The Father’s plan sealed by the Holy Spirit
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
We have noted that the grand plan Paul is setting forth in his letter to the Ephesians involves all three persons of the Trinity. From eternity God the Father chose the elect in Christ. But that eternal counsel of God, centering on Christ, finds its fulfillment in time—when the Holy Spirit does his special work of bringing people to faith in Christ through the message of the gospel.
Paul directs our attention to this work of the Spirit when he shifts the spotlight from the grace God has shown to the Jews to the equal grace God has shown to the Gentiles. Paul sets the gentile Ephesian believers alongside Jewish believers when he declares, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.”
Not only has the Holy Spirit brought the Ephesians to faith, but his presence in their hearts serves yet another purpose. “Having believed,” Paul says, “you were marked in him [Christ] with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” The Ephesians bear a seal: having the Holy Spirit in their hearts. In ancient times a seal was the sign of ownership. For a Christian to bear the seal of the Holy Spirit is an indicator that he or she belongs to God. That is a present blessing.
But Paul points to yet another blessing coming from the Spirit’s presence in our hearts by faith. We have assurance for the future. The apostle describes the Spirit as “a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession.”
A deposit, a down payment, is the first installment of a transaction and guarantees the rest of the obligation will also be met. The fact that God has given his Holy Spirit into our hearts by faith at the present time is an assurance that the rest of God’s promise will also be forthcoming. It is his guarantee that he’ll hold our inheritance in heaven for us “until the redemption [the final deliverance] of those who are God’s possession.”
For a parallel passage that speaks of the Holy Spirit, both as a seal indicating God’s present ownership of the believer and as the guarantee of future blessings with God in heaven, see 2 Corinthians 1:21,22. Once again, for the third time in this section, Paul tells us why God has showered us with all these blessings: to give us cause to thank and praise him. All this is “to the praise of his glory.”