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Here the apostle recounts the favours and privileges which the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, upon their believing in Christ were admitted to the participation of; he assures them, that in and through Christ they had obtained a right to this heavenly inheritance also, as well as the Jews, having been brought to trust and believe in him, by hearing the word of truth, the doctrine of the gospel, preached to them.
And next, that they were sealed for the children of God, by the sanctifying Spirit promised to the sons of God, which produced a real renovating change in their hearts and lives, and so was a pledge and earnest of, as well as made them meet and fit for, the heavenly inheritance; the full enjoyment of which is not to be expected till the last day, when (and not before) all believers shall receive complete redemption, and their bodies being raised, shall be reunited to their souls, and both rendered perfectly and everlastingly happy. The end of God, in all this dispensation of grace and mercy to the Gentiles, being the same with that before mentioned to the Jews; namely, the praise of his own glorious grace.
Here observe, 1. That both the Gentiles and Jews are saved by the same faith and trust in Christ; In whom ye also trusted; as they have the same common inheritance, so have they the same common affiance and faith in Christ.
Observe 2. That the faith of the Gentiles came by hearing of the word: In whom ye also trusted, after ye heard the word, &c. that is, presently after they heard they believed and obeyed;Ye obeyed from the very first day that we preached the gospel. Col_1:6
What a shame and reproach is this to those amongst us, who have heard the gospel preached all their days, yet never did believe or obey the gospel!
Observe, 3. A double encomium which the apostle gives the gospel by which these Gentile Ephesians were converted; he calls it,
l. The word of truth; that is, a word of the most eminent and excellent truth. There is no truth that ever God swore to but the truth of the gospel. The law is truth as well as the gospel, but the law was made without an oath; had it been made with an oath, it had never been recalled; the gospel is sealed with an oath, and therefore shall never be reversed.
2. He calls it the gospel of salvation, and the gospel of their (the Ephesians') salvation. It is called a gospel of salvation, because the matter of it is salvation, because the offer of it is salvation, and it declares the only way and means by which lost sinners may obtain salvation. And the gospel of their salvation, because God had by his Holy Spirit made the preaching of this gospel effectual for their conversion and salvation.
Observe, 4. The privilege which the Ephesian Gentiles obtained, after they had by faith consented to this gospel of salvation; and that was their sealing: After ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Where note, That the privilege of sealing always follows the duty of believing, never goes before it. Sealing doth imply that precious and excellent esteem which they have with God. Nothing but what is precious is sealed by us. Who seals up dung and pebbles in a bag? Believers are God's jewels, his treasure, therefore sealed. Sealing also is for safety and security, for discrimination, and for confirmation. The Holy Spirit, by sanctifying of us, doth discriminate and distinguish us from the rest of the world, doth secure and preserve us from the fatal danger of a ruinous apostasy, and doth also confirm our hopes of the glorious inheritance.
Observe, 5. That the Holy Spirit is given to believers in the nature of an earnest; sanctifying grace, wrought in the heart here, is a sure earnest of glory hereafter; which is the earnest of our inheritance. An earnest binds the bargain, and is a part of the bargain, if it be but a shilling given as an earnest, it secures a contract for a thousand pounds. Believers are to consider and look upon grace, not barely as grace but as an earnest of glory.
O, be thankful to God for his sanctifying Spirit, not only as subduing thy corruptions, but as a pledge and earnest of a glorious inheritance. It is a great comfort to find grace in the soul, as sanctifying, as quickening, and renewing; but a greater matter of rejoicing to find it also there as witnessing, as sealing and confirming, as a part of our inheritance in glory, and as a pledge and earnest of the whole.
Observe, 6. That the Holy Spirit of God is God. To sanctify, to seal, to confirm our hearts, are divine operations: he that doth these, must be a divine Person. True; how the Spirit of God is God, and how he proceedeth from the Father and Son, cannot be comprehended by our reason and shallow understandings. No wonder that the doctrine of the Trinity is inexplicible, seeing the nature of God is incomprehensible; our faith, then, must assent to what our reason cannot comprehend, otherwise we can never be Christians.
Observe lastly, That heaven is here called a possession, and a purchased possession, that is, by the blood of Christ. A king's ransom we account a vast sum; O, what will our ransom by the blood of the Son of God come to! Grace is purchased, and glory is purchased, both by the blood of Christ. Lord! what will that glory come to! In eternity we shall admire it, but never fully comprehend it.