The Seal

                                                                                            

Sealing is a legal process by which the validity of a deed is confirmed. It is also proof of genuineness. The New Testament speaks in terms of sealing by Holy Spirit a Christian receives during his salvation experience. The sealing of a Christian is based on forgiveness of his sins. It is for identification, for approval, for certainty, and for protection, etc. This helps us understand the force of the term as applied to Christ and Christians.

St. Paul says in Eph 1:13, 14 that the Christian who has heard and believed the word of truth - that is the gospel of his salvation - has been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the pledge of our inheritance. And again in Ephesians  4:30, he warns us not to grieve the Holy Spirit who has sealed us for the day of redemption.  Surprisingly, the Lord speaks of Himself as being sealed by the Father in John 6:27 – “Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God, the Father has given me the seal of his approval." It might be assumed He was referring to the Holy Spirit who came upon Him at His baptism - when He was identified as the Son of God through a voice speaking from heaven. Thus, having established the authenticity of the process of ‘sealing’ and its need, we are open to study its various aspects:

1. Sealing as Identification:

What marks you as a Christian? Is it y our name? The school you went to? The religion of your parents?  Is it the neighborhood you live in? (as it happens in some countries). Ever since Unique Identity Authority of India, introduced the Aaadhaar card, its popularity and usefulness have been growing exponentially and the need to prove one’s identity has been felt more and more acutely.  That a Christian is sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption must be apparent to anyone who observes him/her. (You are the light of the world. No city built on a hill can remain hidden).

2Corinth 1:21, 22  makes this very clear: Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. 

The baptism we underwent was a declaration of our position in the world in relation to God -- an announcement to the world. The New Testament never fails to specify that whoever was baptized in the New Testament days was filled with the Holy Spirit. We have been chosen in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence; and  predestined in love for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will (Ephesians 1:4, 5). However, the concept of sealing is not unique to the New Testament. God says in Isaiah 44:5 of His people “They will worship me and become my people. They will write my name on the back of their hands”. God recognized Jacob’s faith and put a sign on him when He dislocated his hip.  He put a seal on Isaiah when an angel symbolically touched his lips with a lump of burning coal. Examples of this kind abound in the Old Testament. We’ll see more of them later in this essay.

2. Sealing for certainty or assurance of originality, a warranty.

Setting a mark on anything reveals that it is genuine, authentic, confirmed, or approved, as when a deed, contract, or agreement bears a seal or a signature or a stamp; like a product is sealed with a warning that its originality cannot be guaranteed if the seal is broken! It is thus made sure that quality is established through the presence of the seal. When it is applied to people, it tells us that they are approved of God. It is the distinctive mark of those who are of God. It doesn’t have to be a physical sign like Jacob’s or Isaiah’s always. The following examples will make the point clearer:

Solomon admires his bride in 4:12: “You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain”.  Solomon’s heroine repays the compliment in Song 2:16 “my beloved belongs to me and I to him”. Neither of them has an iota of doubt whom they belong to. St. Paul confirms in Galatians 6:17 that he bears on his body the scars that show he belongs to Jesus.

3. Sealing for protection and to render an article tamperproof.

Christians are perennially exposed to danger from Satan. We are asked to watch out for our great enemy, the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. St. Paul warns us against “the fiery darts of the wicked one’’. What are these fiery darts? Since faith is needed to combat them, they can be anything used against us in an attempt to negatively affect our faith. The possibilities are many. For example, they could be temptations that attempt to lead us away from the faith, trials that test our faith, persecutions that attempt to destroy our faith or ideas and arguments that attempt to undermine our faith.  Prayer combined with faith shields us from enemy attack. God ordered the Israelites to mark their door frame with sacrificial blood so that the angel of destruction will be able to tell Israelites’ homes apart from Egyptians’. More examples can be found in:

Revelations 7:3; “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads;”

Ezekiel 9:4  And Jehovah said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof.

A Christian sealed by God enjoys protection from the world, from evil, from Satan. A merciful God has our images engraved His palm; so that He can keep looking at it always. He has covered us in His quiver so that Satan cannot reach us.  Curiously, Satan accuses God (in the Book of Job) ‘’Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? ’’ For once, the Father of lies makes a true statement!  Hasn’t the Almighty placed a hedge on every side around us and our household and all that we own? He even alerts us about the devil’s intentions through His word.

4. Jesus was Himself sealed.

We already saw in John 6:27 how Jesus was sealed by the Father. But there is more – much more, about His bonding. There are laws governing the treatment of servants and slaves in the Old Testament. See Exodus 21. A slave must be let off after six years of service. In exceptional cases, it happens the man prefers to stay and continue and serve his master. Then the master is required to take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve his master for life. Jesus, our suffering servant, was pierced on His hands, feet, and side as a proof of His love for us, as His guarantee He will stay with us, serve us always!

5. Beware of Satan’s seal.

There is one seal you must avoid at all costs. Satan also has his own system of sealing,   of branding men as his own. When it comes to faith, you cannot be neutral. If you are not God’s you are Satan’s. Satan knows this. You cannot serve two masters. Jesus spits you out of His mouth if you are neither cold nor hot. The book of Revelations contrasts two kinds of people:

Revelations  13:16  The beast forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, slave and free, to have a mark placed on their right hands or on their foreheads.

Revelations  20:4  ….. They had not worshiped the beast or its image, nor had they received the mark of the beast on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and ruled as kings with Christ for a thousand years.

These days enemies of Christians and religious bigots in India flaunt certain marks on their bodies, especially foreheads. If there is a trademark of Islamic terrorists, it is their beards! What does the image of ‘purdah’ bring to your mind? Does it not seclude women from the sight of men or strangers, mark them as private property? 

Compare the final instructions Daniel received about his prophecy with that St. John received at the island of Patmos – with regard to sealing. At the conclusion of the prophecies, Daniel was told (12:4) to shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. But John was asked not to seal up the words of the prophecy, for the time is near. What has changed? The work Jesus did on Calvary! Mankind was given another chance.

The Holy Spirit is given us as a confirmation we belong to God. He grants us His Spirit. He renews and sanctifies them. He produces in our hearts new hopes, new desires and new goals which are evidence that we are approved by God; that we are regarded as his adopted children; that our hope is genuine, and that our redemption and salvation are true - in the same way as a seal makes a will or an agreement sure. The Shulamite requests her master to set her as a seal upon his arm and his heart (Song 8:6).

God grants us His Holy Spirit as the certain pledge we are His, and shall be accepted as such in the last day. It is the operation of the Spirit on the heart, producing repentance, faith, hope, joy, conformity to God, the love of prayer and praise, and the Christian virtues generally; and these things are the pieces of evidence that the Holy Spirit has renewed the heart and that the Christian is sealed for the day of redemption.

He will have the certainty of St. Thomas when he exclaimed as he saw Jesus’ marks -- “My Lord, my God!”; the assurance the Shulamite demonstrated when she asserts “I am His and He is mine”.

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