Doctrine of the Holy Spirit By George Smeaton

“The intention of the apostle was to bring out with precision the difference of the relation in which Christ and the Spirit stand to the Church,—the one as the meritorious Surety, the other as the life-giving agent who puts us in possession of the whole redemption.

In the use of a favourite expression, the apostle again calls the Spirit a Seal and Earnest. " After that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance " (i. 13). To the same effect the apostle warns them not to grieve the Holy Spirit by whom they were sealed (iv. 30). As to the order in which this sealing stands, it comes after believing—that is, next after faith; and as to the Seal itself, too much ingenuity has often been used in elucidating it. Without appealing to classical or Hebrew examples, it may suffice to say that the impress of a seal implies a relation to the owner of the seal, and is a sure token of belonging to him. From the three passages where the term Seal is expressly used, we gather that believers are God's inviolable property, and known to be so by the Spirit dwelling in them. The sealing implies that the image engraven on the seal is impressed on the thing, or on the person sealed.[This is in perfect keeping with the Idea that the COR is coextensive with salvation] In this case it is the image of God impressed on the heart by the enlightening, regenerating, and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. By that seal believers are declared to be the inviolable property of God (2 Tim. ii. 19); and they are sealed to the day of redemption as something which is to be inviolably secure (Eph. iv. 30). Not only so: there is a subjective assurance which they acquire as to their gracious state and final glory. The Spirit is also called an Earnest (dppafi&v) as well as a seal—that is, a foretaste which is equivalent to the first-fruits of the Spirit, elsewhere mentioned (Eph. iv. 14).”