THE KING’S BUSINESS
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the same. Paul goes on to say that these believers in Ephesus were in Him, “having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation.” These words bring out the truth that faith comes from hearing the word of truth (cf. Rom. 10:17). “The truth” to which Paul refers is the gospel; it is the gospel which heard and believed brings salvation (Rom. 1:16), and there fore it is here called “the gospel (or good news) of your salvation.” But _not only had they “heard the word of the truth“' and thus been saved, but also having heard and been saved they “were seated with the Holy Spirit of promise” (cf. ch. 4:30). A seal is an attestation or guarantee (cf. John 3:33; Rom. 4:11; 1 Cor. 9:2) and a mark of ownership (Eph. 4:30), and just so the gift by God to us of the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of the reality of our accep tance before God (cf. Acts 11:1S-17; 1 John 3 :24) and also a mark that we are now God’s own property. The Ephesian believers had consciously and definitely received the Holy Spirit, as all believers were expected to do in the early church (cf. Acts 19:2; 8:15, 16; Gal. 3:2) and as all believers may and ought to today (Acts 2 :38, 39). The Holy Spirit manifested , His presence in their hearts in many dif ferent ways (1 Cor. 12:9; 4:13-30). It is unscriptural to think that the Holy Spirit, when God sealed any one with the Holy Spirit, always manifested His presence in the same way, either by speaking with tongues or in any other one specific way. Their sealing with the Holy Spirit was the result of their believing. The Authorized Version, “After that ye believed,” makes too emphatic the fact of the Holy Spirit coming later than the believing. “Having also believed” (R. V.) is more exact, and the principal > thought is not that their receiving the Holy Spirit followed some appreciable time after their believing, but that their believing was the condition of the coming of the Holy Spirit into their hearts. Of course, in that case the believing must then come logically before the receiving of the Spirit, but in point of time the Holy Spirit might come immediately upon their
believing, so that believing and receiving the Holy Spirit, as far as their own con sciousness was concerned, would be prac tically simultaneous (cf. Acts 10:44). But in some cases in those days (and in many cases nowadays) the definite receiving of the Holy Spirit came some time after the believing (Acts 8:12, 15, 16; 19:2). The name of the Holy Spirit which is here used, “The Spirit of Promise, the Holy,” ' is deeply significant. This name emphasizes -thwthought that He (the Holy Spirit) is God’s great promise (Acts 1:4; 2:33) and Christ’s great promise (John 7:37-39; 4:14; 14:16, 17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-14) to the church. Sunday, June 16 . Eph. 1 : 14 . The Holy Spirit, whom we definitely receive, is an earnest (i. e., a pledge, a specimen block, a foretaste) of our com ing inheritance (cf. Rom. 8:28, 11). The word translated “earnest” is also used for the bridegroom’s betrothal gift to the bride, and the Holy Spirit is Christ’s betrothal gift to believers. He is an earnest of our full inhçritance (Rom. 8:17). We have this earnest until the time we get the whole, of which it is a part; “until the redemption (i. e., the redemption from the grave and all spiritual imperfection—Rom1. 8:23), of God’s own possession,” i. e., us, God’s own property, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Peter 2:9, R. V.; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18). This also will be “unto the praise of His glory” (cf. v. 12). Note the order of Christian experience as set forth in these verses : (1) Hearing “the word of the truth ;” (2) Believing “the word of the truth ; ’ (3) “Salvation ;” (4) Sealing with the Holy Spirit of Promise; (5) In' the coming time the full redemption of the pos session that God has already purchased, i. e., the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:23), the transforming of-our bodies into the likeness of the body of ,thé glory of Christ (Phil. 3:21), which will be full salvation. We already “have our redemp tion” in the sense of “the forgiveness of our trespasses” (v. 7), but we still look forward to “redemption” in the full sense of emancipation from all the consequences
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