When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.
Among all the religions of the world, a great trademark of the God of the Bible is that he makes promises. He announces His plans and purposes ahead of time, often in specific detail. Then He brings these about.
In this way the God of the Bible shows us that He is the true God, and also that He is absolutely faithful. We need to know this because the call to follow Jesus is also a call to trust God’s promises – about forgiveness, and about the life of the world to come.
But how can we know these promises really will be fulfilled? The sheer length of time over which the Bible was written gives us part of the answer. For instance, God promises Abraham that through him all nations on earth will be blessed. Now, four thousand years later, we see countless millions all over the world experiencing the blessing of knowing the living and true God through trust in His Son, Jesus. I love to think of that as I look around church on a Sunday!
But He also has another way.
He often gives a first instalment of a promise well ahead of its full fulfilment.
Take the verse at the top of this post. The Apostle Paul tells the Christians at Ephesus that the Holy Spirit – given to all Christians – is a seal and deposit, guaranteeing their future inheritance. Some of this is objective: the seal marks us out as belonging to God. But surely Paul is also reminding his readers of the significance of the experience of change that came about in their lives as they trusted Christ, a change brought about by God’s Spirit. He has started His work in us already, and His very presence is a little down-payment of what will one day be ours in the life of the world to come.
Paul reasons in a similar way when writing to Christians at Corinth who are struggling to believe that it is possible that, after death, we could be raised again. He points to the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, and describes Him as the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Cor 15:20). What happened to Jesus – witnessed in history – is a first instalment of what God will do with all those who are in Christ.
Indeed, this way in which God gives foretastes of much greater fulfilment crops up many times in the Bible.
This Sunday morning we are due to finish following the life of Abraham, and right at the end of his story he comes into possession of a little piece of real estate in the promised land of Canaan. It’s very much less than the real thing, but it’s still the beginning of fulfilment of a greater promise. It would have been very precious to the first readers of Genesis, probably still on their way to that land.
God keeps His promises! And delights to encourage us to trust that with His foretastes.
