Let’s review: All these amazing blessings that come to us – being predestined and chosen before the foundation of the world so that we will be holy and blameless, salvation, redemption, forgiveness of our trespasses, sainthood, sonship, the recipients of grace and peace and every spiritual blessing in Heaven, enriched with a great inheritance, being joined to the Beloved Messiah who is joined to God, understanding the will and plan and purpose of God to bring all things under the glorious and beneficial and blessed rule of Messiah – all these amazing things accrue not just for our benefit.
In verse 12 this inspired Jewish emissary informs us that another reason that the Lord is doing all these amazing things is for His glory. The glory of God is involved. To the end that we who were the first to hope in Messiah would be to the praise of His glory. As you study the Scriptures, you will find that the glory of God, and our duty to glorify the Lord – to give Him the praise that He is so worthy of, the honor that He so rightfully deserves; to treat Him as being splendid and excellent – as He truly is, is one of the most important themes of the Word of God. And, glorifying Him is one of our most important duties.
Why did this glorious God plan us, then make us, redeem us, indwell us, transform us, glorify and enrich us? So that all His great goodness; all His infinite wisdom, His sacrificial love and mercy and amazing grace that He poured out on us; all His mighty power that He directed toward us, would show how great, splendid, magnificent, tremendous, generous, and glorious He is!
Those First-Century Believers, at first made up exclusively of Jews, and then soon followed by Romans and Greeks and other peoples, were the first ones to come to know the Son of God, and become the blessed sons and daughters of the Almighty. They were the first example of the greatness, the magnificence and the glory of God!
The King of kings and the Lord of lords was so generous, so kind, so loving; the Master of the universe was so much more generous than the most generous of earthly kings; so much more beneficent than the richest of rulers; the greatest of Sovereigns bestowed so much grace, wealth, riches, goodness, blessings and hope on those first believers, and on us, that the glory of this glorious God should now and forever be known and magnified and praised!
He should be glorified with our belief, loyalty, obedience, holiness, purity, willingness to serve and suffer if need be; praised with our words, our minds, our thoughts, our actions; exalted with our passion, our energy, our resources, our money; honored with our lives and glorified with our deaths!
Let’s continue with verse 13: In Him (joined to Yeshua of Nazareth, who is connected to the Father; in Him, and in no one and nothing else) you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel – the good news of your salvation having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Even though these saints were chosen by God and predestined before the foundation of the world, it was crucial that they do something. They had to listen to the message of truth – the message that contains the truth. After having listened to this one true message, this one and only message that results in salvation (because there are many false messages that will not lead to salvation), they believed, and their belief, their trust in God and Messiah resulted in their salvation.
But you may say, Rabbi Loren. That’s terrible! That’s not fair. That’s not right. What you are saying so exclusive. Not everyone will hear and believe! Why do you twist the good news into bad news? Mankind has been ruined, alienated from God and eternal life and in the most desperate need of salvation. And the Lord saw our need, and sent His own Son into this world. The Son of God humbled Himself, and was despised and reviled and spit upon and humiliated and beaten and crucified and died and was buried – all to make salvation possible!
Then the Crucified One rose from the dead, and sent very special men that He had chosen and trained and equipped to bring us this good new about this great salvation – first to the Jewish people, and then to the Gentiles. This is good news, not bad news. How dare you take the good news that comes to us at such a painful cost to the Son of God, and try to pervert it into bad news! How dare you despise the wonderful life preserver that God has thrown to drowning humanity?
There are those today who are teaching that people do not need to listen to and believe the message of salvation, and they will still be saved, or that there are many ways of salvation. That is not true. That is a lie. They are false teachers, dangerous men who contradict the clear teaching of the Words of God on this vitally important subject. Flee from them! Shun them if you value integrity!
The message of truth must be declared to non-believers – to our friends and families and co-workers, so that they can believe the message and be saved. Don’t you care enough about them to risk ridicule in order to tell them the good news of salvation? Don’t you love them enough to experience rejection in the hope that they will listen to the truth, and be saved from the consequences of their sin and alienation from God? Death and the Lake of Fire? Won’t you courageously commit yourself to be a declarer of the Good News, which also happens to be the duty of every Christian and every Messianic Jew?
The one and only message of salvation must be declared. It must be listened to. It must be believed. When that happens, the Creator does some amazing things; He grants us salvation. He forgives all of our sins. He redeems. He buys us back from the satanic slave market of sin and death. He reconciles us to Himself. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God Himself, the essential and incorporeal part of God that permeates the universe, who brings us the presence of the invisible God, is given to us in a new and greater way.
And, the Holy Spirit begins to do many things. One of the things that He does is He seals us in the Son of God. We are joined to the Son of God who is joined to God the Father, but not with a one time joining that can be lost; not with a temporary joining that can be broken. No, this is a joining that is permanent. The Spirit of God joins us to the Messiah, baptizes us into the Messiah, immerses us completely and thoroughly into our wonderful Savior, then seals us. He seals us like a door is sealed so that no one can break through; He seals us in Messiah like Noah and his family entered the ark, and the Lord closed the ark after them, and they were saved from the waters of the flood that destroyed all the rest of life on Earth; the Holy Spirit seals us like a precious letter is sealed so that no one dares violate the seal, and it gets to its destination untampered with. We are sealed with the precious and loving and almighty and Holy Spirit so that we are safe, we are secure, we are protected, so that we are guaranteed to get to the designated destination – salvation and eternal life!
When you are saved and you receive the Spirit of God, you are placed in the Messiah and you are sealed! The Almighty has in effect spoken: “All forces and powers in the universe, don’t touch this one! You will not touch that one. Don’t remove him from Messiah! He is mine! He is safe. He is eternally secure. He is protected by My almighty power and authority! He will get to the goal safely, and there is no force in the universe that can prevent it!”
In Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel – the good news of your salvation having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
The inspired Rabbi from Tarsus beautifully calls the Spirit of God the Holy Spirit of promise. The Spirit of Messiah is rightfully called the Holy Spirit of promise because the prophets of Israel promised that the Spirit of God would be given to the people of God in a new and powerful way.
Listen to a few of these promises: The Lord, speaking to us through the prophet Ezekiel, declared: For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. Wonderful! God’s Spirit given to us and put within us. The result: a new heart, a new spirit of closeness to the Creator, and love for God, and desire to obey the Lord.
Here is another promise of the Spirit that comes to us from the Lord through Isaiah: But now listen, O Jacob, My servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen: Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; and you Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring and My blessing on your descendants; and they will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water. This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’; and that one will call on the name of Jacob; and another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to the Lord,’ and will name Israel’s name with honor.
These are wonderful and precious promises about the coming of the Spirit, who would draw us close to God, and bless us, and cause us to suceed and proper. These are promises that we have treasured and looked forward to, promises that have comforted us in our afflictions, promises that have encouraged us in our dispersions. But, the giving of the Spirit is only possible through the coming of the Messiah, and our hearing about Him, and believing in Yeshua.
And, the Lord promised to pour out His Holy Spirit not just on my people Israel, but on all of mankind. Listen to the words of the prophet Joel: It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
In Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel – the good news of your salvation having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
The promised Holy Spirit seals us. And, the promised Holy Spirit is given to us as a pledge. A pledge is a first installment, a deposit, a down payment. A pledge pays part of the purchase price in advance, and so secures a legal claim to the article in question. A pledge helps make a contract valid. A pledge is a payment which obligates the contracting party to make further payments.
And so, when you hear the good news of your salvation, and you are given the grace to believe it, and you receive the Holy Spirit, you are guaranteed that everything else that God has promised you will be eventually be given to you as well. Salvation, eternal life in the glorious New Jerusalem, all of your magnificent inheritance – that real inheritance, that superior inheritance that will enrich you and make you more fabulously wealthy than the richest man who ever lived on Earth, that incorruptible and undefiled inheritance, that lasting inheritance that won’t fade away or be used up which you can enjoy forever, that glorious inheritance that is reserved for you to enjoy in perfect health and for eternity, that you will enjoy in the presence of God the Father and Messiah the Son, with the saints and angels, has been guaranteed to you when you received the Holy Spirit! The deal is done! The down payment has been paid! Your inheritance is guaranteed!
God is at work redeeming His own possession. He is buying back something that He really really wants. That means the Lord wants you! The Creator desires you! He is working to obtain you! You are part of God’s special possession that gives Him pleasure; you are part of the Lord’s wonderful treasure that He purchased for Himself with the blood of His Son and He intends on enjoying forever – you, and me, and all the holy ones who are joined to Messiah His Son, will be fully redeemed – completely bought and paid for and delivered and enjoyed! As long as the Holy Spirit dwells in you. Does He? If you are not sure, talk to me or Bill or Rabbi Glenn, and we will try to discern with you if you genuinely have the Holy Spirit.
All of these astounding treasures and spiritual blessings, the work of the Messiah for salvation, the grace to believe, the giving and sealing of the Holy Spirit of promise, our astounding inheritance, the Lord’s ownership and enjoyment of us, are not just for our sole benefit, but for the praise of His glory. It’s not all about you. You are only the creature. All of the goodness that you will ever receive is designed to show the glory and magnificence and blessedness and generosity and wealth and power and goodness and majesty and excellence of the Creator. Truly, His glory deserves the praise!