Eph. 1:3-14, The Security of the Believer (6)

iii)      It is a work of the Spirit.

(1)                        It involves His indwelling, John 14:16.  The promise of Jesus was and is that the Holy Spirit abides in the believer FOREVER.

(2)                        It involves His work as a "seal" of approval, Eph 1:13-14; 4:30; 2 Cor 1:22.  The Holy Spirit’s presence in the believer acts as the “seal” on the believer that He truly belongs to God.  The Spirit is God’s mark on the believer.  Since the Spirit abides forever, this mark will never be removed.

(3)                        It involves His work as the earnest (guarantee, down-payment) of our inheritance, Eph 1:14.  Furthermore, the indwelling Spirit acts as a guarantee that God will complete the work in the believer, the work that God has begun (Phil. 1:6).  In other words, God knows the work He is doing is a work in progress.  He wants believers to know that He is doing the work and will not give up on us.

d)   The persevering saint is assured of his salvation.  “Assurance” has to do with the believer’s experience of His secure position. 

i)      Theoretical (theological) assurance, 1 Jn 5:10-13; John 3:36 (arousing the mind).  We can know in our minds.  Passages like the ones we have noted here speak of the assurance that a believer in Christ can have that he is truly saved.  It rests on the word, the promise of God!

ii)   Experiential assurance. 

(1)                        Rom 8:15-16 (assuring the emotions).  The Spirit can give us a sense that we are truly a child of God.

(2)                        1 John 2:3-5,29; 3:14,18-19 (assuring the will).  Further, in these passages the “mind” is assured by the actions of the will.  When we say, “I know Him,” but our lives are consistently at odds with the will of God, it is indicating that the assurance is not real.

Often the believer will not “feel” this assurance.  We do not run our lives on our feelings.  But feelings are a part of God’s creation of Mankind, part of His image.  Feelings can be a way that God tells us something is wrong.  For example, and this is big, when we sin we may and should have “guilt feelings.”  The world’s advice in these circumstances it to tell us to ignore those feelings.  But that is not God’s wisdom.  We need to ask if these feelings are a response to a situation that needs to be addressed in our lives.  In other words, we may not feel secure.  The answer is not simply to quote a verse like John 3:36. The answer is to examine ourselves as to our walk of faith.