What does “the sealing of the Holy Spirit” indicate?

Explanation:

When Paul states that the believers are sealed with the Holy Spirit, he means seal in the sense of certifying genuineness. This can be shown through the immediate context and specifically Ephesians 1:14, where it states that either the seal of the Holy Spirit or the Holy Spirit himself is the guarantee of our inheritance from God.² The word for guarantee carries a sense of down payment/pledge/deposit, all terms that have to do with offering assurance for some future state. In other words, because of the seal that we receive from God, we have full assurance of our inheritance.

Counterargument:

The noun guarantee carries a sense of assurance, but not necessarily assurance directed at the believer. The fact that God seals believers might just as likely mean that God marks believers as his possession. Since they are God’s possession, and God is the ruler of the universe, there is an unspoken guarantee that they cannot fail to obtain their inheritance. The guarantee is something like an axiom in the sense that, necessarily, objects sealed by God find their way to completion, which in this case is the reception of an inheritance.

Response to counterargument:

While it might be the case that God seals believers as his possession, there is a sense in which this sealing is not simply a demarcation strategy from God but an assurance directed at the believer. The reason for this is twofold. First, if the seal of the Holy Spirit is not meant to be an assurance directed at the believer, but is rather a sort of symbolic notion that God always follows through on what he seals, then it is not clear how to make sense of Ephesians 1:14. There Paul warns the Ephesians not to grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom they were sealed. This indicates that sealing has to do with the receiving of the Holy Spirit who offers assurance, but this assurance is not simply an abstract demarcation, but a person who can be grieved.

Second, we find further evidence of this characterization of the Holy Spirit in Hebrews 6. There we read that it is impossible for one who has tasted the Holy Spirit, and then to have fallen away from him, to be restored (Hebrews 6:4). Taken together, these passages suggest that the sealing of the Holy Spirit is something like an assurance/guarantee to the believer that if they remain in God’s care, and do not reject his grace, they will have their inheritance. In other words, the sealing of the Holy Spirit has a relationship element and is more than a simple demarcation.

Explanation:

We can look to Paul’s broader pneumatology (doctrine of the Holy Spirit) to get a sense of what nuance his statement in Ephesians 1:13 might carry, that the believer is sealed by the promised Holy Spirit. Romans 8, for example, is an excellent case where he expounds on the work of the Holy Spirit after the believer is sealed by him.³ First, he writes that believers did not receive a spirit of slavery (Romans 8:15). The mention of the believer receiving a spirit might be akin to being sealed by God. Next, he expands on this notion, writing that the Spirit himself (referring to the Holy Spirit) bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs (Romans 8:16). It does not take much to see the similarities between Ephesians 1:5 where Paul writes that we are adopted as God’s sons and daughters, Ephesians 1:14 where he writes that we are guaranteed an inheritance, and this passage from Romans which states that the Spirit witnesses that we are God’s children and heirs. In other words, when we are sealed with the Spirit, the Spirit offers assurance to the believer of his good standing with God through Christ.

Counterargument:

While it is the case that the Holy Spirit offers assurance to the believer, all that this implies is that the Holy Spirit has more than one function. This is clear not only if we take the meaning of being sealed by the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 1:13 as something slightly different than the assurance Paul talks about in Romans 8, but also by the fact that Paul mentions aspects of the Spirit’s work that is separate from Romans 8 and Ephesians 1:13. For example, in Galatians, Paul explains that the Spirit produces an inward desire for spiritual fruit, such as patience, peace, and kindness, in the believer. This illustrates that the function of the Holy Spirit is multi-faceted, so we cannot simply assume that the function that Paul describes in Romans 8 applies to Ephesians 1:13.

Response to counterargument:

That the Holy Spirit has many different roles is not in question. The question is how to understand the role of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 1:13. Paul states that believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and that this is a guarantee of the believer’s inheritance. One could argue that the believer is guaranteed an inheritance because the Holy Spirit causes a desire to produce spiritual fruit. But this will not do, because the ground for our salvation is not the works we do, but the work of Jesus Christ, which we participate in through faith in him (Romans 3:28). On the other hand, the notion that the Holy Spirit is a guarantee in that he offers assurance to the believer that the believer is an heir of God (Romans 8:16) is theologically acceptable and fits nicely with the context.

Possible weaknesses: This weakness of this view is that the verb to seal carries a variety of meanings, and any number of them could apply to this passage. In order to justify taking the verb to seal in the sense of assurance, one must look to the broader pneumatology of the Bible. This in itself is a legitimate move for the exegete, but still, it means looking beyond the passage for meaning, which carries the risk of importing theological concepts that are foreign to the text.

Explanation:

When Paul states that God applies the Holy Spirit to those who believed the word of truth, he uses the verb to seal to characterize this application. The verb can carry a variety of meanings, including 1) to close with a seal, 2) to mark with a seal, 3) to certify genuineness, or 4) to denote identification, especially in the sense of ownership.⁷ Given the context of Ephesians 1:13, ownership is the most appropriate way to take the verb. The reason is that in Ephesians 1:11 we read that we have received an inheritance from God, which implies that we are his heritage. As his heritage, we belong to him and so he marked us with his seal of ownership.⁸

Counterargument:

There are a variety of ways to take the verb to seal, and no clear reason why being God’s heritage implies that the seal is a mark of ownership. To receive an inheritance carries a sense of receiving a gift, not receiving a mark of ownership. In fact, the verb to seal is often used in the sense of making a pledge. Given that an inheritance is a gift, it makes more sense to understand sealed with the promised Holy Spirit as meaning that believers have received a pledge/commitment that they will receive the inheritance than that God has marked them as his possession.

Response to Counterargument:

When God seals believers with the Holy Spirit, there is a sense in which a pledge has been conferred to believers. Still, the pledge is just the fact that the believer has been marked as God’s possession. Being marked as God’s possession guarantees that the believer will receive the inheritance. We find the notion of believers’ being sealed as God’s possession in other places as well, including Revelation 7:3, Ezekiel 9:5, and 2 Corinthians 1:22–23 (see argument 2). God does not just pledge the inheritance to us; he guarantees it by marking us as his possession.

Explanation:

There are several instances in the Old and New Testament where God marks people as his possession. For example, Ezekiel has a vision from God where a man dressed in linen is told to mark the foreheads of all those who groan over the abominable sins that are happening in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 9:5). Then God sends executioners to purify the city, but they are told not to harm the ones who have the mark. While the passage is not explicit, the notion is that the people who were marked were sealed as God’s possession, and so they were not to be harmed.⁹ A similar example comes by way of Revelation 7:3, where the four angels of destruction are asked not to harm the land or the sea until the servants of God are sealed. Once sealed by the angel, these servants are marked as God’s possession, and therefore not to be touched.

We also find other passages in the New Testament, particularly Paul’s other writings, where he alludes to the notion that God has marked believers with his seal of ownership. For instance, in 2 Corinthians 1:21–22 we read that God himself is the one who makes us stand firm in Christ, because he has anointed us and set his seal on us. So sure that the seal indicates ownership, the NIV there translates the aorist middle participle of σφραγίζω (to seal) as seal of ownership.¹⁰ This is likely because of the fact that, as Paul writes, it is God himself who establishes us in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:21).

Counterargument:

The verb to seal is used in a variety of ways in the Bible. In the New Testament, its use ranges from the sealing of Jesus’ tomb (Matthew 27:66) to the delivering of a collection (Romans 15:28), among others. This means we have to be sensitive to the context of Ephesians 1:13 to determine its meaning. When we look to the immediate context, we find no little help, because there is no good reason to think that seal means possession of ownership any more than it means assurance. When we look a little farther in Ephesians, we find a statement that almost mirrors Ephesians 1:13, except with a little more nuance to help determine the meaning. There Paul warns the Ephesians not to grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom they were sealed. If the Ephesians are able to grieve the Holy Spirit, who is their seal, this implies that the sealing of the Spirit has to do with something like assurance, not possession (see Interpretation 1, argument 1).

Response to counterargument:

When Paul warns the Ephesians not to grieve the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 4:30, this does not exclude the notion that the Holy Spirit is God’s seal of possession. In other words, the seal of possession through whom God marks believes happens to be a personal being, namely, the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit is a personal being, it is possible to grieve him. At the same time, he is the means by whom God seals believers as his possession. That the Holy Spirit is personal and God’s means of marking us as his possession is not in contrast.

Possible weaknesses: The possible weakness of this view is that it does not consider the meaning of guarantee from Ephesians 1:14, which characterizes the nature of the seal. There we read that the Holy Spirit, who is the seal, is the guarantee of our inheritance. Taken in its plainest sense, this implies that the Holy Spirit is more than a way by whom God marks believers, but a means by whom God assures believers.

Explanation:

As we have seen, the verb to seal can carry a variety of meanings. According to Charles Talbert, when it comes to the context of ancient western Asia Minor, seals would sometimes serve as amulets.¹¹ An amulet was something like a good luck charm that could protect one from evil and bring good fortune. Given the location of Ephesus, Talbert suggests that the Holy Spirit might have been considered the greatest possible amulet who would have protected the Ephesians from magical influences.

This view does not come entirely without biblical support. First, we know from Acts that the people in Ephesus had many gods, and gods are often associated with magic arts (Ephesians 1:14). Second, there is a sense in which being sealed by God indicates protection from God. For example, in Ezekiel 9:5, Revelation 7:3, and Revelation 9:4, the people who have the seal of God are protected from harm. Whether they are protected because they are God’s possession is not clear. What is clear is that, when surrounded by harm, those who have God’s seal are kept safe.

Counterargument:

It is undeniable that there is a sense in which the seal of God means protection for the one sealed. This is clear from Ezekiel 9:5, Revelation 7:3, and Revelation 9:4. Still, there is no indication from Ephesians 1:13, or the rest of Ephesians, that there was a particular concern in Ephesus surrounding magic. And in Acts 19:1–41, where there is a riot over the goddess Artemis, the real concern is over economics, not magic or evil spirits.

Possible weaknesses: The problem with this view is that it makes the assumption that the church in Ephesus was worried about the influence of magic but there is no indication of this from the text. Without supporting evidence to show that magic and sorcery was a specific worry for the Ephesian church, it is hard to accept that the reason Paul points out the sealing of the Holy Spirit is because he wants to assure the Ephesians that they are protected from magic. Rather, it makes more sense that the assurance Paul wants to indicate is the guarantee of an inheritance from God.