07 What is Being Sealed With the Holy Spirit?

Krisan Marotta: Good morning. You're listening to Wednesday in the Word, and I'm glad you are. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Ahead on today's podcast, we're going to be looking at Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 through 23. This is the seventh talk in my series called Who is the Holy Spirit? You can find lecture notes for today's talk on the link below the podcast, and you can find them on my website. Just go to wednesdayintheword.com slash Holy Spirit 7. That's the number 7. Thanks for joining me today. My goal in this series is to understand what scripture says about the Holy Spirit. So rather than coming to the passages looking for answers to specific questions, I'm going to the passages to see what picture they spell out. And I've argued for a certain framework for understanding who the Holy Spirit is and what he does. I'm going to review that for you. When we see the Holy Spirit in Scripture, He is almost always intervening in creation to accomplish God's purposes. So the Holy Spirit is God's agent of change. And what we most need him to do for us is to save us from ourselves. Generally speaking, I've organized the work of the Holy Spirit into two categories the universal and the individual. The universal work of the Spirit is the way He transforms the hearts of all believers such that we now embrace and believe the gospel and can say and mean Jesus is Lord. The individual works of the Spirit are the gifts that He gives to different individuals, different ways we each serve the kingdom of God. For some, these might be miraculous works or what we would call signs and wonders, we see that in the prophets and the apostles. But for most of us, these are what we think of as spiritual gifts, the various ways that each one of us is given to serve the body of Christ. We spent the last three podcasts looking at the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, and in the Old Testament, most often we see the Holy Spirit empowering the leaders of Israel. He gives them wisdom or military might or strength or whatever they need in order to bless the people of God. So we looked at Moses, we looked at the judges and kings Saul and David. We also saw that the Holy Spirit gives prophets revelation such that they can speak the word of the Lord to the people. Through his Spirit, God reveals to the prophets his purposes for the present, his plans for the future, his warnings, his corrections, his reminders, and then they speak to the rest of us. And I argued that this is an individual work of the Holy Spirit. The way that we see him empowering the leaders of Israel so that they can lead, and the prophets so that they can teach is an individual work of the Spirit, something that the Spirit does in one believer's life and not another. So we primarily see the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament empowering God's chosen messengers and leaders so that they can fulfill that role. But we also looked at the universal work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, and in the last podcast, I argued that both testaments understand the nature of spiritual renewal the same way. That is, that God transforms believers through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us faith. The Old Testament uses language like God will give you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear. God circumcises your heart to love him so that you might live. God writes the law in your heart so that he can be your God and you will be his people. God gives you a new spirit, a new heart. God removes your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh, and God puts his spirit within you and causes you to walk in his statutes. Each of these phrases talks about the same sort of thing, and I think it's the same thing that the New Testament talks about, this transforming work that the Holy Spirit does in our hearts to make us people who love God and are no longer rebellious to him. And this is what I've called the universal work of the Spirit because it's something that He does in the life of every believer. Today I want to go back to the New Testament. I've argued that the Holy Spirit is God's agent of change, that he intervenes in the world to change us, and the change we most need is salvation, and I want to explore that idea a little bit further in the New Testament, starting with Ephesians one. In the first chapter of Ephesians, Paul goes through a list of blessings that God has given to believers in Christ. He says God chose us in Christ, God predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus, in Jesus we have redemption and so forth. And then in one thirteen he talks about another blessing we have in Christ, and that is being sealed with the Spirit. This is Ephesians chapter one verses thirteen and fourteen. In him that is in Christ, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Now notice there are two prerequisites here to what Paul describes as being sealed by the Holy Spirit, and that is hearing and believing. We have to hear the truth of the gospel, we have to hear the truth about our sinfulness and our inability to save ourselves from that sin, and we have to genuinely believe that God will save us because of the blood of Jesus Christ. So we have to believe that Jesus died in our place in order to justify and redeem us. And as I've argued, coming to that faith, that saving faith, is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a gift of God through His Spirit. When we hear and believe, then we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. And the idea here is that we are marked for identification purposes. This sealing fulfills a past promise and is a pledge of a future inheritance, and that's what I want to explore today. The past promise is that the Holy Spirit would be given. And we've already looked at Numbers eleven, where the Spirit of the Lord comes upon the seventy elders and they prophesy. And Joshua goes to Moses and asks Moses to restrain the men, because after all Moses is the chief prophet, and in Numbers eleven twenty nine, Moses replies, But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's peoples were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit upon them? Eventually that's what happens. We also looked at Jeremiah thirty one verses thirty three through thirty four. I'll read that again. Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I will remember no more. Here Jeremiah is predicting that a day will come when God will write the law on the hearts of his people, and as I argued in the podcast where we looked at that passage, that comes about through the work of the Holy Spirit. That transforming of our hearts is the universal work of the Spirit giving us saving faith. And here's one more passage we didn't look at. This is Joel chapter two verses twenty eight and twenty nine. It will come about after this that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out my spirit in those days. Everyone who believes, men and women, grown ups and children, slave and free alike, will one day be given the spirit. And the prophets take this one step further. They say this blessing will go out beyond Israel to all the nations, and here Joel is saying it will go to all mankind. God promised Abraham in Genesis twelve three that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. And here we see Joel giving us a glimpse of one way that's going to come about. God is going to pour out his spirit on all mankind. What was promised to Abraham, longed for by Moses and envisioned by the prophets was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. The apostles were filled with the Spirit without measure, as were the Samaritans, the Ethiopian eunuch, and the Gentiles. So the first thing we learn about being sealed with the Holy Spirit is that this is the fulfillment of a past promise. Paul uses this phrase Holy Spirit of promise on purpose. And I think he's saying this is it. This is the fulfillment of those promises in the Old Testament that the law would be written on our hearts, or that God would pour out his spirit. The law is written on our hearts because now we have God's Spirit indwelling in us, changing us to make us the very type of people who not only want to keep the law, but do in fact keep the law. Let's look some more at this idea of being sealed. I'll read Ephesians 1 13 and 14 again. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Paul uses this word sealed to describe the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. All of us who believe in Christ are sealed by His Spirit. In the Old Testament, the noun form of this verb was often used of the signet ring of the king, which was used to seal important documents. Paul is speaking metaphorically here. In many cultures people used to have seals that guaranteed their signature, kind of like we notarize a signature today to guarantee it. They had a ring or a stamp with an emblem carved into it, and that emblem was their family crest, their seal or some kind of unique carving. When they wanted to show that the signature on this document or letter was genuine, they would affix their seal to the document, usually in wax. When a noble or a king put his seal on something, the seal meant this belongs to me and you don't mess with it. A king then might close a pouch or a chest with his seal, and that signified that this pouch belonged to the king. Break it and you die. Only the intended recipient could break the seal on the pouch. Everyone else was to leave it alone. It belonged to the king or the master. So the seal had a threefold purpose. So the first was to guarantee the authenticity of the documents. This has the king's seal. It really did come from the king. The second was to name their rightful owner. The seal said this pouch is mine, it's intended for a certain person, and no one else is to touch it. And then the third purpose was to protect the item from being tampered with or harmed. In fact, breaking the king's seal was a capital offense. And I think this is what Paul has in mind here in Ephesians when he says that Christians are sealed with the Spirit. He's saying the Holy Spirit is your seal of authenticity, ownership, and protection. So let's look at these. Let's start with authenticity. How do you know that you're a Christian? It's not because you have an official document, perhaps a baptismal certificate or a letter of church membership. In the New Covenant, no external ritual, whether circumcision, baptism, church membership, or anything else, can guarantee that you are authentically a believer. What actually does guarantee that you are a believer is the work of the Holy Spirit inside you. Your life starts to change. When you became a Christian, God took his metaphorical signet ring and pressed it against your soul, leaving his image indelibly stamped on it by the Holy Spirit. And this is why your spirit can now cry out Abba Father. This sealing by the Holy Spirit brings authenticity and assurance that you are a believer, and that transcends any ritual or piece of paper. The king's seal in the Old Testament was used not only to mark authenticity but ownership. And the Holy Spirit does the same thing for us. It sets us apart as belonging to God as His children. In Paul's letters, Paul divides the world into two groups, those who belong to God and those who don't. And that's really the only dividing line that matters. You are marked as a child of God because you have the Spirit of God now working in your life such that you can now say and profoundly believe that Jesus is Lord. And then third and perhaps most important, the king's seal prevented official documents from being tampered with or broken or harmed. The seal was irrevocable. In the Old Testament book of Esther, King Ahazarus says this to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, this is Esther eight eight. But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews in the name of the king and seal it with the king's ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked. This is what God is saying when he metaphorically stamps your soul with his spirit. He has done something that cannot be revoked. When we're sealed with the Holy Spirit, God is making the statement, This is my authentic child who I own and am committed to protect for eternity. So the seal of the Holy Spirit is a fulfillment of the past promise, and it gives us security in the present and guarantees a future promise. The metaphorical seal is the reality of the Holy Spirit at work in your life to change you from the inside out. And that work is looking ahead to a future inheritance. Let's look at that part of the equation. Paul says in 13 and 14, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee or the pledge of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. So we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ and the mercy of God, we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when we heard the gospel and believed. The seal is a mark of ownership and protection. The Holy Spirit is a mark on believers that authenticates that we belong to God and we are His. But Paul also says the Holy Spirit is given as a pledge of our inheritance. Now the Greek term for pledge or guarantee, it basically means down payment. God is handing over this first installment of the whole as a guarantee that there is more to come. So a pledge is a down payment or earnest money. If I promise to buy your house, I demonstrate my earnestness or the seriousness of my intent to buy your house by giving you a sum of money up front. That's my pledge, my guarantee that my promise is good. I give you something up front to show that I fully intend to follow through on my commitment to pay in full. And that's how Paul is picturing the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God's down payment, a pledge that one day we will come into full possession of our inheritance. We have been adopted as children of God because of the blood of Jesus Christ, and that gives us an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Now we don't have that inheritance yet. It's been promised to us and we're awaiting its fulfillment. In the meantime, God has given us His Spirit as a pledge that He intends to fulfill that promise. So it is a pledge of a future inheritance because the full and complete redemption from sin is yet to come. Now our destiny is sealed. There's no doubt that we will cross the finish line on God's side, but what has yet to happen is complete freedom from all the effects and consequences and presence of sin. That's the future inheritance we look forward to. We have a pledge of that, we have a guarantee, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is certain evidence of my salvation. I have no reason to doubt that my inheritance is coming. It is guaranteed because of this pledge. Now in 114, Paul says this pledge is given with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, or until we acquire possession of it. This phrase is ambiguous. Typically the word redemption applies to believers, and the question here in fourteen is who's being redeemed? Well, if God's people are the ones being redeemed, then Paul is saying something like until the redemption of the people who are God's possession, or with a view to the redemption of God's people, which is how the New American Standard translates it. The New American Standard says with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, with a view to the time when God's people are redeemed. And the New American Standard adds the phrase God's own to clue you into their understanding of what Paul means. God is going to take full ownership of his people and redeem them fully from this fallen world, and that's what we're looking forward to. You'll notice the ESV takes it another way. They take this phrase as restating the previous verse. They translate it, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. So they see Paul as saying the Holy Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance. We have this inheritance that is going to belong to us, and we are waiting for the day when we will one day possess it in full, and the Holy Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance with a view to the time when we will fully come into possession of it. Now both of these ideas are true. We need to be redeemed so that we can belong to God, and we have an inheritance that needs to be redeemed so that we can fully possess it. I'm not really sure which of these two ideas Paul means. I'm not sure which translation is the better translation. Theologically, they both wind up in the same place, and the context, I think, could swing either way. Plus, we see both of these ideas in Paul's other writings. So I'm on the fence on this one. I see the argument both ways, and in the end, I'm not sure it makes a whole lot of difference because theologically they end up in the same place. But before we leave this chapter, I want to look at one more thing Paul says about the The Spirit in Ephesians. Paul often starts his letters with a prayer of gratitude and thanksgiving for the work that God has done in the lives of his readers. Now Paul's life work was traveling from place to place, preaching the gospel, and starting churches. So you could imagine that how the people get along after he leaves is of great interest to him. There's a real sense in which they are the result of his life's work. And he often begins his letters with a prayer thanking God for the way the particular church he's writing to responded to the gospel. And he says something to the effect of I pray for you all the time, and when I do, I'm grateful for the work that God has done among you. And very often after expressing his gratitude, he will go on to say, and this is what I'm praying for God to do for you in the future. Now I find these prayers very instructive. They show us what Paul's concerns are and ultimately I think what his concerns would be for us if he wrote us a letter. And his prayers have some common themes. He doesn't pray for things like progress on a new church building or increased giving or that the pastor would run for mayor or something. His prayers are typically concerned with their growth and their spiritual maturity, and that's what we see here in Ephesians. Let's look at chapter one verses fifteen through eighteen. And note particularly verses seventeen and eighteen. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. Now note that phrase may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened. You're probably aware that in the Greek text there is no capitalization, so there is some debate as to whether one hundred seventeen should be translated the spirit of wisdom with a capital S, as in the Holy Spirit, and that is how the ESV translates it, or should it be spirit with a lowercase s as in our spirit or our nature, which is how the New American Standard translates it? Unless the author tells us Holy Spirit or Spirit of God or gives us some other indicator which kind of spirit he means, we have to make our best interpretive guess. So is Paul praying that the Holy Spirit would give them wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, or is Paul praying that they in their own spirits would gain wisdom and revelation? Again, I would say this is one of those cases where it really doesn't matter which way you take it. The end result of both translations is that they would have wisdom and revelation. And as we've seen in this series, Paul's perspective is that the Holy Spirit is the one who brings such wisdom and revelation. He brings understanding to our spirits. So again, either way you interpret the phrase is true, and we find both those ideas in Paul's theology, and both are possible from the context. What I want to focus on is what he's asking for, the wisdom and the revelation in the knowledge of him. Let's talk about that. Wisdom is the skill to live life well. It starts with seeing the truth about God and His creation. Wisdom sees reality accurately and then applies that understanding to the rest of life. So wisdom is the skill to live life well. Wisdom lives and acts in light of the truth. Wisdom is not the acquisition of knowledge or facts or educational degrees. Wisdom is seeing truth and applying it to life. So true wisdom not only understands the truth about God, but sees the relevance of that truth for daily life. The person who is wise understands what's true and lives life in light of that truth. The person who is wise understands that God has made great promises, believes those promises, and lives life in light of those promises. So we're not talking about an abstract grasp of theological tenets. We're talking about life savvy, prudent decision making based on an accurate understanding of the world that God created. If you stop and think about it, you probably know wise or life savvy people. They just seem to get it. They're the ones you always seek out for advice when you're faced with a difficult circumstance because they seem to be able to get to the heart of a problem, to know what's really important to hang on to and what it's okay to let go of. Maybe it's your grandmother who never finished high school, or it could be a parent or a coach or your pastor. The person who is life savvy is the one who understands reality and how things work and can spot a bad decision a mile away. And Paul's praying that they would have this kind of wisdom. He says the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. So it's that wisdom that comes from knowing God and what he says is true. And it seems to me that by adding the word revelation, he emphasizes how hard true wisdom is to come by. You probably know people who are wise in the ways of the world. Maybe they know how to navigate through life and come out on top. Maybe they're particularly skilled at surviving office politics or negotiating a deal that benefits them. That's not the kind of thing Paul has in view here. Paul's talking about the kind of wisdom that is grounded in biblical truths, a wisdom that recognizes that God exists, that He is holy, we are not, and one day we're going to have to stand before Him. A wisdom that recognizes there is a path to eternal life and not everyone is on it. That kind of wisdom is hard to come by. Left to ourselves, we would reject it. We would find it foolish and we dismiss it. It takes an act of God through His Spirit to open our eyes so that we see and embrace it. Ultimately, God reveals this wisdom to us through His Spirit, and that's exactly what Paul's asking for, that they would come to know God in this wisdom and revelation. So this is not the kind of wisdom that teaches you how to invest in the stock market or how to win friends and influence people or how to make the best deal or twelve steps to a better love life. Ultimately, this is the knowledge of God. Now it's easy to say we need to know God, but in what sense do we need to know God? And Paul goes on to explain that. Let's bring in verses 18 through 20. Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Paul wants us to understand God's character and his purposes as it relates to us. He's not asking for abstract systematic theology, that kind of understanding, the kind I need to pass a theological test. To know God is to not only know about God and who he is, but to recognize that that truth means something to me. It makes a difference in who I am, what I value, what choices I make, and how I live my life. It's the kind of wisdom that changes my daily decisions. Now all of us have a worldview. We have a picture of reality out of which we operate. Why do some things make me glad and other things scare me to death? Well, it's because I have a picture of reality and the way the world works, and that picture makes me pursue some things with gladness and avoid others at all costs. When the Bible talks about my heart, it's a metaphor for the inner person, the real me, the place you find my will, my desires, my hopes, my thoughts. It's the place where my worldview rests. We all start out with hearts that are blind. We look at reality and we don't get it. We trade the things of eternal importance for things with immediate temporal gratification. We look at things that are wrong and we call them right. We look at selfishness and we call it good. All of us start that way. Our wills are stubborn, our hopes are foolish, and our values are worldly. Paul's prayer is that the person at my core, the true me, would have my inner eyes opened so that I would start to get it. That whatever I see outside with my physical eyes, the eyes inside would start to really grasp it, take it in, and recognize what's truly valuable, truly good, truly right, and truly wise. And what will we see when the eyes of our hearts are enlightened? He says that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might. Look at the three things Paul prays for. Actually, I think this is really only one thing expressed three different ways. They're all aspects of the same idea. Paul prays that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened so that we would know in verse 18 the hope of his calling, also in eighteen the riches of the glory of his inheritance, and in nineteen the surpassing greatness of his power. Let's talk about what he means by that. Hope. Hope is a confident, eager expectation that something will happen. Hope is not wishful thinking. The New Testament word for hope would never be used to express a wish or longing. It was reserved for something that you had absolute confidence of, something you fully expected to happen. So the hope of his calling is the confident, eager expectation that we will be made holy. In a sense, hope is very similar to the word for faith. It is counting on something, confident something, trusting in it. The difference is that hope expresses the joy and the eagerness with which I look forward to something. If I tell my kids we're going to Disney World, they hope for the trip. They are confident it will happen because I promised it and they fully expect it to happen and they eagerly await for it. If I tell them we're having broccoli for dinner, they have faith that we will have broccoli. They expect it, they count on it, but they don't look forward to it with joy and eagerness. So the hope of God's calling is an eager, confident expectation that God's calling will be realized, and what is that? I think the answer is basically that He has called us to be holy and blameless before Him. He has called us to be His people and to be His people who have a great hope. He called us to make us the kind of people we should have been if we'd never fallen. So unfallen, undefiled, knowing right from wrong, completely morally blameless and perfect. And if that seems remote and irrelevant to you as you face tomorrow, you don't understand the depth of your sin and the problem we're facing. Being made holy as God is holy is the only goal worth pursuing. It is those who hunger for righteousness that will find it. It is those who long to be released from sin that will be rewarded. Nothing else is going to meet the desires of our hearts. Nothing. Let me give you an analogy for how this hope makes a difference in your daily life. Imagine that someone you love is in a plane crash. And at first all the news reports that there were no survivors. A terrible grief and loss overwhelms you with the knowledge that your loved one is gone and there's nothing you can do about it. Then, after the recognition that there's nothing you can do, a couple of days later you hear that your loved one survived and is actually still alive and is coming home. But it's going to take a while. It's going to take several weeks or maybe even months for your loved one to travel back from the remote location of the crash. But you thought he was gone and now he's here. He's coming back. You just have to hold on and wait. Eventually you'll see him again. Now in that experience, we could recognize that there would be good days and bad days. There would be frustrations and bad days as you wait, and each day you check, is he home yet? Is today the day? No, not yet. And there could be a sense of impatience and maybe frustration and longing. But your immediate reaction would not be that this is an empty promise just because you don't see him yet. That's not your reaction because in spite of the fact that he's not here, something you really, really wanted has captured your heart. You thought he was dead, but now he's alive. And that knowledge gives you hope and strength even in the face of a prolonged separation. Because the fact is, a prolonged separation that ends in being reunited is way better than the hopeless situation that he's gone and there's nothing you can do about it. And that's how the hope of the gospel operates in our lives. It changes our perspective on reality. It changes the way we view the trials and the frustrations of today because we know what is ultimately coming. And this is what Paul is praying for, that their innermost being would be captured by the reality of this hope. Now, if the hope of the gospel means nothing to us, I think the problem is our perspective. We have lost sight of what our real problems are and the solution that has been promised to us. We think in our short-sightedness what that we know what's going to solve our problems. Maybe it's financial security, the current hardship coming to an end, health, beauty, romance, marriage, good grades, career success, whatever we're looking for in the short term. But the New Testament says that's not your big problem. The real problem is that you are a sinner and one day you will stand before a holy God. There is a fire coming which nothing in this world is going to survive. It's all going to burn and you are going to have to walk right into the midst of it. And the only way you will survive that fire is through genuine faith in Jesus Christ. It's a very common experience in life to get exactly what you want and then find out, you know, that wasn't so great. It doesn't last. It's not perfect. It gets spoiled. Death will take it away. It's defiled or whatever. Whatever you manage to scrape together, you're going to lose it somehow. That's reality number one. Reality number two is all your basic human desires will find their fulfillment in the promised kingdom of God. Freedom from death, freedom from guilt, and freedom from sin means freedom from everything that robs us of fulfillment now. If you're longing for love, you will be loved and loved deeply in return in the kingdom of God. If you long for security, you will be unshakably secure in the kingdom of God. If you want meaning or purpose, you will live lives of great meaning and glorious purpose in God's kingdom. You will know complete peace of mind and rest. That's all part of our hope, part of the inheritance that God has promised his children. That's why setting our hope on the coming kingdom of God brings clarity to our daily lives. We have set our hope on something that is truly valuable and unshakable. But sometimes we get so distracted by the things of this world that we just don't get it. But the process is we're going to get it. God in His mercy has started this process of building a mature saving faith within us through the work of His Spirit. The ball is rolling and it will complete the course. The reality of this new birth, this new faith and trust in God is in motion. The process has begun, and the trials I experience now are part of it. Trials prove to me that my faith is real, and if my faith is real, then I know my hope is secure. I stand to inherit freedom from death and corruption and guilt and sin, and that will ultimately fulfill my soul. It's just sometimes right now I'm too foolish to see it. Sometimes God has to pry my fingers out of the mud and the dirt and lift my eyes to the glories He has promised because I'm just too mature and too foolish to see it. I need the Spirit of God to make me see that because of Christ I have moved from hopelessness to hope, and this is what Paul is praying for. He also prays that they would understand the riches of the glory of this inheritance. That's what he says in eighteen. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. The wealth of the glory of his inheritance is the incredible value and extraordinary worth of being made holy. Now again, the text is ambiguous here. The glory of his inheritance could either be the inheritance God gives or the inheritance God receives. Both are his inheritance. We are his inheritance, we his people, and yet he is giving us an inheritance, and the question is which way is it's going? Different scholars have taken it different ways. I lean toward this being the inheritance that God gives. I see this as essentially the same thing as the hope of his calling. However, the nuance is that calling points back to the beginning of our Christian lives, and inheritance points forward to the goal or the end of them. So God started us on this road, and the end, the fulfillment, is the inheritance he intends to give us, the righteousness and the holiness he has promised us. I think the nuance here that's different from the hope of his calling is understand the worth of that, the worth of being made holy. Not only does Paul want us to understand the hope we have before us, he wants us to understand how truly incredibly valuable and beyond our wildest dreams being made holy is. Part of the work of the Holy Spirit is ensuring that we receive our inheritance. He's the down payment, the pledge, and the seal of our inheritance. The Holy Spirit is the one who is ultimately going to bring about that inheritance we've been promised, and we're going to talk more about that in the next podcast. Here, Paul is praying that the Holy Spirit would bring home to our innermost being that this inheritance is coming and how truly valuable and important and significant it is, and that we would see the riches of this inheritance that is in front of us and that would change the way we live our lives now. So to summarize, the Spirit is doing two things with regard to our inheritance. That part next week. But before we finish today, I want to look at one other place where Paul talks about the Holy Spirit as a pledge in a seal. This is Second Corinthians chapter 1, verses 21 and 22. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. And I wanted to bring this verse in because Paul adds the phrase, in our hearts, here. How did God seal us? How did God give us this pledge of our inheritance in our hearts? And that should be familiar language from our last podcast on the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Once again, this is metaphorical language. The Holy Spirit does not live in that organ inside us that pumps blood. As it is used in many languages and many cultures, the heart is used metaphorically to mean the place of the inner person, the place where my will is and my soul resides, and the place of my innermost being and desires. And we saw this language in the Old Testament talking about the new covenant and how God would replace our heart of stone with the heart of flesh, and God would circumcise our hearts and write the law in our hearts. Paul is calling on that same idea and saying the Holy Spirit is given as a pledge or a down payment of our inheritance in our hearts. The work the Holy Spirit is doing now on our inner persons to change us and make us people of mature saving faith is our seal and pledge. How do we know we're believers? How do we know we stand to inherit the promises of God? We begin to see changes in who we are, what we value, what we think, how we feel about our sin, how we grieve over it and repent of it, and how much we long to love God and our neighbors. These changes are the result of the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts, and they are the seal, the evidence to us that we belong to God. One day we will fully belong to God, and one day God will fully give us our inheritance and free us completely from the presence and the penalties of sin. And we can have confidence in that fact because today we begin to see the changes that result from the Holy Spirit transforming our hearts. You've been listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast? My mission is to explain not only what a passage means, but how we figure it out. Please subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you get your podcast. You'll also find hundreds of episodes on my website so you can browse for other passages or topics you might be interested in. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates of Heartfeltmusic.org. I invite you to check out his other music. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I hope I'll see you again next week at Wednesday in the Word.