The Seal of the Holy Spirit

By Russell Boatman

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     The Johannine-like prologue which prefaces the Ephesian letter is unique among the Pauline epistles unless we allow that Paul wrote the epistle to the Hebrews. Hebrews 1:1-4 is easily the match of 1 John 1:1-4 in brevity and familiarity. And Ephesians 1:1-14 is comparable in breadth and profundity to John 1: 1-14 especially in the tree literary style of the New English Bible.

     Prior to receiving my present assignment I had done only casual reading in the New English Version. I do not recall ever having read the Ephesian letter in this translation. It has proven to be a rewarding and refreshing experience. Though it is no match for the American Standard Version in preciseness, word for word rendition, the translators have nonetheless captured the tenor of the epistle in their phrasing of its prologue, and they have coined for us a phrase (verses 1 and 13) which epitomizes the epistle in four words--believers incorporate in Christ.

     A shorter form of the expression, "in Christ," (sometimes, "in Christ Jesus") is used eight times in these first fourteen verses. An equivalent expression, "in his beloved," is used in verse 6. Such expressions as "through Jesus Christ" (verse 6), and "through the shedding of his blood" (verse 7), strengthen the Christology of the passage, as does the phrase "on Christ" (verse 12) and the salutation: "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (verse 2).

     Altogether, 13 times in the first 14 verses believers are said to enjoy a relationship with God attained and sustained through Jesus Christ. And that relationship is declared to be sealed by the promised Holy Spirit, certifying its authenticity and serving as a pledge that we shall enter upon our heritage in the consummation of the ages, when God has redeemed what is his own, to his praise and glory. Concerning this seal it is my privilege to speak.

     Our procedure will be to note first the significance of the word seal, and its corollary, pledge (verse 14) and then note the nature of the gift of the Holy Spirit which serves the two-fold function of authenticator and guarantor of our redemption.

     The word under consideration, in one form or another, appears some 41 times in the New Testament. As a noun it may refer to an instrument which imprints a seal. A signet ring was the common instrument in Biblical times. Both of these meanings continue today, as do most of the purposes for which seals were used.

     A number of Biblical references allude to the various purposes for which seals were commonly employed. A seal was oft-times placed upon a completed document, or upon a package, with a view to combining secrecy and security, thus postponing the disclosure of the contents until the proper time and for the proper persons. The recipient could thereby be sure the package or envelope had arrived from the sender intact, unaltered, with nothing added and nothing taken away. This is the principal use of the term in the Apocalypse. Seals also were a mark of authority or certification, denoting the authenticity or derivation of a thing. Seals were employed in a larger context to publicly attest ownership, relationship, or some other state of affairs to be so.

     We are here said to be sealed with the Holy Spirit as a pledge that we shall enter upon our heritage. We are thus likened to an important letter, signed, sealed and about to be delivered. We are not to be anxious about the delivery for our destiny is in the hands of One who has the power to carry us through.

     Above the portals of the post office department in New York City are to be seen these familiar words: "Neither snow nor rain nor hail nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Tribute to whom tribute is due! The mail must go through as the show must go on. But these are only stout hearted words as compared to the assurance given that we shall enter upon our heritage. Paul gives voice to his own confidence, and his confidence in behalf of all the saints, in these immortal words.

     What can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or hardship? Can persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril or the sword?..In spite of all, overwhelming victory is ours through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world that shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths--nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35, 37-39).

     The postal department may lose a letter. A mail car may be robbed, or derailed or burned. A mail plane may fall from the skies and the cargo go up in flames or down into the depths of the sea. But in Ephesians 4:30 it is written of the Holy Spirit, "that Spirit is the seal with which you are marked for the day of our final liberation." God is able to deliver thee! His seal attests to that great truth!

     Seals are placed upon documents and packages not only to assure delivery but to denote authenticity and ownership. This is the sense in which the word is used in 2 Timothy 2:19: "God has laid a foundation and it stands firm, with this inscription (seal). The Lord knows his own." Men may misread or misunderstand the inscription. The inscription may be counterfeited on the part of some. But the Lord knows his own. He knows also those who have no part with him. Be assured of it.

     One more observation. Seals were also used in Biblical times to openly attest a certain thing to be true, or a state of affairs to be so. In I Corinthians 9:20 Paul declared the Corinthians were the seal of his apostleship. They had been idolaters, adulterers, sex deviates, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers and extortioners. But now they were washed, they were sanctified, they were justified in the Spirit of our God (I Cor. 6:9-11). Note that while Paul takes some credit to himself for their changed state (that very change openly attesting his faithfulness in proclaiming the redemptive gospel) he nevertheless makes it plain that it was in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

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(not his own), and by the Spirit of our God they had been redeemed.

     In Romans 4:11 Abraham's circumcision is called the seal of righteousness. That is to say, Abraham was not righteous because he had been circumcised. It was the other way around. The ground of his covenant relationship with God is what Paul elsewhere defines in the Roman letter as "the obedience of faith" (1:5; 16:26).

     The ground of our justification is the same. We "stand in right relationship" with God also "through the obedience of faith." But our seal is not the same. Instead of the sign in the flesh we bear the seal of the Spirit. "The Spirit of God joins with our spirit in testifying that we are God's children; and if children, then heirs" (Romans 8:16, 17). Thus it is written in our text:

     And you too, when you heard the message of the truth, the good news of your salvation, and had believed it, (you) became incorporate in Christ and received the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; and that Spirit is the pledge that we shall enter upon our heritage when God has redeemed what is his own, to his praise and glory.

     Now if a seal is an attestation of ownership or authenticity it naturally follows that the design or characteristics of the seal are at least generally known. Of what avail would it be for a king to engrave his signet upon a decree if no one seeing the seal would recognize it for what it was or for whose it was?

     The seal of the Holy Spirit should be readily recognized. The characteristics of His divine impression will of necessity be according to godliness. God's people will bear the image and superscription of our king. Are not these the marks of the Spirit-love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control? If our lives exhibit the evidences of the carnal mind--fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, wrath, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revelling and such like--we have been warned that they that practice such things shall not enter into the kingdom of God. These have no heritage upon which to enter. They are manifestly without seal or rightful claim of being children of God. Yet, sad to say, many of the marks of carnality just mentioned are dominant in the parties which make up our movement, being the thing for which we are often known. And sadder still many are so far from admitting it they would rather boycott a meeting of this kind than to seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit for the healing of the torn and tortured body of our Lord.

     2. Pledge. Let us now consider the word translated "pledge." It is obvious that what Paul says in verse 14 was intended to interpret or amplify the verse which precedes. The King James Version and the American Standard Version phrase the two expressions on this wise: "Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise which is an earnest of our inheritance."

     The Greek word used here appears three times in the New Testament. Paul is the sole user of the term. In each instance of its use the phrase is virtually identical with the one which we have here. The New English Bible translates 2 Corinthians 1:22, as follows: "As a pledge of what is to come (He) has given the Spirit to dwell in our hearts." In 2 Corinthians 5:5 where Paul speaks of our hope of re-incarnation in spiritualized bodies the apostle is represented as saying: "God has shaped us for this very end; and as a pledge of it, He has given us the Spirit."

     The Greek word is arrabon. "Earnest" conveys more of the original meaning of the term than does pledge. "Arrabon" was a familiar term in the business world of Paul's day. Virtually every transaction was ratified by a deposit or retainer of some kind. Contracts for service, marriage contracts, purchases, etc., were bound in this manner. Arrabon was more than a pledge. It was a commitment backed by a deposit.

     The term finds its closest parallel in our times in the modern earnest money contract. When we commit ourselves to the purchase of a house, or land, or a

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business, we are required to prove we are in earnest by the signing of an earnest money contract. To bind the contract we are obliged to put down a proportionate deposit. Should we afterwards renege we forfeit the deposit. The earnest money payment becomes an advance on the total payment and is a kind of guarantee the full payment will be made according to the terms of the contractual agreement.

     We understand of course that God's unchanging faithfulness is the real surety of our heavenly inheritance. But though that be so God elects to deal with men in terms we can understand. And so God has sealed his precious promises with the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that Spirit is the advance payment, the substantiating guarantee, the earnest of our eternal inheritance. Our present redemption is certified (sealed) and our ultimate eternal salvation is guaranteed by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

     This is especially true with reference to the underlying emphasis of these fellowship forums and the thesis of the Ephesian letter. The fruitage of the Spirit is ever characterized by such unifying virtues as love, longsuffering, meekness and peace. Enmities, strife, parties, jealousy and such like, are as much evidence of the carnal mind as adultery, sex perversion, theft and drunkenness. Yet as a people, even towards one another we have exhibited more of the venom and malice of inveterate enemies than we have the mercy and consideration that marks the relationships of beloved friends and brethren.

     The Ephesian letter consists of two parts of approximate proportions. Section 1, consisting of chapters 1-3 might well be summed up under the heading indoctrination. Section 2, chapters 4-6 could be summarized by the term exhortation. The first develops the thesis that believers are incorporate in Christ. The second opens with an earnest entreaty to exhibit this oneness, the appeal being based on the seven pillars of unity we discussed from this platform in the forum a year ago. I have a growing conviction we shall never manifest our corporate unity as believers, we shall never build a house of prayer for all people, either on the seven pillars of unity or other support, until we begin to heed Paul's plea: "Spare no efforts," (the New English Bible here gives us an excellent rendering of the word ordinarily translated give diligence) "to make fast with bonds of peace the unity which the Spirit gives." Yes indeed we need to both appreciate and appropriate the seal of the Holy Spirit and the resources of power found therein,

     It is yet to be demonstrated that doctrinal correctness, or letter-of-the-law orthodoxy can either bring about or preserve unity or peace. It is equally as deserving of mention that it is yet to be demonstrated also that downgraders of doctrinal correctness can preserve even so much as the core of the faith in which we are to stand united. We are not so much given a choice as to the kind of unity we shall seek--organic or spiritual, doctrinal or fraternal, as we are to keep a balance between the two. One does not negate the other. But either one can, and often does, exclude the other.

     We are needing a revival of the filling (Ephesians 5:18) of the Holy Spirit. In our efforts to avoid the pitfalls of emotionalism (Pentecostalism, we customarily libel and label it) we have so stripped of meaning the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit that it is not at all uncommon to hear brethren speak of our Holy Guest as "the ordinary gift of the Holy Spirit,"

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as though our participation in the divine nature were of no real consequence, affording no basis for any significant expectations.

     2. In the hope that we may recover something of the meaning of the divine promise may I direct your attention to that expression which is repeated, as we have said, eight times in the first 14 verses of this letter. The expression is by no means peculiar to this passage, or to this epistle, or even to this apostle. John, as well as Paul, gives large place to it in his writings. What is meant by the expression "in Christ" or its Johannine equivalent, "in him"? H. R. McIntosh once stated, "It is not putting it too strongly to say that the union with Christ, affirmed by such a phrase, is a brief name for all the apostles mean by salvation. To be saved is to be incorporated into the person of Christ."

     Take I Corinthians 6:17 for example. Paul states, "He that cleaves (or is joined) to the Lord is one spirit." The metaphor is readily recognized. In the founding of the human family Jesus recognizes God as saying, "A man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave (be joined to) his wife and the two shall be one flesh." The unity that exists between husband and wife is now said to exist between a saved man and his Lord. The fact is the unity is even greater for it survives physical death whereas the other does not and secures for us benefits beyond anything marriage can afford.

     In other texts the phrase is inverted. Instead of the expression "in Christ" we have the converse--Christ in you. Galatians 4:19 contains a remarkable figure. Here Paul speaks of Christ being formed as an embryo within our souls. In Galatians 2:20 where he speaks of being crucified with Christ he states he has so submerged his will to the Spirit of Christ that the man he has become has a better right to the name of Christ than his own. The name Christian literally means "one belonging to Christ." We have found at last a man who has a right to wear that honorable name. "For me to live is Christ," he cries, "and it is no longer I that live but Christ liveth in me."

     No doubt such words were written in a moment of spiritual ecstasy. Had he been cross-examined he would scarcely have insisted that he and Christ were indistinguishable. But to say this is only to emphasize that language has broken down at a vital point. Words are inadequate to express a fact so glorious, so transforming. And the best part of it is that he disclaims exclusive claims upon such a life or its attendant rewards. In Colossians 1:27, having written of God's will to make known how rich and glorious is his redemption among all nations, he adds, "The secret," (though now it is a secret no longer) "is this, Christ in you, the hope of a glory to come." This is in full accord with the affirmation of our text.

     John, throughout his writings, emphasizes the same truth. In his gospel record he does so by recalling a series of metaphors which Jesus used. Christ is the vine of which believers are individually branches. He is the door which closes in the flock. He is the living bread which we may eat and live forever. He is the light that lighteth every man coming into the world.

     Like Paul, John also contemplates our mystic union with Christ alternately, from either side. "I in you" and "you in me" are expressions he uses interchangeably. The analogy of the vine and the branches provides a natural basis for these dual expressions. A branch is at once in the vine and the vine in every branch. 1. John 3:24 is a classic reference, "When we keep his commands (note the condition) we dwell in him and he dwells in us. And this is how we can be sure he dwells in us (note the certification), we know it from the Spirit he has given us." This brings us back indeed to our starting point. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the seal of our present redemption and the pledge of our heavenly inheritance.

     This may not be nearly as technical a discussion as some would desire. As with the study of the Godhead, some would demand a tri-partite analysis that scarcely avoids the pitfall of polytheism. Whether we have three Gods, or three hundred, the monotheistic view of God is broken and like Humpty-Dumpty after his great fall, whether just soundly cracked or splattered all over the place, it can never be put back together again.

     The popular concept of personality must be radically revised before one can lay hold of the New Testament doctrine of the mystic union with God, or hold on to a belief in a triune God without destroying the divine unity. The classic definition of personality is that of David Strauss: "That selfhood which shuts itself up against everything else, excluding it thereby from itself." If such a definition be allowed, personal distinctions within the Godhead are untenable. This is the adamantine theory of personality. The world of persons becomes as so many marbles. Each of them is utterly outside of all the rest. But is such the case?

     Those who have tasted the rapturous joys of marriage can testify that impenetrable solitude is not the nature of the human spirit, at least not in its highest form of expression. And both the Old Testament and the New Testament present marriage as the analogue of our relationship to God. Even apart from marriage it is possible in a real sense to escape from self-isolation and mingle in love and thought and will in the lives of others. We are persons not merely through our power of self isolation, important as this is to our self-identity, but by our power to link ourselves with others and others with ourselves. Those who achieve in this most notably are those whom we recognize as having "personality." Those who do not we disparage. We say of such a one, "he has no personality."

     So it is with the Godhead. Those who insist upon absolute distinctions do so at the expense of the divine unity and the fulness of personality. Among ourselves distinctions are necessary. But this is due to the imperfections of our own natures. In marriage, for example, we are said to be one, but which one? It that question can be answered it is because one of the two contracting parties has contributed to the union little, it anything, more than a body. Only as two rich full spirits so blend their persons that it is not readily discernible which has given in or given over to the other can we say the idyllic oneness of the marriage state has been attained.

     Our children soon discover that we are not really one, and play the ends against the middle. But the three persons of the Godhead cannot be set at variance. Any relationship we may enjoy with one automatically extends to the others. Personality is found in its fulness and perfection in the Godhead. Admittedly this is a mystery. But remember the Biblical phrase for it. It is "the mystery of godliness."

     Brethren, let us begin here and now to bend and blend our separate spirits together with the Spirit of God and the spirits of all the saints. Let us "spare no effort to make fast with bonds of peace the unity which the Spirit gives." We shall ever only "know in part," we shall never have the assurance in our hearts we shall enter upon our heritage; we cannot know "how good and how blessed it is for brethren to dwell together in unity"--until we accept the fact that "be-

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lievers are incorporate in Christ," and begin to forbear one another and to forgive each other as God in Christ forgives us all.

     (Editor's Note: Russell Boatman is Dean of St. Louis Christian College, and the above article constitutes his speech delivered at the forum on fellowship held at Hartford, Illinois, December 27, 1965. Brother Boatman may be addressed at his home, 2245 Old Florissant Road, Florissant, Missouri 63033).