‘In whom you also, (having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation), in whom you also, having believed, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is an earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of His own possession to the praise of His glory.'
The human side of this great activity of God is now laid out. We heard the word of truth, the good news of what God had done in arranging for our deliverance, and we believed in Christ, and were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, the guarantee of our inheritance until we receive it.
‘In Whom.' Emphasised twice. All that we receive is in Christ.
‘The word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation.' We heard the proclamation of truth, ‘the word of the cross' (1 Corinthians 1:18) with its content revealing the truth of God, the good news about Christ and of the deliverance He has wrought in which we have our part.
‘Having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.' The reception of the promised Spirit through believing is central to the Christian message. It is His coming to a man when he believes that makes him a Christian (Romans 8:9; John 3:5-6), is the evidence that he is a Christian and marks him off as belonging to God (compare Psalms 4:3, ‘Yahweh has set apart for Himself he who is godly'). He is the seal that authenticates and guarantees once for all the status of a man in Christ and his future hope (Ephesians 4:30; 2 Corinthians 1:22).
We should note here that belief is not something that we have to do. It is a response worked within us as He works within us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). It is the openness of heart of a person whose heart has been opened by God. It is the automatic response of our lives as the Sun of righteousness shines on us, in the same way as a flower responds to the rising of the sun. He put the inclination within us so that He might feed that inclination, and believing is the inclination flowering into bloom.
‘Who is an earnest of our inheritance.' The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. An earnest is something given to guarantee the fulfilment of the whole (compare 2 Corinthians 1:22). Today we might speak of a deposit being given. But the idea behind the earnest was that it was more than a deposit, it was also a sample of what was to come. The trader would provide a sample which demonstrated the quality and type of what was being sold, and this could then be compared with the goods that finally arrived. It could also be produced as proof of the contract. Thus the Holy Spirit within us and upon us is the sample of what our future inheritance will be in a spiritual life to come, and is the proof that we are His. Indeed it is by this sample that we will be tested. ‘If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His' (Romans 8:9). There cannot be a true Christian who is not indwelt by the Spirit of God.
‘Until the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory.' The Spirit is also the guarantee of what the future holds in store, when those who are God's own treasured possession, are finally and ultimately delivered by Him, because of the payment of the price (Ephesians 1:7), and brought for ever into His presence. Then will all redound to His glory. Again we have the thought of redemption but this time related to the buying back of ‘property'. Thus the redemption includes the thought of a purchase price, but also clearly includes an act of power by which all is brought to completion.
‘His own possession.' Compare 1 Peter 2:9, ‘a people for God's own possession'. His special treasure. This was originally God's purpose for His people Israel (Exodus 19:5), that they would be ‘a peculiar treasure to me from among all peoples. For all the earth is Mine.' And this included being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This is now the privilege of His new people. They are ‘a people which I formed for myself that they might set forth my praise' (Isaiah 43:21), for ‘they shall be mine in the day that I act, even a peculiar treasure' (Malachi 3:17).