In Him also, having heard the Word that is Truth, the good news of y’all’s salvation, and having believed in Him, y’all were sealed for redemption through which you become God’s property for praise of His glory by the Holy Spirit of promise Who is the down payment of our inheritance.
Ephesians 1:13-14, BKT*
So,
my Greek class recently studied some verses from Ephesians 1. We had to
translate them and annotate them, basically back up why we translated stuff the
way we did. And in doing this some beautiful ideas in this passage really jumped
out at me. Sometimes, knowing the Greek doesn’t exactly rock my world, but
there are a lot of things in studying Greek that can make passages so much more
rich. There are three things from this passage that I want to talk about.
1.
Y’all were sealed for redemption.
Redemption is a very powerful word, and I think a lot of times our eyes and
hearts jump to it and feel it deeply, but when I was looking at the Greek, the
word for sealed is the one that added
another layer to the verse. The word is σφραγίζω (sphragizo), meaning “to
mark with a seal as a means of identification.” I think this word adds a lot of
depth to the verse. The definition says that we are marked, that something
differentiates us as the ones who are to be redeemed. We are identified by this
mark. I think this word smacks of predestination. Of course, I wouldn’t take
this tiny nuance in itself to prove the whole of this idea, but in the context
of the rest of the Bible, and especially in the context of the rest of
Ephesians 1, I think it’s a valid thing to pick up on. We are marked, chosen,
identified, as those who are to be redeemed. How comforting is this idea?
2
Redemption through which you become
God’s property. This phrase is exactly how the Greek smarties who compiled
a giant lexicon called the BDAG translated these words. I think this phrase is
such an interesting and telling one. A lot of times we think of being redeemed
as receiving freedom or being
brought from slavery to sin into liberty. But this verse says that we
are being redeemed in order to be owned. This brought my mind to the Exodus. In
Exodus 7:16 (and about 15 other times in the book), God says, “Let my people go
that they may serve me in the wilderness.”
As I was reading through Exodus recently, I underlined this sentence just about
every time I saw it. Free my people so
they can serve Me, God is saying. This gets to the heart of the Exodus. So
many people interpret the event as God’s hatred of unjust social practices or
of His passion for liberty, all of which are things I believe God values
highly, but what I believe God values more highly is His own glory. Because,
first, God’s passion throughout the Bible is for His own name, and second, as
I’ve said again and again before, He wants the best for us, and the best for us
is to be a part of glorifying Him.
This
idea is probably really unattractive to some people. They want freedom, liberation;
they do not want to be owned, but Scripture chants to us: Where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is liberty! Thinking about this “owned-ness” that we are
redeemed to, I also recalled another passage we translated in Greek class, some
verses from John1. This verse says, “He came to His own things, and His own people
did not receive Him.” BKT.* That “His own” is the Greek word ἰδοὺ, meaning “one’s own.” I think these two verses taken together
paint such a beautiful picture of redemption. We were God’s own, but we
rejected our owned-ness. We chose to depart from being owned into our own
interpretations of liberty. But in response to our rejection, Christ died to
redeem us to be owned again. We’ve been sealed, marked, and identified to be
redeemed for refusing to be God’s own. We are redeemed into owned-ness!
3.
The Holy Spirit Who is the down payment
of our inheritance. The word down
payment comes from the Greek word ἀρραβὼν which literally means, “payment of part of a purchase
price in advance.” In one word, that’s a down payment. So let’s look closely at
this phrase. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our
inheritance. Seriously? The Holy Spirit, the expression of God given to
believers is just the down payment of our inheritance? I mean, down payments
are just a part of a larger sum, and usually a really small part at that. But
to think that the Holy Spirit is just a small percentage of the inheritance
that we await blows my mind. Because that’s just a really good first taste.
If
the Holy Spirit is just a small part of what I am to receive, I am so looking
forward to the rest of that package. I think, too, that this echoes an idea
that we see throughout Scripture and especially in Hebrews. Our inheritance is
not something. It is not crowns in
heaven, or a nice mansion next to Peter’s. Our inheritance is God Himself! If
the down payment of our inheritance is the constant presence of God, then the
entirety of our inheritance must be the fullness of Him! And that is excellent
news. What we have to look forward to is both to know YHWH more fully as we
walk with His Spirit here on earth, AND to know Him completely in heaven! We
will no longer see dimly in a mirror, the veil shall be gone; we shall know our
bridegroom in full! How wonderful and terrifying it will to be to receive the
rest of our inheritance!
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