13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
“In Him” is the repeated emphasis of this introduction to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He is not absent-mindedly repeating himself. The recurrence is designed to draw our attention to the fact that we are “in Him” and it is there where all the blessings find their fulfillment and ultimate expression. Here Paul reminds us that being “in Him” is a state of being that begins after we responded to the “the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” In other words, after we believed and were saved.
Of particular note is that we were sealed at that point in time. Faith and salvation are not something that happens gradually over a period of time, just as sealing is not a gradual thing. One is either sealed or not sealed; one cannot be partly sealed, for that is the same as not being sealed at all. Furthermore, what God seals, no one can unseal. So this speaks to the assurance we have in Christ. Our part in salvation has been completed, namely believing the message. God’s response is the sealing.
Making this absolutely clear, Paul says we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. This means that every true believer has received the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. He is the promised One (see Joel 2:28, Acts 1:4, 8). And He Himself, the Holy Spirit, is the promise, in that He is the pledge of our inheritance. The working of the Holy Spirit in our lives is a foretaste of when our full redemption is realized, when we as God’s possession, come into the full expression and fulfillment of our adopted sonship. What a blessing this promise of inheritance is. It is, as Peter says, “an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you…” (1 Peter 1:4).
This also speaks to our sanctification. In salvation we have been made holy: “And by [God’s] will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10). This is what theologians call positional sanctification, that is, God has set us aside as His own special people. But we are also being made progressively holy, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” (Heb 10:14). We begin to experience now in part what we will experience later in whole. That is a promise, a pledge by the Holy Spirit, for God’s glory. To Him be praise!
Lord, I praise You for the great promise of an inheritance with Christ.
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