Ephesians 1:13, 14 NKJV
"In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory."
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I am writing this devotion very early Wednesday morning from the Frankfurt airport in Germany after spending a week in India. We had an exciting and very productive week but now I am ready to get back home to my family and my own bed. As I was thinking of what I should write about it came to me that I needed to write on a theme from The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Of course Bonhoeffer's homeland was Germany and it seems fitting to honor this great saint while I am here.
The premise of Cost of Discipleship is that discipleship is costly because you need to give up your life completely. But at the same time we are given the inheritance of eternal life by faith through God's grace. Bonhoeffer uses today's verse to show that we as believers (and the church itself) are sealed in our faith by the Holy Spirit. He even uses Noah's Ark as a type or model of this seal in that Noah and his family were sealed in the ark by the pitch they used to water-seal the ship.
John MacArthur's Study Bible describes four primary truths that are signified by this seal: 1) Security 2) Authenticity 3) Ownership and 4) Authority. Given these truths and this promise inheritence, we as believers need to have security in our Savior, confidence in His authenticity, comfort in his ownership and a spirit of humbleness in his authority. I pray you know that your are sealed with the Holy Spirit and that you live out your days knowing you have an eternal inheritance.
...and don't forget to love God with all your heart, love others as He does, and use every minute for His will and to His glory!
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