Month 2000

[Part Fifty-one]

“SEALS OF GOD”

[-J-]

“It is God Who establishes us in Christ! He has anointed and sealed and given to us the earnest (a down payment or firstfruits) of His Spirit in our hearts!” (2 Co 1:22)

                Many truths are revealed in this verse. 1) God, alone, establishes men’s lives in Christ! The natural mind of our flesh- notorious for self-glorying in all his fleshly accomplishments- strives to usurp also the rightful Glory of God for all His Divine Accomplishments! He will try to cajole and deceive God’s people into taking credit for our own salvation! Preachers may cite chapter and verse that clearly declare the Salvation of Christ to be exclusively the Gift of Grace (unmerited favor) from our heavenly Father, they will then quickly add a variety of disclaimers that defer all the glory back to SELF! Oh, how hard the stones of self-exaltation must fall on the crucified heart of Christ! How wretched are we mortals who have not yet “denied ourselves to take up our cross and follow Him” (Mt 16:24) yet we dare discredit His Sacrifice of Self that provided absolution for heinous sins just like this! Only the greatest possible Love and Mercy could endure, forgive, and even atone for such blasphemies as these!
                2) God has anointed and sealed His people to receive a full and eternal inheritance in Christ, but also- as if that weren’t enough- His Loving Grace bestows on us an undeserved ensample of that inheritance while we are still in these mortal bodies. It makes my soul weep with deep humility and unspeakable gratitude to think of such selfless generosity. It makes me “Angry but sin not” (Eph 4:26) when I hear the ignorant prattles of immature believers who have been trained up by the “doctrines of men and devils” (Col 2:22; 1 Ti 4:1) that scorn the perfect work of Calvary as being dependent on the acceptance of men! Such nonsense! As if God needed our permission to redeem His Own Creation back to Himself! How small must be our perception of the Greatness of God!! This is why Jesus said to His panicking apostles as their ship was foundering on the Sea of Galilee, “Why are you so full of fear, O you of little faith? Then He arose and rebuked the winds and sea; and there was a great calm!!” (Mt 8:26) Understand, dear ones, that this trial was sent by God for just the purpose of Christ demonstrating to His apostles that their faith wasn’t yet as great as it had to become to do the Works of God purposed for their lives after Christ would be taken from them!! God knows the trials foreordained for His Christ-in-us to overcome, and in the stormy times when our Savior seems to be sleeping in the stern (rear) of our life-ship and we start taking on water- this is when we must exercise our greatest measure of faith! For to the extent of our quiet trust in Him at such times, that is the extent of our growth in Christ!
               3) If God says He has only given to His people the earnest (down payment or firstfruits) of His Spirit in our hearts, it means the most anointed man on earth (other than Christ) can only manifest a deposit, as it were, on WHAT IS YET TO COME! Imagine, beloveds! The best works of any spiritual man can only be a foretaste of that reality that lies ahead! How wonderful- but also, how impossible to conceive of such glory! It is not for nothing God says, “No eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, nor has it entered the (imagination of any) heart the things prepared for those who love God; rather He reveals them to us by His Spirit...for no one but the Spirit of God can know the things of God” (1 Co 2:9) And He says He has put His Spirit in our heats! Here is the only means by which any man can come to know and receive any of the spiritual things of God! And so He says, “No man can even say that Jesus is his Lord but by the Holy Spirit!” (1 Co 12:3)

[TO BE CONTINUED]