By Theodore Epp

      2 Corinthians 1:18-22

      A key verse related to the sealing of the Holy Spirit is Ephesians 1:13: "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise." This truth is also stated in 2 Corinthians 1:22: "Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."

      God the Father has anointed us and sealed us, according to 2 Corinthians 1:21. The seal, however, is the Holy Spirit Himself. The persons sealed are those who have trusted in Christ. This is clear from the Scripture verses already quoted. The basis for this sealing is belief in the Gospel of Christ. When a person trusts Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells the believer and God seals the believer by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to us as the earnest, or down payment, of our further inheritance.

      The Word of God does not say that the Spirit is given only to the spiritual Christian. Believers can, and sometimes do, become carnal; nevertheless, they are sealed by the Spirit of God. Paul told the Corinthians that he could not write to them as spiritual believers but had to treat them as "carnal, even as ... babes in Christ" (1 Cor. 3:1). Yet to this same group he wrote: "Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (2 Cor. 1:21,22).

      "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom. 8:9).