After 2 Corinthians 1:21 says that God has anointed us, verse 22 goes on to say that God has sealed us. The anointing in verse 21 is the sealing in verse 22. Since God has anointed us with Christ, He has also sealed us in Him. As we are under the anointing, the anointing becomes a sealing to us. The sealing causes us to become different from others and bear God’s image. First, God through the anointing adds the essence of Himself into us. Then this anointing seals us with the essence of God and causes us to bear the image of God.
Ephesians 1:13 says that we “were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.” Ephesians 4:30 says that in the Holy Spirit we were “sealed unto the day of redemption.” To be sealed with the Holy Spirit is to be marked with the Holy Spirit as a living seal. We have been designated as God’s inheritance. At the time 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, thus making us like God.
From the time we were saved, the Holy Spirit as the seal within us began to seal us continually with the element of God that we may be transformed in our disposition until we are fully redeemed in our body. “Unto the redemption of the acquired possession” (1:14) gives the purpose of the sealing of the Holy Spirit. The seal of the Holy Spirit is living, and it works within us to permeate and transform us with the divine element until we are mature in God’s life and eventually fully redeemed, even in our body.
God not only has anointed us, sealed us, with the Spirit, but also has given the Spirit as the pledge in us (2 Cor. 1:22). The seal is a mark that we are God’s inheritance, God’s possession, and that we belong to God. The pledge is a guarantee that God is our inheritance or heritage belonging to us. The Spirit within us is the pledge, the earnest, of God being our portion in Christ.
Ephesians 1:14 says that the Spirit is “the pledge of our inheritance.” The Greek word for pledge also means foretaste, guarantee. God gives His Holy Spirit to us not only as a guarantee of our inheritance, securing our heritage, but also as a foretaste of what we will inherit of God, affording us a taste beforehand of the full inheritance. In ancient times the Greek word for pledge was used in the purchasing of land. The seller gave the purchaser some soil as a sample from the land. Hence, a pledge, according to ancient Greek usage, is also a sample. The Holy Spirit is the sample of what we will inherit of God in full. The Holy Spirit today is a guarantee, a foretaste, and a sample of our divine inheritance, until our body is transfigured in glory, at which time we will inherit God and enjoy Him in full.
Second Corinthians 5:5 says, “He who has wrought us for this very thing is God, who has given to us the Spirit as a pledge.” The Greek word for wrought also means fashioned, shaped, prepared, made fit. God has wrought us, fashioned us, shaped us, prepared us, made us fit, for the very purpose that our mortal body might be swallowed up by His resurrection life. Thus our entire being will be saturated with Christ. God has given us the Spirit as the pledge, the earnest, the foretaste, the guarantee, of this wonderful and marvelous part of His complete salvation, which He has given to us in Christ.
God’s attaching us to Christ issues in three things: an anointing that imparts God’s element into us, a sealing that forms the divine element into an impression to express God’s image, and a pledging as a foretaste that gives us a sample and guarantee of the full taste of God. These three matters-anointing, sealing, and pledging-are actually one. They are one thing with three aspects and are related to the work of the Spirit within us. The more we enjoy the divine fellowship through the Spirit, the more opportunity the Spirit has to dispense Himself into us by anointing us, sealing us, and pledging in us. Therefore, in our fellowship with the Triune God, we experience the Spirit’s anointing, sealing, and pledging.
The indwelling Spirit is the firstfruits (foretaste) of our divine inheritance, which is the Triune God Himself. Romans 8:23 says, “We ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit....” The firstfruits of the Spirit are simply the Spirit Himself as the firstfruits. The Triune God is our enjoyment; He is everything to us. There will be a harvest of this blessing at the redemption of our body; that will be our full enjoyment of God. Today the Spirit is the firstfruits of the coming harvest, the foretaste of our full enjoyment of God.
Therefore, the firstfruits refer to a foretaste that is a guarantee that we shall experience the full taste. What we have enjoyed and are still enjoying of God is just a foretaste. The full taste is coming. The Triune God Himself is the full taste, and He has given us His Spirit as the firstfruits of all the riches of God’s being to be our foretaste. Today we only need to live in the fellowship of the Triune God to enjoy the Spirit as the firstfruits. This enjoyment is the guarantee that at the Lord’s coming back we will enter into the full enjoyment of God.
Home | First | Prev | Next