Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:13b-The Church Age Believer Was Sealed By the Spirit Because They Obeyed the Gospel of Their Salvation

Ephesians 1:3 The God, namely the Father of the Lord ruling over us, who is Jesus Christ, is worthy of praise. Namely, because He is the one who has blessed each and every one of us by means of each and every kind of Spirit appropriated blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. 4 For He chose each and every one of us for His own purpose because of Him alone before creation in order that each and every one of us would be holy as well as uncensurable in His judgment. 5 He did this by predestinating each and every one of us for the purpose of adoption as sons because of His love through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will. 6 This was for the purpose of praising His glorious grace, which He freely bestowed on each and every one of us because of the one who is divinely loved. 7 Because of whom, each one of us are experiencing that which is the redemption through His blood, namely the forgiveness of our transgressions according to His infinite grace. 8 This He provided in abundance for the benefit of each and every one of us because of the exercise of a wisdom, which is absolute and divine in nature resulting in the manifestation of an insight, which is absolute and divine in nature. 9 He did this by revealing the mystery of His will for the benefit of each and every one of us according to His pleasure, which He planned beforehand because of our faith in and resultant union and identification with Himself. 10 This was for the dispensation which brings to completion the various periods of history. Namely, to unite for the benefit of Himself each and every animate and inanimate object in the sphere of the sovereign authority of the person of the one and only Christ. Specifically, to unite for the benefit of Himself those things in the heavens as well as those things on the earth in the sphere of the sovereign authority of Himself. 11 Because of whom, each and every one of us has been claimed as a possession because of having been predestinated according to the predetermined plan. Namely, the one who is causing each and every animate and inanimate object to function according to His purpose, that is, His sovereign will 12 in order that each and every one of us would belong to a particular group of people. Namely, those who are certain of possessing a confident expectation of blessing because of their faith in and union and identification with the one and only Christ for the purpose of praising His glory. 13 Correspondingly, because of whom, each and every one of you were sealed by means of the omnipotence of the one and only promised Spirit, who is holy because each and every one of you obeyed the one and only message, which is truth, namely, the proclamation of the one and only gospel, which produced your salvation. Specifically, because each one of you believed in Him. (Lecturer’s translation)

The noun logos (λόγος), “the message” refers to the content of the message that was communicated to the recipients of the Ephesian epistle when they were unregenerate sinners.

Thus, it refers to the content of the gospel message that is directed to the non-Christian community.

In other words, it refers to the content of the divine revelation, which was communicated by the apostles to the non-Christian community and is now recorded in the Greek New Testament.

The noun alētheia (ἀλήθεια), “the truth” refers to Paul’s apostolic teaching and specifically it refers to his apostolic teaching which he communicated to the members of the non-Christian community.

The word refers to the truth of God in an objective sense as a body of knowledge containing the revelation regarding the will of the Father for the non-Christian.

It contains information regarding the consequences of the non-Christian obeying the gospel message by trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior.

Therefore, the noun alētheia (ἀλήθεια) is a synonym for the gospel which expressed by the expression to euangelion tēs sōtērias hymōn (τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς σωτηρίας ὑμῶν), “the gospel of your salvation” (NET).

Now, the nominative second personal plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), “each and every one of you” not only refers to the recipients of the Ephesian epistle but also is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.

Ephesians 2:11 identifies the recipients of this epistle as Gentile Christians.

Therefore, the word is emphasizing that “each and every one of” the recipients of the Ephesian epistle who were Gentiles obeyed the gospel message, which is truth in contrast to those sinner who do not obey the gospel message.

The use of this personal pronoun su is unnecessary in Greek since the form of a finite verb in this language indicates the person, number and gender of the subject.

This is what makes Greek an “inflectional” language.

When the personal pronoun is used therefore, it may serve to clarify the subject or contrast the subject with someone else or for emphasis.

Here in Ephesians 1:13 it is used for emphasis as well as contrast.

First, it is emphasizing that each one of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle obeyed the gospel message, which is truth.

Secondly, it is marking a contrast between the recipients of this epistle who obeyed the gospel message and the members of the non-Christian who did not.

It is also marking a contrast between these Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians, which Paul was of course.

In Ephesians 1:13, the verb akouō (ἀκούω), “because each and every one of you obeyed” refers to the non-Christian responding to the gospel message by not only listening to it but also obeying it by exercising faith in Jesus Christ as Savior since the word pertains to hearing a message and responding to it with obedience.

In other words, it pertains to not only hearing a message but responding by acting upon what the message requires of a person.

Specifically, the verb akouō (ἀκούω) refers to each one of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle obeying the gospel message, which is truth, which resulted in the Father imputing His Son’s righteousness to them and declaring them justified.

Simultaneously, the Father united them and identified them with His Son in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at His right hand through the baptism of the Spirit.

Therefore, this verb is referring to the conversion experience of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle when each one of them heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and then obeyed it by exercising faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.

Most of the modern translations interpret the participle conjugation of this verb akouō (ἀκούω) here in Ephesians 1:13 as a temporal participle (TNIV, NET, ESV, LEB).

This type of participle in relation to its controlling verb, answers the question, “when?”

The controlling verb here is the second person plural aorist passive indicative conjugation of the verb sphragizō (σφραγίζω), “each and every one of you were sealed.”

Therefore, this interpretation of this verb akouō (ἀκούω) would indicate that the word is expressing the idea that each one of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit “when” they obeyed the message, which is truth, specifically, the gospel, which is truth from God.

However, though a participle might have a temporal force, one must determine if a more specific semantic value is intended by the writer before interpreting the participle as being temporal.

This is the case here where akouō (ἀκούω) has a more specific semantic value, namely means.

I interpret the participle conjugation of this verb as a causal participle, which means that it indicates the cause or reason or ground of the action of the finite verb.

Normally, but not always, this type of participle usually precedes the main verb, which we noted in our context is the second person plural aorist passive indicative conjugation of the verb sphragizō (σφραγίζω), “each and every one of you were sealed.”

Here, we do not have the usual use of the causal participle because the verb akouō (ἀκούω) follows the controlling or main verb and not preceding it.

Therefore, this interpretation of the participle conjugation of this verb akouō (ἀκούω) indicates that this verb would be expressing the idea that each one of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit “because” they obeyed the message, which is truth, specifically, the gospel, which produced their salvation when they obeyed it at the moment of their justification.

The action of the aorist participle conjugation of the verb akouō(ἀκούω) indicates that it takes place simultaneously with the action of the aorist indicative conjugation of the verb sphragizō (σφραγίζω).

Thus, the aorist tenses of both verbs indicate that the Father sealing each and every church age believer with the promised Holy Spirit and the church age believer obeying the gospel message took place at the same time.

Specifically, they both took place at the moment of justification.

This interpretation is supported by the prepositional phrase En hō (Ἐν ᾧ), “because of whom,” which we noted refers to the church age believer’s faith in and union and identification with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

The noun euangelion(εὐαγγέλιον), “the proclamation of the gospel” contains the figure of metonymy which means that the gospel is put for the communication of it to the non-Christian.

Therefore, the word refers to the communication of the gospel message to the recipients of the Ephesian epistle when they were unregenerate sinners.

It speak of communicating the good news to the unbeliever that Christ died and rose from the dead for them and that through faith in Him they could receive the gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins and avoid experiencing the wrath of God.

The noun soteria (σωτηρία), “salvation” speaks of the sinners deliverance from personal sins the sin nature, Satan, his cosmic system, condemnation from the Law, spiritual and physical death and of course eternal condemnation.

This salvation is in three stages: (1) positional: taking place at justification (2) experiential: taking place when the church age believer is experiencing fellowship with God through obedience to His Word (3) perfective: taking place when the church age believer receives their resurrection body at the rapture or resurrection of the church.