What’s the Significance of the Seal in the NT?

Last updated on: March 23, 2024 at 1:44 am by Ben Witherington

What’s the Significance of the Seal in the NT? 2024-03-11T07:54:18-04:00 Ben Witherington

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We are all by now familiar with the famous reference in Ephesians 1.13-14 about the Holy Spirit and the seal which reads: “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a pledge/earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” The Greek word ‘arrabon’ does not mean ‘guarantee’. The King James quite rightly renders it as ‘an earnest’ something given in advance as a sort of promissory note of something to be given later, all being well. Or the NASB rendering is good here— ‘a pledge’. Interestingly, in modern Greek the term is used for an engagement ring! In other words, it refers to something that foreshadows something big later, a foretaste of glory divine but not the whole thing. The same applies to ‘arrabona’ in 2 Cor. 1.22 and 2 Cor. 5.5, and again in both cases the reference is to the Holy Spirit as this ‘pledge’. There are no other references to this word in the NT. But let us focus on the reference to a seal– not mind you to a sealing, a verbal idea, but to a seal (a noun idea).

Surely everyone in antiquity knew about seals— seals on amphoras, seals on documents and so on.

The seal on an amphora not only indicated who it was doing the sealing, but it protected the wine from contamination,just like shrink wrapping does today on bottles of pills. But such seals could be and were broken.

So everyone knew that such a seal could be compromised, could be broken open. Now bearing in mind that it is the person of the Holy Spirit who is said to be this seal this pledge of future good, we need to ask the question raised in the NT repeatedly– is it possible to so grieve or grieve the Holy Spirit or blaspheme the Holy Spirit that one nullifies the pledge or earnest? And the answer surely is yes.

This is exactly what Hebrews 6 for instance, indicates. Hebrews 6.5-6 it will be remembered says the following: ” It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” What is being described here is apostasy– a willful rejection of the work that God has already done in a person’s life. Notice the reference to ‘having shared in the Holy Spirit, and then having rejected all those benefits that one already had.

Sometimes, Reformed exegetes have tried to suggest that the verb ‘taste’ in this context doesn’t mean that someone had actually had initial salvation by grace through faith, but had simply encountered such a thing without the initial transformation we would describe as conversion. This however is nonsense. The very same verb ‘taste’ is applied to Christ himself ‘tasting’ death in Hebrews 2.9 where we hear that Christ tasted death for everyone, which doesn’t mean he merely encountered it, it means HE ACTUALLY DIED. Similarly, tasted in Hebrews 6 means having actually experienced the powers of the age to come and the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and yet went on to deliberately and willfully reject all that through an act of mental and moral apostasy. In short, the author of Hebrews is saying ‘you are not eternally secure until you are securely in eternity’ and Paul himself would not have disagreed with this. Consider his discussion of the deeds of the flesh which he warns born again Christians against committing because if they persist in doing such things, they will not inherit the kingdom or enter the realm of final salvation. Paul in the Pastorals talks sadly about Christians who had made shipwreck of their faith (1 Tim. 1.19-20) and who were handed over to Satan. As John Wesley once said— you can’t make shipwreck of a faith you never had, and Paul is clearly enough talking about the genuine Christian faith they have wrecked.

In short, the reference to the Holy Spirit as the seal, and as the pledge or earnest, reminds us that salvation is not finished until one goes through all three stages of ‘I have been saved (justification and the new birth), I am being saved (the process of sanctification), and I shall be saved (full conformity to the image of Christ even in the flesh at the resurrection). The presence of the Spirit in a Christians life is a pledge that more is coming and needs to happen, but it is not a guarantee that apostasy cannot happen (which is why in Revelation 22.18-19 we hear the warning to the seven churches that their names could be erased from the Lamb’s book of life).

One more thing about a seal— it protects something from an outside danger. This is why we have promises like that in Rom. 8 that no external power or force, or principality or angels or demons or circumstances in life can separate us from the love of God in Christ. That is a great assurance. But notice the one thing not in the list of things that can separate you from God is YOURSELF, hence the textual warning in various places about apostasy. Again apostasy is not about ‘losing one’s salvation’ it is about deliberately willfully rejecting the work of God in your life. Apostasy doesn’t happen by accident or when you are sleeping, as Hebrews 6 makes perfectly clear. No one can steal your salvation, no circumstance can cause you to lose it. No temptation that comes to you cannot be resisted and escaped from (see 1 Cor. 10), if one draws on the power of God already resident in your life. This is what assurance is about, but what it is not about is some sort of guarantee that no matter what you do after conversion you are once saved and always saved. That is not a NT idea.

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