Verse of the day: Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom
you were sealed for the day of redemption.
We have discussing some of the things we do that will
grieve the Holy Spirit. In this verse the Apostle bluntly puts it out there; “And
do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”. As we have seen from the previous
verses, our inconsistencies as Christians causes the Spirit of God great sorrow
because we dishonor our Lord and Savior, and we hinder the process by which we
are made more like Jesus. The end result is that, unlike in the Old Testament,
when God would withdraw His Spirit, as He did with Samson and King Saul (Jdg
16:20; 1 Sam 16:14), we end up feeling like the Spirit has left us because He
becomes silent. God has the ability to be with us, and in us, and yet cause us
to not recognize His presence, as he did with Mary (Jn 20:14-17) and the two
men on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13ff). The Spirit of God, who is also God, has
the ability to be in us and yet make us feel like He is not present. Sadly,
there are many who have put their faith in Christ who believe, or have been
taught, that we can lose our salvation. The fact of the matter is that a true
born again believer cannot, and will not, lose their salvation. Jesus told us
in John 10:28-30 that He gives us eternal life and we will NEVER perish; no one
can take us out of His hands, not even us! The Apostle Paul, in this verse
tells us that we are “sealed” for the day of redemption. The word He uses in
this verse means to seal “once and for all”. In other words, it is not
something that keeps happening over and over again. We are sealed by God, by
His Spirit, once and for all; just as Jesus paid the price once and for all and
does not need to keep dying for our sins over and over again (1 Pt 3:18; Heb
9:26-28; Heb 10;10). Let us stop and honestly consider this: How much peace or
how much joy would we have if every day we were in danger of forfeiting our
salvation? That is so contrary to what God has promised in the Christian life;
and there is not one of us who lives perfectly on any given day. If we say we
are perfect on any given day, then we lie and thereby have sinned, and make God
a liar (1 Jn 1:8-10). Besides that, the Word of God is very clear, over and
over again, that we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, who also indwells us,
and has been given to us as a down payment for what God has promised we will
receive when we are finally with Him (Rm 8:16; Rm 8:23; 2 Co 1:22; 2 Co 5:5;
Eph 1:13-14). The Apostle goes on to tell us that we are sealed (or kept) for
the day of redemption. For all of us there is a day that is coming where we
will either meet the Lord at our death (2 Co 5:8) or at His return, when we
will meet Him in the air (1 Thess 4:16-18). It will be at this time that either
in death or at the rapture that we will no longer be imprisoned in this body of
sin. Praise be to God that even death cannot harm us. Because of Jesus, death
is merely the passage from being here with the Holy Spirit in us to being
physically with Jesus for all of eternity (1 Co 15:54-56). This verse really
serves as comfort for those of us who have failed in the areas that grieve the
Spirit. How, you ask? Because the Apostle could have chosen to say, if what had
the ability to lose our salvation, that when we grieve the Spirit, He departs
from us. However, he does not. Instead, he reminds us that we are sealed once
because what Jesus did on the Cross was enough to keep us here, and now, and
for all eternity. It is also a great reminder of how great God’s forgiveness is
toward us and how amazing His grace really is.
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