- Sealed
2 Corinthians 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
God has established and anointed us in Christ, and He put His seal on us, and with it he gave us the guarantee of the Spirit in our hearts. A seal means something is defined and secured as authentic. Whatever is sealed has not and cannot be interfered with; it can be trusted. We are sealed in Baptism with the Holy Spirit. We are marked and secured as authentically accounted saved children of God. Nothing and no one can interfere with that truth. We are free to live securely under the seal of God by faith in Jesus Christ. We know who we are and whose we are; we know the future and we know where we are going; we are safe and secure and will be preserved and protected until that day when we are ushered into the glory of the Lord to live in bliss forever. If only we could see that seal; then we would have no fears or worries about anything. Our life is locked up with God.
That seal is also the earnest, the guarantee, of the Spirit in our hearts. We have a guarantee. God Himself guarantees our security and life eternal. A guarantee means that we can count on the reliability of the product or service; if anything goes wrong it will be fixed.
Another metaphor for “earnest” is a down payment; when we make a down payment we are making a guarantee that the rest of the loan will be paid off. As a down payment, the Holy Spirit in our hearts is the guarantee that Sin, Death and the Devil will be finally defeated and the originally good-created soul will be united with a resurrected and glorified body.
We are saved and have eternal life now, but how do we know we will still have such a promise later on when we die? We know because we have a seal and a guarantee. This is the Spirit living in our spirit. The Holy Spirit in us is as sure as anything can possibly be. Yes indeed, we are sealed.