230. Sealed unto the Day
Ephesians 4:30And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
We have the Holy Spirit of God living within. The warning here is about grieving the Spirit; He doesn’t leave, but he is grieved by our thoughts and actions. The promise is that the Spirit has sealed us unto the day of redemption. A Day is coming when we shall be redeemed, finally saved from the presence of Sin, Satan, and Death. Never more again will the Enemies bother us, deceive us, or try to destroy us. This is redemption: we are bought back and we belong to God forever.
Meanwhile, while we wait for that Glorious Day, as we live on this earth, we are sealed. We are sealed with Eternal Life, the very life of God: we have that life now, but it coexists with the old life of sin and death that remains in the flesh. The Holy Spirit of God, the life of God Himself, is the seal. The seal is a guarantee of life that begins now and goes on forever.
Redemption simply takes us out of the control of the Enemies, The Church and our own souls are in the middle of the War between Flesh and Spirit. On the Day of Redemption that War will end in Final Victory. After that final battle we shall be ushered into the Eternal State of the new heaven and the new earth, while everything that is not of God is turned into the Lake of Fire. This is the Promise that we have received by faith in Jesus Christ. We have the certain hope that The Day will come because we have today the Spirit as a seal. This guaranteed promise living within our spirit gives us confidence and joy today and tomorrow. Nothing and no one will take us out of the hand of the Father.
The seal cannot be broken, although the God of love does give us the right and power to turn away and reject God and break the seal. We will even have that power in eternity, but we never will. The promise of a seal is given to us now so that we will rest secure in His love and power, which is strong enough to hold us tight. The seal is not a wish or a “hope so,” but it is a certainty. We belong to God and the love of God compels us not to want to grieve Him. This is the encouragement we have: thedesire to know and do the will of God. When we sin we repent and come back under His seal and covering immediately by faith in the Gospel.