Always keeping in mind the warning that God is “providing strong delusion for them who received not the love of the truth” (2 Thes 2:11), I ask the question, are you sealed unto the eternal judgemnt once you accept Jesus as your savior? If you truly have the love of the truth, you will seek the true meaning of each verse in the bible. To do this you must rightly divide the word of God. 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. It is so easy to believe one part of a and miss the true meaning that God is trying to reveal to you. One such verse is Ephesians 1:13 “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise”. Many people today teach that once you accept Christ as your savior, you are sealed. They teach that once saved, you are sealed forever and cannot be lost. Let’s rightly divide this verse and see if this is true.
When God establishes a covenant, He uses the “Holy Spirit of promise” to set up a agreement between Himself and His people. Leviticus 26:9 “For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you”. When a covenant is agreed upon between all parties and they accept the statues or commandments of the covenant, then the covenant is sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. Exodus 24:7, “And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient”. Once the promises in the covenant are agreed upon, the promise or covenant is sealed. If either party disobeys the statues or commandments, then the consequences agreed upon must be paid. Leviticus 26:14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 26:15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: Leviticus 26:16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it”. The promise must be fulfilled.
The only time God has ever breached a covenant with His children is when his children have disobeyed the covenant. God *sware (solemnly promised) to the Israelites that He brought out of Egypt, He would provide them with a land of their own. Genesis 17:8 “And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God”. God made a covenant with His people to bring them out of bondage from the Egyptians. Exodus 29:46 And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the LORD their God.” He brought them out of 430 years of bondage. God kept His promise, but Gods children did not, Exodus 32:8 “They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them”. God’s children did not continue in the agreement, therefore, God breached his promise, Numbers 14:34 “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise”. God had to do what He said He would do. Even then Gods mercy shined, Isaiah 58:12 “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
If either party does not continue in the promises of the agreement, then the covenant is still sealed. God has never not fulfilled His promises in a covenant. They must be fulfilled. God cannot lie, Titus 1:2 “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began”. In this particular covenant, God had to perform what He swore inLeviticus 26:16 above and Leviticus 26:33 “And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste”.
But God in His loving mercy, tried to give the His people another opportunity to walk in His way. Leviticus 26:41 “And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Leviticus 26:42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. Leviticus 26:43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. Leviticus 26:44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God”.
As in every covenant, promise, agreement or sealed promise that God has made with His people from the first man Adam to the end of days, there is a “if” involved. Notice it in Leviticus 26:41 above, “if then”, and in John 8:31 “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed”, John 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love”, 1 Corinthians 15:2 “By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain”.
Notice what you agreed to when you were born again and accepted Christ as your savior in the new covenant. Hebrews 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. You promised to continue, obey and abide in the faith and for that you will receive eternal life. But you also agreed to the consequences, Romans 11:22 “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” .
The answer to the question, are you sealed? Yes, you are sealed by the spirit of promise. To what end is your choice. Joshua 24:1 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve theLORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve”.
*Sometimes the writers of the bible had different meanings for a word or phrase while interpreting from Greek or Hebrew into english. In these times they would insert a small number at the beginning of the word or phrase so a person could compare the other meaning. One such instance is the word “sware” in Numbers 14:30. The other meaning for sware is “solemnly promised”.