After referring to the anointing in 2 Corinthians 1:21, Paul goes on to say in verse 22 that God “has also sealed us and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.” Actually, the anointing is the sealing. Because God has anointed us with Christ, He has also sealed us in Him.
We should not regard the sealing as separate from the anointing, for anointing implies sealing. As we are under the anointing, the anointing becomes a sealing. In this way we become different from others. Furthermore, the seal causes us to bear the appearance of God. When God anoints us, the anointing is the sealing. First God through the anointing adds the essence of Himself into us. Then this anointing seals us with the essence of God and makes us the image of God. Therefore, anointing brings in the element, and sealing produces the impression, the image.
Two verses in Ephesians speak of the Spirit sealing the believers. Ephesians 1:13 says, “You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.” Ephesians 4:30 says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.” The Spirit Himself is the seal. Furthermore, the seal of the Spirit involves movement within us. Therefore, the seal is actually the sealing. On the one hand, the Spirit is the seal upon us; on the other hand, the Spirit is now sealing us. Thus, the seal of the Holy Spirit is living, and it works within us to permeate and transform us with God’s element until we are matured in God’s life and eventually fully redeemed, even in our body.
To be sealed with the Holy Spirit means to be marked with the Holy Spirit as a living seal. When we were saved, God put His Holy Spirit into us as a seal to mark us out, indicating that we belong to God. The Holy Spirit, who is God Himself entering into us, causes us to bear God’s image signified by the seal. This seal indicates that God is our owner and that we belong to Him.
The Spirit as the seal of God upon us bears the image of God. This implies that the seal of the Spirit is the expression of God. When we bear the Holy Spirit as the seal of God, we bear the image of God and the expression of God.
The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God and the reaching of the Triune God to us. When He seals us, the entire Triune God reaches us. The Spirit not only reaches us; He is also attached to us (2 Cor. 1:21). The reaching is His attaching, and the attaching is also His dispensing. The Triune God has been dispensed into us. He has reached us, and He has been attached to us. The divine sealing, the life-dispensing of the Triune God, is now taking place within us continually.
The sealing of the Spirit is unto the redemption of the acquired possession (Eph. 1:13b, 14b). We were acquired by God as His possession. From the day He acquired us, He began the sealing in order to saturate us with the Triune God. It is too objective simply to say that we have God’s seal upon us as a mark. We not only have a seal; we also have a sealing to saturate our entire being with God’s element. Our body, which is still natural, has not yet been redeemed. But we have a sealing, the saturating, of the Holy Spirit, within us, and this sealing will continue until the day our body is fully saturated. That will be the redemption of our body, the redemption of God’s acquired possession. Now, as God’s acquired possession, we are still under the sealing of the Spirit.
At the time of our regeneration, the seal of the Spirit was put into our spirit, and the sealing began within us, with a view to the redemption of our body. This indicates that one day even our body will be sealed with the Spirit, saturated with the Spirit. Therefore, the seal of the Spirit is not merely a once-for-all matter. Rather, the sealing is still taking place. The seal was put in us when we believed, but the sealing has been going on from that time until now. The Holy Spirit is the seal and also the sealing. We were sealed, and we are still being sealed.
Home | First | Prev | Next