God's Seal of Adoption by Sam Reeve, 16 June 2007, Ephesian 1:3-14
dann...@gmail.com
Intro:
How do you know that you are a Christian? How do you know that you
have eternal life? What evidence does God give us that we are His? How
do we know that about someone else? That is a very relevant question
when it comes to the question of church membership. In God's church,
and particularly in the Baptist bit of it, where we have a
congregational system of church government (The final governance
authority rests with the gathered church members, under the Lordship
of Christ), it does matter that those making the decisions are real
believers. So how do we know? This passage that has been read for us
gives us some clear pointers. Let's look at what God says there.
1. Blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ v3-10
The first thing is that a Christian is someone who is incredibly
blessed. Blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. This is all-
encompassing - "every". When it came to blessing his people, God did
not adopt a "trickle-feed" policy. He did not hold back. He lavished
it on us, we're told in v8. You know you are a Christian if you know
that you have been enormously blessed - that you are the recipient of
untold spiritual largesse that you have no right to. Let's briefly
look at some of the blessings that he outlines here:
· Chosen before the world began v4-6
This is a huge enough blessing on its own. Being chosen by the Creator
and owner of the whole universe. The fact that such a God should even
be thinking about you and me, who in the scheme of things are little
specks on a speck of a planet that is one of trillions of objects in
the universe, and we're only here for what is the briefest of periods,
in the light of God's eternal time-frame. It's overwhelming. But not
only has He thought about us, He decided way back before the creation
(foundation) of the world that He would have us in His family. He
predestined us, Paul says, twice over, in case we didn't quite get it
the first time (v4,11).
Think about it - before the world began, before anyone had ever
sinned, God worked out his rescue plan, and He worked out that you and
I would be part of that. He set His love on us way back then. He
worked out everything to make it happen. When He commands it,
spiritually dead people come to life, filthy sinners are cleansed,
those who are sold out to slavery to sin and brought back, redeemed
and sold out to serving their loving rescuer. He chooses them to be
holy and blameless (v4). What an enormous blessing! That would be
enough on its own, but there's more.
· Adopted into His family v5-8
Have you seen those ads in the Advertiser recently? Place by the
Department of Community Services, they are advertising kids who need a
family. Usually they are looking for foster families, but I'm sure
some of those kids would just love to be adopted into a loving caring
stable home, where they know they will experience the love and warmth
of a mum and dad, like many other kids. The reason that they are
advertised, DoCS tell me, is that in many cases they have had
difficult backgrounds, and are considered by many to be messed up.
Those who adopt or foster them will be people who have a great deal of
love for them.
That's what it's like for us in relation to God's family. We have no
right to be there - that was forfeited when our forebears sinned and
we followed headlong in their footsteps. But God in his great goodness
and mercy reaches out and not only rescues us and pays the price for
our rebellion and sin, but adopts us into his own family. We are
joint-
heirs with Christ. Amazing! A Christian is a person who loves and
serves God as their Father and Jesus as their Saviour.
· Knowing the mystery of God's will v9,10
The blessings go further than that - not only are we adopted into
God's family, but we are let in on the mystery of his will. Some of us
have trouble working out what makes our earthly fathers tick - what
their plans and dreams are, where they want their lives to end up. Not
so with our heavenly Father. He has let us in on the mystery of his
will.
And what is it? It's the fundamental truth that His will and purpose
is "to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one
head, even Christ" (v10). That is where this whole universe is
heading. That will be the culmination of everything - when every knee
bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. God has
given us the inside running on how the whole thing is going to end. A
Christian is a person who knows this, and lives accordingly. With
Jesus as Lord and master of our lives.
All this is "in Christ". Notice how many times Jesus is referred to in
these verses. 15 times in 12 verses. The phrase "In Christ" or "in
Him" occurs 11 times. There is none of this lavish blessing that comes
to us apart from Jesus. It's all in Him and through Him and because of
Him. Jesus was not joking when He said "I am the way and the truth and
the life, no-one comes to the Father except through me" (Jn 14:6).
1. For the praise of His glorious grace v6, 12, 14
The purpose of all this is mentioned 3 times - for the praise of his
glory (v12, 14), "his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in
the One he loves" (v6). The Christian is a person who lives for the
glory of God. The Westminster Shorter Catechism Q1: What is the chief
end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever. That is the
Christian's purpose - to see God glorified - that He might receive the
praise and glory that is due to him. To the praise of his glorious
grace. You know you are a Christian if you are thankful for God's
grace. If you are like the Pharisee, who is constantly reciting to God
how good he is, "tithing, going to bible study, doing so much for the
Lord, not like those other slack people in the church", then you need
to ask yourself is your confidence really in God and His grace, or in
yourself and your "goodness". You know you are a Christian if you long
to see God and His glorious grace praised and made known.
2. Marked with the Spirit v13, 14
The believer is a person who has the Holy Spirit. This is the evidence
for our adoption - the seal of the Spirit. There are 3 terms used here
for the Spirit, which help us understand how this works.
· Promise Ezek 36:25-27, Acts 1:4, 5
The promised HS - literally, "the spirit of promise". Right at the
beginning of time, we are told that the spirit of God was hovering
over the waters (Gen 1:2). Later, when God's people rejected him and
were defeated in their own land (the land of promise) because they
rebelled against God, He promised that He would deal with this
situation. He would act himself to cleanse them and to give them His
spirit, so that they would turn to him and obey him (Ezek 36L25-27).
This is a huge promise. God himself is going to inhabit his people, by
his Spirit. Jesus came and re-iterated the same promise. Finally, as
it is immanent, He tells his disciples to wait in Jerusalem. In Acts
2, the Spirit comes. But this promise is not just for the disciples,
it's for every Christian. Here Paul first says that the Jews were
saved, and now he's writing to the Gentile background Ephesians and
saying "you also" (v13). By extension, we can say "we also". This is
for every believer. In fact Paul says that you can't be a believer
without the Holy Spirit, there is no such thing as a Christian who
doesn't have the HS (Rom 8:9).
· Seal v13
The Spirit is a seal - or we are sealed with the Spirit. Seals were
used for all sorts of things in the ancient world. Authenticating
documents. The HS in us is God's declaration that we are the real
thing - adopted into His family. Cattle and even slaves were marked
with the distinctive seal of the owner. Indicating ownership,
protection. We often saw when we were overseas that if there was
dispute over property, or some business, the government would come in
and seal it off. The court would make and order and the officials
would put their lock on the door and seal it. If anyone dared to
interfere with that lock, the full force of the government would come
down on them. Christians are people who God has put His brand on - we
belong to Him. We are protected by Him - people who try to steal us
away from Him have him to contend with. This is a wonderful concept.
It reminds us of the words of Jesus that those whom the Father has
given him, no-one can snatch them out of his hand.
· Guarantee v14
Pledge. The word for engagement in modern Greek (arrabona) is the same
word that is behind this word. Someone is pledged to be married. The
desire to be totally committed to one another is a signal/pledge that
becomes part of the marriage. Also a commercial term: - down payment.
Like what you make on a house, or something you put on lay-by. The
money that you give becomes part of the payment. When Jesus spoke of
the coming of the HS, he said "I will ask the Father and he will give
you another counsellor, to be with you forever - the Spirit of
Truth" (Jn 14:16). The Spirit who enables us to respond to God and
empowers us to live for the praise of His glory here and now and will
do that into eternity, is the down payment - the proof that we will
get our full inheritance - eternal life with God forever.
This giving of the Spirit, the down payment, is what is known in the
Bible as the baptism of the HS.
1. Spirit baptism and water baptism
The baptism of the Spirit, literally being immersed in the Spirit was
promised in the OT, and when Jesus began his ministry, He was
introduced as the one who would give it.
· The Spirit-baptiser arrives John 1:32-34
John the Baptist was baptising people in the Jordan river. He called
on them to repent of their sins, as the Kingdom of God was near. Right
up front he told them that there was one greater coming, the laces of
whose sandals he wasn't worthy to untie. God himself had revealed this
to John (1:33). They would be able to recognise him - they would see
the Spirit descend on him and remain on Him. He is the one who would
baptise with the Spirit. When John saw Jesus, He announced him as the
one who would baptise with the Spirit and with fire. As John baptises
Jesus, the Spirit descends on him and God speaks. The Spirit-baptiser
has arrived.
· New birth by the Spirit John 3:5-8
When Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus what needed to happen for
someone to enter God's kingdom, he said very clearly that a person
needed to be born again - of water and the Spirit. Without the
sovereign working of God's Spirit, nothing could happen. Without
cleansing from sin (washing/water) and empowering by the Spirit, a
relationship with God was not possible. It is the spirit who causes
people to look to the Son, lifted up on the cross for them. The HS is
the key.
· The promise fulfilled Acts 2:38-39
Then in Acts 2 you see the coming of the HS. The promise is fulfilled.
The Spirit falls on the disciples and they immediately recognise it as
the fulfilment of the prophecy. They preach the gospel, and hold out
the hope of the gospel - the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the
Spirit. What do the people need to do in response? Repent of their
sins and be baptised. Here we see what was modelled at the baptism of
Jesus - water baptism and the coming of the Spirit. The baptism of the
Spirit. What is the relationship between these things? The water
baptism doesn't bring down the spirit. The disciples were baptised in
the Spirit just before this, and they weren't water-baptised (in fact
there is no record of them being water-baptised at all - it's assumed
that they were perhaps baptised by John the Baptist - at least some of
them, but we don't really know). What we do know is that they were
baptised in the Spirit, and that is what brings them forgiveness and
adoption into God's family. What is the significance of the water
baptism? It is the outward sign and response of the people to the
inward immersion in the HS. It is a declaration that they are now
marked with the seal of the promised HS, the guarantee of their
inheritance.
What is the significance of this for our church membership
requirements in the 21st C?
It means that whatever way we have of working out whether or not we
are real believers, it ought to focus on the grace-work of God and the
evidence of the presence of the HS in our lives and the lives of those
we seek to include in our membership. The Baptist Church NSW, in its
model constitution that they give to new churches forming, has 4 model
statements for membership (from which the church chooses one). The
thing that they all have in common is what they begin with: "Members
shall be persons who give evidence of a sincere profession of faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ...." Plus a statement about holding to the
doctrinal statement of the church. The situation we are dealing with
in the 21st C is not one that was addressed in the early church.
People became Christians and were baptised - it was a sign and symbol
of their initiation into the church. The situation we have in our
churches today (not just us, but all churches who have a membership
system) is what do you do about people who have been Christians for
years, serving and loving the Lord, but who have been initiated into
the church some other way? The response in the past has been that
until they obey Jesus in respect to baptism, then they can't be
members. The change we are considering is to not demand that, but
encourage it, as we do with the rest of the commands of Jesus (like
the one to love, which Jesus said was the real sign of his disciples,
and which is the first of the fruits of the Spirit). Food for
thought.
Do you know that you are a real Christian this morning? Have you been
blessed with every spiritual blessing by God in and through Jesus? Are
you living for the praise of his glorious grace? Do you know that you
have God's mark on you, the seal of his Spirit? If not, turn to him
today and put your trust in Jesus. The offer is still the same as it
was on that day of Pentecost nearly 2000 yrs ago - repent and believe
in Jesus and you will be forgiven and receive the gift of God's
Spirit. Be baptised, as an outward sign and a witness to what God does
inside - washes you clean and immerses you in Himself.
If you are a Christian this morning - let the HS work in and through
you to produce His fruit so that your life might be totally for the
praise of God's glorious grace.