never underestimate the importance of the Holy Spirit in our eternal salvation! C hapter F our I t is important to understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our salvation. In Ephesians 1 :13, we find the personal pronoun ye repeated. Some would have us believe that this would designate Gentile believers as a group. The fact is that the individ ual believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. This is Paul’s em phasis. The Holy Spirit “is the ear nest of our inheritance until the re demption of the purchased posses sion, unto the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:14). This practice was a sign of good faith in an agreement of two parties. For example, in the story of Ruth, the agreement be tween Boaz and Naomi’s near kins men, was sealed when one gave the other his shoe as a pledge (Ruth 4:7, 8). There is another sense in which the Holy Spirit is a kind of down payment on our inheritance. It is the insurance that God will finally con summate our wonderful salvation. The down payment of our inheri tance is the Holy Spirit’s sealing with promise. The Christian is in a peculiar pre dicament as a child of God. He al ready possesses eternal life but as a human being, he does not have a suitable body for the heavenly kind of existence. Paul says “We have this treasure in earthen vessels” (II Cor. 4:7). Naturally the Christian is longing for the time when he will be given his resurrection body. Thus he can enjoy salvation to the fullest, God-intended extent. The biblical view of man involves a basic unity of body and soul. Consequently, eter nal life, though wonderful in its temporal enjoyment, will still remain incomplete until that day when God brings history to a close and gives the believer a glorified resurrection 26
body. Never again will he know pain or corruption. This next event on God’s timetable could take place at any moment. No prophecy remains to be fulfilled before the Rapture of the Church. Beginning at verse 15, we find the knowledge of the believ er concerning his Lord. Paul was mighty in intercessory prayer. In many ways he could be compared with Moses. The colossal height of the Apostle’s spiritual nature is best demonstrated in his concern for the people of Israel. They had failed to recognize Jesus as their promised Messiah (Rom. 9:3). Moses, too, plead with God on behalf of Israel following their sin (Ex. 32:31, 32). Both of these spiritual giants Were willing to offer themselves as sub stitutes on behalf of their own sin ful people. This was the quality of love which approached the divine concern and compassion of Christ all the way to Calvary. Interceding on behalf of his Chris tian brother, Paul commends them in verse 15 for their faith in the Lord Jesus, as well as their love for all the saints. This brings the twin words faith and love into sharp focus. The faith of the Ephesian believers was demonstrated by their love for all the saints (Jas. 2:18). There is a very relevant truth for today in this fact. How sad that we see so much preju dice around us! As Christians, we need to love as we have never loved before. What an example we find in these important verses of Ephesians 1 . In I Thessalonians 5:17 we are exhorted to “pray without ceasing.” There should be a continual attitude of prayer. Christians need to culti vate the habit of prayer, having fre quent communion with God. In verse 17, Paul’s prayer is directed to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. He wants his fellow- believers to have wisdom and revela tion in the knowledge of Christ. By virtue of creation, God is the
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