Ephesians 1:11-14

The Pledge of Our Inheritance

The apostle Paul continues his grand thanksgiving of praise, in which he joyfully glories in the God of our salvation.  Paul's extended praise began in v. 3 and runs as one long sentence to v. 14 in which three times he pauses to give all praise to the glory of God's grace which He freely lavished on us in Christ.  God has chosen us before the foundation of the world that on the Day of the Lord we might stand before the throne of God holy and blameless in Christ (v. 4).  He took eternal delight and pleasure in setting His love upon us, predestinating us to become the adopted sons of God (vv. 5-6).  In His own Son, the Beloved One, He freely bestowed His own grace upon us by redeeming us through the blood of Christ.  In His redemption through His blood, Jesus Christ purchased for God those whom the Father has given to Him.  We, who were under the curse of the law, sold in bondage and slavery under a ruthless taskmaster, Jesus Christ our kinsman redeemer, paid our purchase price of freedom by becoming our Year of Jubilee and Sabbath rest of God.  Our relationship to God is no longer based upon our keeping of the law, but now that our sins have been forgiven and Jesus Christ is our law-keeper, we forevermore relate to God according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in Christ (vv. 7-8).  But God not only freely bestowed this grace upon us, but He has given us all the necessary wisdom and insight that we fully comprehend that grace, which has been concealed in a mystery in ages past, but revealed to us that God has been orchestrating all history, both heavenly and earthly, down to its summation and focus in the person and work of Jesus Christ (vv. 9-10; cf. vv. 17-19; 3:16-19).  Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God in the heavens.  He has been given all rule, authority, power, and dominion over all things and every name that is named, both in this age and in the age to come (vv. 20-21).  God has put all things in subjection under His feet and He has given the One who is head over all things to us, the body of Christ, who have been filled with the One who fills all in all (vv. 22-23).  It is no wonder that Paul must lift his voice to the heavens to bless the God who has blessed us with every heavenly blessing, which is made known to us through His Spirit, in Christ (v. 3).  For it is the eternal goal of our salvation that we might stand in reverence and awe joining with the entire created order in the praise of God's glorious grace (vv. 6, 12, 14).

Now, in vv. 11-14, Paul concludes this majestic benediction assuring us that we, who have become God's own possession in Christ as co-heirs of our heavenly inheritance, have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise as the absolute guarantee of our complete and full redemption in Christ.  In v. 3, Paul says that the gracious blessings of our heavenly inheritance are made known and applied to us by God's Spirit.  All that God has given to us in Heaven is our present joyful experience though the Holy Spirit who unites us to Jesus Christ.  But in vv. 13-14, Paul goes on to include within those gracious blessings the gift of the Holy Spirit who is Himself the pledge or guarantee of our heavenly inheritance.

In v. 11, Paul says, "In Him have obtained an inheritance."  The word Paul uses only here in v. 11 is extremely rare and therefore difficult to interpret.  It is a divine passive which tells us that God is the one who is doing something to us.  Rather, than our obtaining something, it is better to translate this as "God appointing or choosing us" in order to give us an inheritance, which Paul will go on to spell out in vv. 13-14.  This idea has a long history in the writings of the Old Testament where God claimed Israel as His own personal possession to give to them an inheritance, which is the land of promise (Deut. 4:20; 9:29; 32:8-9).  Paul tells the Colossians that the Father "has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light" (Col. 1:12).

Also, notice Paul's usage of the first person plural pronoun "we" (v. 11).  In v. 13 Paul changes to "you" and then "our" in v. 14.  What is going on here?  Remember, that one of the ways that God is summing up all things into Christ is through the union of the Jews and Gentiles into the one people of God who share in the heavenly inheritance of Christ (2:11-22).  This seems to be Paul's point which he will go on to develop latter.  In v. 11, Paul uses "we" to distinguish the Jewish believers "who were the first to hope in Christ" (v. 12).  But then in v. 13, Paul argues that "you" the Gentiles upon believing the gospel have also been sealed with the Spirit who was promised to Israel who has been given to both Jewish and Gentile believers as the pledge of "our" inheritance.  Paul moves from Jewish believers (vv. 11-12), to Gentile believers (v. 13), and finally concludes with both Jewish and Gentile believers in v. 14.  Everything that Paul has said from vv. 11-14 applies equally to all believers, however, Paul is making this present distinction in order to stress the fact that the Gentile believers have been fully accepted by God and equally with their fellows Jewish believers have inherited the promises of God as the one people of God.  There is no first and second people within God's family and the Gentiles have inherited all the promises even as if they were born as Jews (cf. Rom. 9:3-5, 24-10:4; Gal. 3:13-14).

God has claimed this remnant of Jewish believers as His own personal possession (v. 11).  But what is true of these Jewish believers has already been declared to be true for all believers who have been predestined in God's love to the adoption as His sons (vv. 5-6).   Further, this appointment by God is no mere afterthought, but is the outworking of God's eternal purpose (Rom. 8:28; 9:11).  We can be assured of God's claim upon us because we have been predestined according to God's purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will (Rom. 8:28; 1 Cor. 12:6).  "The counsel of God's will" is the basis of God's decrees in eternity.  God ordains everything that comes to pass according to His will or desire (vv. 5, 9).  Ps. 115:3 "Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases."  Based upon what pleases God in eternity, He causes everything (vv. 9-10) to fulfill His desire/will.  God is not like man, in that man may make all sorts of plans but may fail to accomplish those plans because of limits placed upon him.  However, God has no limits and He can accomplish everything is ordains.  For our God says:

For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, "My purpose will be established and I will accomplish all My good pleasure (Isa. 46:9-10).    

After God humbled King Nebuchadnezzar, the king praised God saying:

For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.  All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, "What have you done?" (Dan. 4:34-35).

We can rest assured that God's claim upon us to give us our inheritance is certain.  But simply knowing and being assured of God's promise is not the end or goal of our salvation.  Our salvation is not yet complete until it is satisfied in praise.  The very purpose of God claiming us to be His own possession in order that we might receive our inheritance in Christ is for the praise of His glory alone (Isa. 43:7, 20-21; 48:9-11; Jer. 13:11).  

Paul points out that these Jewish believers were the first ones to hope in Christ.  It is clear that Jesus came first to the children of Abraham and even Paul first preached in the synagogues of every city he entered.  Jesus Christ is the object of their hope (1 Cor. 15:19) which they already experience (Col. 1:5). 

However, these Jewish believers are not alone in God's glorious work of redemption.  For "you" Gentiles also share in Christ's inheritance even as if you were born Jews (v. 13).  As Gentiles, we can be assured of this because when we believed the gospel we were sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise.  Faith comes from hearing the word of God (Rom. 10:14-17; Acts 2:37-39; 13:7, 44; 19:10).  Paul here describes the gospel as the "message or word of truth" (Gal. 2:5, 14; 5:7; 2 Cor. 4:2; 6:7; Col. 1:5).  Elsewhere, he calls it the "word of the Lord" (1 Thess. 1:8; 2 Thess. 3:1), the "word of God" (1 Thess. 2:13; 1 Cor. 14:36), the "word of Christ" (Col. 3:16), the "word of life" (Phil. 2:16), and the "word of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19).  It is the "word of truth" -- the gospel of our salvation -- because it truthfully declares the saving purpose and plan of God.  It is the revelation of God's redemptive work in Jesus Christ, the true word of God, that has the power to accomplish our salvation (cf. 2:1-3, 5, 8; 5:23-27; 1 Cor. 1:18).  Paul told the Romans:

I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:16).   

One commentator writes, "The good news effects a rescue operation, a deliverance from spiritual death, from God's wrath, from bondage to evil powers, sin and the flesh" (Lincoln, 39).

Because God's internal call is always effectual then upon hearing the gospel God gave us faith to believe it and upon believing the gospel we were sealed with the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2).  Paul speaks of "believing" and "sealing" as two sides of one event.  The Holy Spirit is God's "seal" upon us as His mark of ownership.  In the ancient world, when someone acquired a slave he would place his mark or seal of ownership upon the slave as a mark of his possession (Ezek. 9:4-6; Rev. 7:1-8; 9:4).  In v. 14, Paul will point out that the seal of the Holy Spirit is also our guarantee that we will fully inherit God's promised blessings (2 Cor. 1:22).  What is already ours in Christ through the person and work of the Holy Spirit is a foretaste of what we will more fully experience in the future and as our guarantee that inheritance is protected until God takes His full possession of us (4:30).

The sealing of the Holy Spirit is an inward, spiritual reality.  But how is that inward reality made known to us who cannot see spiritual things?  Throughout the NT, the outward sign of the inward spiritual sealing of the Holy Spirit is the sacrament of holy baptism (Acts 2:37-39; 8:12-17; 19:5-6; cf. Rom. 6:3-4).  In Rom. 4:11, Paul calls circumcision the sign and seal upon Abraham of God's promised righteousness through faith.  In Col. 2:11 Paul tells us that the sign and seal of circumcision is replaced by baptism in the new covenant.  The outward sign of water baptism points to the inward reality of spiritual baptism in which we were sealed in Christ.  Though we may distinguish between the two, we should never separate the sign from the thing signified so that our baptism is given to assure us of our being sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit (cf. WCF 27-28; LC Q. 154, 161-163, 165-167).

We were sealed with the Holy Spirit "of promise."  The Holy Spirit is the one in whom all the heavenly blessings and promises of God are made known and applied to us (v. 3).  This promise of the Holy Spirit was given to faithful remnant of Israel in the OT (Gal. 3:2-9, 13-14, 27-29; 4:4-6; Acts 2:17 --> Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:33-39; John 3:5 --> Ezek. 36:25-27). 

The Holy Spirit is given as our pledge or guarantee (cf. Gen. 38:17-20).  In Paul's day, this word was used commercially for a deposit, down payment, or first-installment (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:1-5; cf. Rom. 8:23).  A "down payment" was only the first portion of the greater whole to come and it was of the same kind as the whole.  A "down payment" would be given as a guarantee of the whole payment to come.  The Holy Spirit is the first installment and guarantee of our full salvation in the age to come.  But the Holy Spirit is not only a guarantee (looking forward to something we will receive in the future) but He is our foretaste of that heavenly life.  We can enjoy our future heavenly inheritance right now in the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit is our heavenly life of the age to come which is given ahead of time in history to carry us and assure us of our certain and complete salvation yet to come (1:17-19).  That which is to come, our full heavenly salvation, is called "our inheritance."  The Holy Spirit is both the guarantee of our inheritance (4:30) and He Himself is our inheritance of the promise (cf. Gal. 3:14, 18).

The Holy Spirit is our pledge and guarantee until God comes to fully redeem what He has purchased with the blood of Christ.  Our purchase price has already been paid in full (1:7) and the Holy Spirit is God's down payment of our final and complete redemption when God comes to claim His own possession (Ex. 19:5; Deut. 14:2; 26:18; Mal. 3:17; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 2:9) so that we might experience our full inheritance in Christ (4:30).  

They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him (Mat. 3:17)

The church of God which he purchased with the blood of his own Son (Acts 20:28).

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy (1 Pet. 2:9)

Note that is the mere prospect of our future redemption that even now elicits our praise of God's glory.  The reason we can now begin to praise God for our future redemption is because our God sovereignly works all things after the counsel His will (v. 11) to the end that we would be to the praise of His glory (v. 12).

Amen!

-SDG-