Ephesians 1: 13-14
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
We spoke of the after's and the seal of the Spirit, today I want to talk about verse fourteen in which Paul gives a further illustration to define this seal of God's Spirit. The phrase I'm particularly interested in is "Earnest of our inheritance." Paul says that the Spirit whereby we were sealed after that we heard and believed is the earnest of our inheritance. We spoke a few days ago about inheritance and if you didn't read that one I would encourage you to do so to understand the inheritance that we have in Christ. Today we will mainly focus the idea of earnest. Earnest in our text, according to Strong's, means a pledge and in more detail it is money paid for goods or services not yet rendered. Now this is what Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost was lead to describe the Holy Ghost's function in our eternal inheritance. When we are saved we are sealed by the Spirit of God, His Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance.
He is our earnest concerning our eternal inheritance because Christ has already paid for the sins of the whole world, there is no payment lacking, all sins past, present and future have been paid for. My sins, your sins, your neighbors sins and yes even the lost's sins, and even further, all the people who have and will reject him sin's. He not only paid for the sins of the saved but for the sins of the whole world! This payment was made with his own blood on Calvary and the eternal price has been paid. Let's compare this to a earthly situation in attempts to understand it spiritually. When I first moved to Uganda we had a security system installed in our house. The payment for this security system was paid for all up front, the labor, the equipment and any other cost associated with the installation was included and paid for before the work ever began. I paid the bill and received a receipt with a stamp, you could call it a seal, the receipt alone would have been pointless, it had to have the seal on it, indicating the price required for installation had been paid. On the day scheduled the men arrived to install the system, they required that I show them my stamped receipt, once they seen the seal on the receipt they installed the system. Now I know this is a simple story and illustration but I believe the application can be made to the seal of God's Spirit on our life. We are not waiting for for the payment to be made and the payment isn't made at the point of salvation, the payment was made on Calvary.When Christ said it is finished it was a Greek financial term (teleō) that means to pay or discharge a debt. Salvation isn't when the payment for your sins takes place it is when you receive the earnest, or seal, of the purchased possession. You get your bill stamped because you accepted Christ payment for your sins. Imagine you have bill or receipt with a company, you have no way to pay this bill but the company to which you owe the money says there's good news the owners Son has said that He would pay this bill for you, now pride may swell up in your heart and you may say "I can pay my own bills!" or some might say "Well that doesn't make any sense and because I can't understand the reasoning or logic behind him paying my bill I'll have to decline." Or you could simply believe that what he said was true and that he had paid the price and on the scheduled day they will arrive and the services will be rendered because the payment was made. Now if you are in that last category you received a seal on your bill, stating that you had received the payment made by the owners Son and services therefore can be rendered on the scheduled day.
If you have heard and believed the good news, that Christ paid for your sins, then at the very moment you were saved you were stamped or sealed with the Holy Ghost of God, His Spirit is a clear indicator that you have excepted the payment made for your sins on Calvary, and on the scheduled day(the day of redemption) you will be redeemed. In the eternal matters His Spirit is the seal that assures us that redemption is coming, that the price has been paid for our salvation and there is no need to fear or worry or fret concerning our eternal position or our earthly poorness because the price is paid and I've received the earnest or seal or assurance that I've received the gift of salvation. Don't let fear and doubt creep into your heart concerning your salvation. Have you heard? Have you believed? Have you His Spirit? I can assure you if the answer to those first two questions were yes then the third is yes as well. His Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance in Christ. We haven't received the fullness of that inheritance ,in a earthly sense, but we have received the assurance of it.
According to the riches of His Grace!!