Sealed

2 Corinthians 1:22

Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

God pictures salvation in many different ways so that any person who wants to get saved will understand what they must do to be saved. For instance, salvation is a judicial transaction. God pronounces the sinner guilty and sentences them to death, a death in Hell. However, Jesus Christ comes into the courtroom of eternity and offers His sacrificial death on the cross to pay for the sins of the sinner. All the sinner must do is accept Christ’s payment, and they will be saved, and their record will show their debt to God has been paid.

Salvation is also a transaction of property. God makes the offer to purchase the sinner with the blood of Jesus Christ. The sinner must accept this offer if they want to be saved. The moment the sinner accepts this offer to be purchased with Christ’s blood, God puts His earnest down and that earnest is the Holy Spirit.

In both of these instances, one of the greatest things that happens is that God seals our salvation. The seal was often the stamp of the king’s ring on a law to show that the law enacted could never be changed. When a sinner gets saved, God puts His seal on the life of the believer to show the transaction made cannot be undone. God goes even further into this transaction by putting His Holy Spirit into the heart of the believer as the earnest of this transaction. In other words, we have God’s promise this transaction will be completed someday. What transaction? The transaction that one day He will take us to Heaven. Oh, the transaction of our sins were eternally paid when the believer accepts Christ as their Saviour, but God will complete the whole transaction of bringing the believer to Heaven one day. Until then, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be sealed by the Holy Spirit?

First, it means our salvation is secured in Christ. When earnest money is put down, the earnest money is put into a secure trust account. The Holy Spirit is that earnest that secures our soul for Heaven. Until we get to Heaven, we have the confidence that we will go there because the Holy Spirit lives within us.

Second, it means we are purchased. The transaction for our sin is complete. The seal of God has been placed on our lives, and He gives His seal to show others that we belong to Him. The fact God purchased you should cause you to live like you belong to Him. To live for anything or anyone else other than God when you are saved is to use God’s possession, your life, for the wrong purpose.

Third, it means we belong to God. The salvation transaction means we are placed into the family of God. You are part of God’s family, and you should live according to the family name. I have a seal on my life, and God now has the right to tell me how to live because I belong to Him. You are His child, and you should live as your Heavenly Father tells you to live in His Word.

Fourth, it means Christ’s promise to return will happen. There is coming a day when Christ will complete the whole transaction by either taking us to Heaven through death, or taking us to Heaven through the rapture. My friend, the seal of God on your life should cause you to stay busy serving Him and reaching the lost, for this is His commission to those whom He has purchased.