the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 3
Ephesians 1:13—Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. (R.V.)
Possessed.—The saints have been purchased at great cost by the precious blood of the Son of God. Not only their spirits, but their bodies, have been bought with an infinite expenditure. Is it not a wonderful thought that God should have thought it worth his while to expend so much on us! But, since He has done it, we cannot suppose that He will not make all He can of us! He will bring his estate under cultivation; there will be no corner of it that will not yield Him produce.
To be redeemed.—Our bodies are owned by God, but they are not yet entirely redeemed. And if we should die before the Lord’s advent, they will return to their mother earth, possessed but not redeemed. Hence the apostle says that we are waiting for our adoption—to wit, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:23). We are under the sentence of corruption for Adam’s sin; but we are to be redeemed.
Sealed.—In Ezekiel’s day a mark was set on the foreheads of the men that sighed and cried for sin (Ezekiel 9:4); and in the Apocalypse we read of the sealing of God’s servants (Revelation 7:2-3). For sealing there are needed the softened wax; the imprint of the beloved face; the steady pressure. Would that the Spirit might impress the face of our dear Lord on our softened hearts, that they may keep it for evermore!
This sealing is an earnest of our inheritance.—The eternal future is all unknown, yet we may guess at it, because the work of the Spirit within us is the first fruits—the grapes of Eshcol, showing what the vintage will be; the earnest-penny, which is the pledge as well as part of the entire payment; the first streak of the coming day.
