Today we celebrated Resurrection Sunday. The sealed tomb was miraculously opened and the resurrected King of Glory came forth from the tomb that could not hold Him. The tomb is empty. He is alive forevermore.
I thought about things that are sealed and why we bother to do so. An envelope—an ordinary object used to contain something, not given much thought, and pretty much taken for granted. I like the ones with a paper strip over the sticky stuff instead of licking glue to seal the envelope. Whenever I seal an envelope I feel like the contents are secure, even though I know a sealed piece of paper is far from secure.
On official documents like deed, wills, legal agreements, corporate papers, diplomas, and passports to name a few, a seal of some sort verifies the document as being authentic and binding. Your diploma, for example, officially testifies to the fact that you have completed all of the requirements of the schooling. The seal is the intended as a stamp of approval, authenticity, and protection from forgeries.
In biblical times, various ancient cultures secured their documents in different ways. The Hittites and Babylonians wrote their documents on clay tablets and they were put into clay envelopes. To sign their documents and make them official, they used signature seals in the form of signet rings, stamp seals, or cylinder seals. Cylinder seals resemble a bead with a hole through the length and could be worn like a pendant. The outer surface of the bead has symbols, graphics, and letters carved indicating the owner’s identity. When the owner would want to “sign” something, they would roll the cylinder seal onto the wet clay making an impression. It is then the signature seal that made the document official, authentic, and protected the identity of the person.
Other ancient cultures used velum parchment made of animal skins rolled into scrolls or bound flat. To make these documents official, a signet stamp was impressed into soft wax applied to the document. When the wax becomes hard, it forms a seal to protect the contents from manipulation and identify the source as authentic.
The whole point of using a seal is to secure important information and attest to its authenticity. Imagine, though, what it would look like if it were not on clay, parchment, or paper? God made covenants with humanity throughout the ages that came with a seal or signet of action, not wax and stamps, beads, or rings.
Genesis 17:1-11 reveals the covenant between God and Abraham. God promised to do two things: He would make Abraham a great nation, and that He would give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants as an everlasting possession and be their God. Abraham’s obligation and that of his descendants were two things: walk before God and be blameless. Circumcision is the sign of the covenant, the token that declares that the covenant is protected from misappropriation, approved, authentic, and secure.
The word for sign in this passage is the Hebrew oth, meaning a flag, beacon, monument, evidence. Hebrew for seal signet is chothemeth, the oth being the root. Romans 4:11 says, “and he [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them.”
So, how could Abraham walk before God and be blameless? It requires the same thing that was required of humankind from the beginning. Abraham is a descendant of the lineage of Seth, who “began to call upon the name of the Lord. (Gen. 4:26).” It is an issue of faith from the beginning. It is by faith that Seth called upon the name of the Lord and it is by faith that Abraham walked before God blameless (Romans 4:20-25).
God simply wants a people of faith to fully believe in Him and take Him at His Word. We are justified by the shed blood of Jesus and we receive righteousness (reconciliation) by faith in Jesus and His work (Romans 5:8-11). Romans 10: 4-10 declares how we receive that reconciliation and righteousness—confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. God sent Jesus to die and be raised from the dead so that we can have resurrection life and we receive this work by faith. Now this covenant is not without a seal.
Ephesians 1:13-14 declares,“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 4:30 also says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” The Holy Spirit living in you is the seal.
The word for seal is the Greek word sphragizo, and it means to stamp with a signet or private mark for security or preservation, to keep secret, to attest, to fence in or protect from misappropriation. The Holy Spirit is given as the seal in order to declare in both the earth and in the spiritual world that
- we belong to the Most High God; that God has attested to our being His children;
- we have His mark upon us for security and preservation now and for eternity;
- we are fenced in to protect what we have against misappropriation of the power, authority and position of the Almighty in us to do the works we are called to do – preach the gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, set the captive free, cleanse the leper, be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and walk in the fullness of all of His promises.
“Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness’ (2 Tim. 2:19).” Furthermore, 2 Cor. 1:21-22 tells us, “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”
We are known by God and are recognized as one of His own by the seal upon those who belong to Him. This confidence that we have in Him that by His promises and Word, we who have “named Him as Lord” are irrevocably in His family. We are secure, preserved, and protected. The seal of the Holy Spirit within us is the eternal stamp of approval, the stamp of the covenant we now have with God, whereby we are sealed and have everything we need for life and righteousness now and forever. God provides the greatest possible assurance, that of Himself, the Holy Spirit, as the pledge of eternal life in Him, the ultimate guarantee of being signed, sealed, and delivered to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Copyright 2016 by Eva Benevento. All rights reserved.