Guarantee

Ephesians 1:13-14

Growing up in the fifties, the word guarantee was not used often, if you bought a refrigerator or washing machine it was expected to work well for many years but that is not the case today.  It seems that almost everything you purchase, they want to sell you a guarantee, and from what I’ve read and experienced, they are not a good gamble, it is very similar to Vegas the house has the odds.  In Paul’s letter to the churches at Ephesus he talks about a guarantee, not like the one you get from American Home Shield to cover the items in your home, often these have little or no value, but the guarantee Paul is proclaiming is backed up by none other than Creator God.

Verse 13, 14, “In him you also when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believe in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

I worked for 3M Company for 40 years and am blessed to receive a pension, and I’ve been given a guarantee that 3M will fund that pension for the rest of my life.  The guarantor of that fund has every intention to fulfill the promises made to it’s employees, but its guarantee is based on 3M Company staying in business and funding the pension. 

When you entered into Christ by an act of faith, God the Holy Spirit, sealed you into Christ and at that moment in what we call time, the Holy Spirit became your guarantor.  The church at Corinth was infected by the evil of the city and it’s life style of immorality and that is why Paul wrote these words to them.  “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.”  (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)  Many are taught they can lose what they did not earn; it is God who makes you stand firm in Christ, it is God who anointed us, it is God who set his seal of ownership on us, it is God who put his Spirit in our hearts, God is our depositor of guaranteeing what is to come.  Our actions were not mentioned, because the blood of Jesus Christ has covered sin, yours and mine.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice