spirit that marks God's ownership of the believer is unalterable, John 14:16-17.
        4. For this reason, Paul could write Ephesians 4:30, that his readers should STOP grieving (present imperative with subjunctive negative adverb, Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T. , p. 673; Dana and Mantey, A Manual Gram. of the Grk. N. T., 1957, p. 301) the Holy Spirit BY Whom they were STILL SEALED! Their sin of grieving the Holy Spirit had not terminated the Spirit's seal, and, indeed, it could not do so, for God's seal and thus His salvation ownership of the believer is unalterable!
Lesson: When one trusts in Christ, God seals him with the Holy Spirit, marking the believer as His own and assuring him that the Spirit's presence is the irrevocable promise of his coming full inheritance!

Application: By faith in Christ, God makes us UNCONDITIONALLY SECURE in our SALVATION STATUS, so may we be FOREVER assured that our salvation is ALWAYS SECURE!