How Are Believers Sealed By God?In the New Testament, the word "seal" is often used figuratively. God puts His name, or mark, on those whom He forgives. Unlike God's Old Covenant mark, which was "circumcision of the flesh", the Seal of God is now "the Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph.4:30), and "circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter" (Rom.2:29). Receiving God's sin-cleansing Spirit is the equivalent to having the Father's name written on our hearts (2Cor.1:21-22). It should be noted that it is after we believe in Christ, not before or even when we believe, that we are sealed, which is being baptized with the holy Spirit. There must be a believing before there is a receiving. Abraham received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith he demonstrated before he received circumcision (Rom.4:11). In the same manner, we receive the baptism of the holy Ghost as a seal of the obedient faith in Jesus which we demonstrate before we receive it. As wise Peter explained,"God gives the holy Ghost to all who obey Him" (Acts 5:32), and (we should add) only to them. The Seal of God must be applied to every transaction of His before it is official; and when that holy Seal is applied to our hearts, the evidence of it is the same as it has always been: tongues. Without that witness, no one is authorized to claim to belong to the family of God. It is joyous for a sinner to be convicted of sin and turn from it, but that is only the "conception"; one must continue to seek God until he is "sealed", or baptized with the Spirit, thus becoming a member of the family of God. We are adopted into the family of God when, as Paul wrote, "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry out, `Abba, Father'" (Rom.8:15). Until we receive that blessed Spirit and "cry out" by its power in a language which the Spirit inspires, we have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Both Jesus and the apostles stressed the importance of the baptism of the Spirit because they knew that it is God's Seal, His singular mark which He sets upon the hearts of those who are His. John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus's baptism with these words, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the holy Ghost, and with fire" (Mt. 3:11). Jesus confirmed John's message by commanding his disciples, as he departed from them, to "wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the holy Ghost not many days hence." (Acts 1:4-5). The "promise of the Father" is that same holy Spirit by which we are sealed, as these faithful disciples learned when they were sealed by the holy Spirit on Pentecost morning. They, and many after them, received "the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal.3:14). Peter preached that this promised Seal of God is for "all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts 2:38-39). Reader, this promise of the holy Ghost is for you. Jesus encouraged his disciples' faith with these wonderful words: "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" (Lk.11:13). Amen! The Father will stamp every soul that truly loves His Son with His Seal of Approval - the baptism of the holy Ghost: "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom ye also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise." (Ephesians 1:13). When one receives "that holy Spirit of promise", one can know assuredly that he is in possession of the most marvelous experience ever obtained by man. Jesus told his disciples "that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them" (Mt.13:17). Peter would later echo Jesus's words when he wrote to the called out ones that "the prophets who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you enquired and searched diligently, wanting to know who or when the Spirit of Christ which was in them was pointing to, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow" (1Pet.1:10-11). None of Israel's ancient prophets experienced the glory of the new birth which followed the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, "but unto us they did minister [write] the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into" (1Pet.1:12). It is essential that we understand that no one prior to Acts 2 was sealed by the baptism of the holy Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit was not available to the saints of old because Jesus was not yet glorified (Jn.7:37-39). The giving of God's holy Spirit to men was purchased by Jesus who ascended to the presence of the Father in heaven and offered his own precious blood for our sins (Heb.9:24). It was not possible that the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant could take away sins (Heb.10:4), but "the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God" is able to cleanse the vilest sinner and make him blameless before the Father's throne. The greatest of Old Covenant saints were not as blessed as are the lowliest members of God's called out ones . Jesus said, "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he" (Mt.11:11). John was so great in the sight of God that the prophets of old in Israel prophesied of his ministry, just as they prophesied of Jesus's birth, death, and resurrection (Mt.11:7-10). Indeed, Jesus even said that John was "more than a prophet". Still, anyone in this New Covenant who is sealed (baptized) with "that holy Spirit of promise" has been honored more highly by the Father and stands closer to His heart than did John, or David, or Abraham, or Moses, or anyone else who lived before the Promise was given to men. All those ancient heroes of faith "obtained a good report through faith", but they "received not the Promise" (Heb.11:39). A most important issue of faith for those who follow Christ is, when is a person born again? If we could agree on that one issue, many other disagreements would come to an end. For the sake of fellowship alone, it is desirable and essential that we fully understand the new birth. When is a person really born of the Spirit? At what point, and by what experience, is a person born of the Spirit of God? Soon after the days of the apostles, the perversion of the faith of Christ Jesus, Christianity, blossomed; its ministers denying the necessity of the baptism of the holy Ghost (the Seal of God). This was done cleverly, not by openly rejecting the baptism of the holy Spirit but by rejecting God's chosen sign of that experience: speaking in tongues. This is the "seal of God", and God's sign of those in whom He has given eternal life: the holy Ghost.
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