Ephesians

Sealed by the Spirit

Why should we not grieve the Holy Spirit of God? Because, says the apostle Paul, Christians are sealed by Him for the day of redemption. What does that mean? A seal is a protective device, designed to prevent loss.

As a boy, I lived along the main line of the Great Northern Railroad in North Dakota. My friends and I often played along the tracks. I discovered as a boy that the railroad used seals to protect their boxcars. The railroad seals were long aluminum strips with a ball on the end and a slot in the ball. When the free end of the strip was brought through the door and fastened in the slot of the ball, there was no way to pull it out again. The boxcar was sealed and protected for the length of its journey—all the way to its destination.

That’s the sense of the phrase Paul uses here. The Holy Spirit is given to us as a protective seal for the length of our journey, a guarantee that we will arrive at our destination, which is “the day of redemption”—the day of the resurrection and the completion of God’s activity of salvation for human beings. We see this clearly earlier in this letter, where the apostle writes:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

We learn from this that the Holy Spirit has been given to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. The seal of the Spirit is the mark of a Christian. So, from a biblical point of view, it is incorrect to apply the label “Christian” to someone who is not indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in Romans 8:9, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” You may be a church member, you may have been religious all your life—but unless you have believed in the Lord Jesus and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, you are not a Christian.

The seal of the Holy Spirit is not something you feel. Rather, the Spirit takes up quiet residence within you at the moment you commit your faith and trust to Jesus Christ. When the Spirit takes up residence within you, He does so permanently. He has promised that, even if you grieve and offend Him, He will not leave you—even though you might think He has, because your guilt-stricken conscience will tell you that a wall of silence has gone up between you and the Spirit within you. The Spirit will never leave you, but if you grieve the Spirit, you will have to live with a grieved Spirit within you.

Do you know what that is like? Have you ever sensed what it means to live with a grieved Spirit within you? Let me describe it to you—and I’m sure you’ll recognize the pattern. First, there is a sense of inner conflict, a tension, a restlessness. The Holy Spirit is pulling you in one direction, while the cravings of the sinful nature pull you in another direction. Paul, in Galatians, describes this tension as a civil war that rages within us. The Spirit desires what is contrary to the sinful nature, and the sinful nature what is contrary to the Spirit, so that we do not do the things we know in our spirit we want to do (see Galatians 5:17).

If nothing is done about that sense of turmoil and tension, if those feelings go unheeded, then we become fragmented and divided against ourselves. Soon we become unhappy and depressed, joyless and listless. This is why Christians sometimes seem to drag themselves and force themselves to do their “Christian duty.” This is why Christians often seem to lack energy for their ministry tasks. Christianity was never intended to be a chore carried out under a burden of duty. When our lives are in harmony with the Spirit of God, we feel energized for the tasks God has given us to do.

The Spirit of God is described in Scripture as the energizing force within us as Christians. In Colossians 1:29, Paul speaks of his ministry as “struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” So the Spirit is our driving force, and there is something wrong if we find ourselves continually having to drag ourselves and force ourselves to do what we ought to do. The Spirit of God is a driving energy.

Certainly there will be times when we are physically or emotionally tired, and feelings of weariness at such times are understandable and normal. But when we are lethargic and lukewarm for weeks at a time, it indicates that something is wrong. We need to search ourselves and ask God in prayer if we have done something to grieve the Spirit of God.

Another sign that we may have grieved the Holy Spirit is fear—a numbing, nagging sense of anxiety and dread. It’s tragic but true: some Christians live for years at a time in such a state, haunted by fear. The Bible makes it clear that we were never intended to live with fear. Again and again, Jesus said to His disciples, “Do not be afraid” (for example, see Luke 5:10; 8:50; 12:7,32). Why? “For I am with you” (see Matthew 28:20).

Feelings of anxiety and dread indicate a rift in the relationship between ourselves and God. “There is no fear in love,” says 1 John 4:18, “But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” If there is fear gripping our hearts, it is a sign that something has interfered with the flow of the perfect love of the Holy Spirit within us.

Another indication that the Holy Spirit is grieved within us is when we become cold and hard toward one another. The Spirit is like a fire, and fire is warm and attractive. The Christian who is cold and forbidding has a blockage that interferes with the flow of the love of the Spirit in his life. He has grieved the Holy Spirit.