God's seal of ownership

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.  II Corinthians 1: 21 – 22

There is no doubt that there are images in the Bible that are used to explain spiritual matters that are unfamiliar to us today. For instance when I read that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, and there are several places where this occurs, the image conjured up in my mind is of my dad with a stick of red sealing wax, lighting the end so it melted and then the red wax dripped messily onto the string of a parcel. He then pressed his signet ring onto the wax to seal it. No one bothers with that nowadays. It was done for security purposes so one could see if a parcel had been interfered with.

In Bible times and through into modern times, a seal was a most important item of ownership. Items with the king’s seal impressed on them meant they came from the king and belonged to him. If anyone wanted to know the authenticity of something, they looked at the seal. Sometimes it was formed using a clay tablet or cylinder and sometimes it was a ring. In various places in the Bible, if someone was given the king’s or father’s signet ring, it meant they operated on behalf of the owner. It was a sign of authority.

Today I sat and thought about what that meant for us as Christians that God has placed his seal upon us, the seal being the Holy Spirit.  It means we belong to God and we can live under his anointing and authority. So often though in the west, people do not want to belong to anyone; no one owns them. They want to be independent, free thinking people. That however is a very dangerous place to be because they have little authority of their own and they are left unprotected.

Dependency on God does not mean we are mindless people, unable to think for ourselves. It means we are people who have the mind of Christ and are free to think higher thoughts and with greater creativity than ever before. ‘So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed’ John 8: 36. Jesus has set us free from sin and its consequences and so we are free to be who God has made us to be. His plans and purposes for our lives are infinitely superior to our plans.

God is good and has no desire to see us bound. Rather under his ownership, which Jesus bought with his precious blood, we are not slaves but sons and daughters with all the privileges of being in the royal family. A seal may not be something we are familiar with today but the concept of being under God’s protection and ownership does not bind us into slavery but liberates us into our true destiny.

Sealed with the Holy Spirit: Ephesians 1: 13 – 14, 4: 30; II Corinthians 1: 22, 5:5

Judah’s seal: Genesis 38: 18

Joseph given Pharaoh’s ring: Genesis 41: 42

Zerubbabel promised to be like God’s signet ring: Haggai 2: 23

The prodigal son given the father’s ring: Luke 15: 22