My Soul’s Embosser 

Posted on May 22, 2015 in Devotions |

Ephesians 1:13-14
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.
 
In the Burge library reside many books. I love my books. Whenever I purchase a new one—which is quite often—I have a ritual that I always perform. I take out my library book embosser, which a friend gave to me as a gift approximately twenty-five years ago, lift the embosser out of its container, and imprint my mark of ownership upon the first page of the new book. It reads: “Library of Kenneth Joseph Burge” with the initials KJB in the middle. The stamp confirms my ownership of the book.
 
Similarly God placed his stamp of ownership upon you and me at the moment of our conversion. How have we responded to the Embosser’s imprint upon our soul? How should we respond? Let’s see what Ephesians has to say about this:
 
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. Ephesians 1:13-14
 

As soon as previously lost souls believe the life-changing message about Jesus Christ, who died for our sin and was raised from the dead, we were “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”—instantaneously. That is to say, the second we placed faith in Jesus, the Embosser of the soul stamped his identifying trademark, the Holy Spirit within us. “Sealed refers to the official mark that would have been placed upon a first-century letter to show authenticity and ownership of that correspondence.

Likewise God engraved our souls “with the Holy Spirit of promise” upon our believing the gospel. Why “the Holy Spirit of promise?” Because the third member of the Trinity was deposited into our souls as a pledge that God would fulfill his commitment to complete the good work that had begun in us.

 – Pastor Ken Burge Jr (Adapted from the author’s book Ephesians on F.I.R.E.)