THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE ANOINTING AND SEALING SPIRIT

II Corinthians 1:17-24

17. When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?

18. But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.

19. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.

20. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

21. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;

22. Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

23. Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.

24. Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

II Corinthians 3:1-3; 17, 18

1. Do we begin again . to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?

2. Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

3. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

17. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

18. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

This Scripture presents to us five striking and instructive symbols of the Holy Spirit, revealing Him in five phases of His office work. These symbols are jewels of holy metaphor, flashing celestial light upon our minds as they speak of the deepest truths of Christian experience.

THE ANOINTING

The figure of anointing runs through all the Scripture, crystallizing in the name of Christ. Christ means, "The Anointed One," and Christian is the Christ -- One, or the one who has been anointed with the Holy Spirit.

We note that the rite of anointing was observed in all the ceremonies of the Old Testament. Especially was it emphasized in the setting apart of the three great officials of the Old Testament: the Prophet, the Priest, and the King. Prophets were anointed that they might be set apart as witnesses and messengers of the will of God. Every child of God is a witness and messenger for Him. God has declared, "Ye are my witnesses" (Isa. 43:10). And Jesus said, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

In order to witness properly we must have the anointing referred to above. It is that anointing which is bestowed when the Lord Jesus imparts to us the Holy Ghost.

Priests were anointed to stand between God and the people, to make intercession in their behalf. We are to be anointed as God's holy priesthood to come into His presence, to worship at His feet, to rightly present the incense of faith, love and devotion to Him, and to effectively intercede for others at the throne of grace.

Kings were anointed to rule in the name of God, to stand in glorious majesty representing Jehovah to the people. God has purposed that we, as His children, should be not only prophets and priests, but also kings in the sense of being representatives of God to the people around us. We can never, adequately, represent God unless we have the fullness of the blessing of the Holy Spirit. "Jesus Christ, who . . . . hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father" (Rev. 1:5, 6).

For this three-fold ministry -- serving as prophets, priests, and kings -- we are anointed of the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can fit us for so high a calling. Education of the proper kind is good, qualifying a person for great usefulness. Culture and training are good, if that culture and training are of the right sort. A pleasing personality is a welcome asset. But none of these -education, culture, training, a pleasing personality -- nor all of them combined, can fit us for the high calling in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit alone is able to equip us.

The figure of anointing is used in Scripture with still more wide and beautiful significance. It speaks of holy gladness. "Anointed . . . with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Ps. 45:7). "Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over" (Ps. 23:5).

This anointing is the privilege of the humblest believer. And it is available to the most unworthy sinner who is willing to repent of his sins, let Jesus come into his life, and he baptized with the Holy Spirit.

THE SEAL

The seal is associated with the relics of antiquity as well as the customs of business in every age.

The seal is used to authenticate and certify. It is used as a stamp, or to make an impression to prove the genuineness of the thing sealed. "General Electric" stamped on an article is a guarantee that it is an article made by the General Electric Company. So the Holy Spirit certifies one to be genuine, by putting the stamp of God upon him, and giving him the witness of his acceptance with God.

The seal is also a token of ownership. Cattlemen stamp a certain brand, or seal, on their cattle to show ownership. The brand shows whose cattle they are, the cattle being now set apart as the cattle of a certain man. So the Holy Spirit sets us apart, stamping us as the property of God, and marking us as no longer our own but the purchased possession of Jesus Christ, "bought with a price" (I Cor. 6:20). The price is the shed blood of Christ.

In the third place the seal is the expression of reality. It casts its impression on the wax and makes it real and enduring. So the Holy Spirit makes the things we have known real, and turns into actual experience that which was before only theory.

Finally, the seal transfers the image. The very identical image that is on the seal is now transferred to the thing sealed. The Holy Spirit prints the very image of Jesus on our receptive hearts and leaves the stamp of His character upon our lives.

A fact that must not be overlooked is that you cannot affix the seal to hard and settled wax. The wax must be warm and soft, and unless our hearts have been warmed and our very souls made flexible in His hand, the Holy Spirit will not be able to affix the seal. This sealing of the Holy Spirit is a very definite and explicit act. Have you been sealed?

THE EARNEST

This is also a very significant word. It represents the first installment in a purchase and binds the transaction. A person wishes to buy some cattle from another man. The price is agreed upon, but the buyer does not have the necessary amount of money with him, so he offers to pay down a small amount. If the seller accepts that small amount as a down payment, the sale is binding. Now he cannot refuse to deliver the cattle to the buyer when he comes with the rest of the price agreed upon, although the value of the cattle may now be more than the price agreed upon earlier, because he accepted the earnest, which was the first payment.

Another meaning akin to the above is as follows: In oriental countries the seller also gives a first installment. Taking a handful of soil, he puts it into a bag and hands it to the purchaser as a pledge of the whole property being transferred to him in due time.

So the Holy Spirit is to us the payment in part, and the pledge in full, of our complete inheritance. He brings into our hearts the same blessed reality which heaven will complete. He here and now gives a foretaste of what to expect when we reach the glory world.

EPISTLES OF CHRIST (II Cor. 3:3)

We have here a new figure of the Holy Spirit, a new office work. Here He is presented to us as the great Recorder transcribing Christ and His character and life upon the living table of human hearts and lives. This work of the Holy Spirit is performed on the Christian, but is done more for the sake of others. It is indeed a beautiful figure, each of us represented as a letter published to the world, and carrying to men the message of Christ. May God help us to receive the message and then publish it so truly, so wisely, and so consistently, that it may be known and read of all men. Many letters are so poorly written, that one finds it difficult, indeed, to read them. May God help us to be letters that are plainly written, very legible, for we constitute the only volume that many ever read. Each of us is either a Bible or a libel.

These letters, written by the Holy Spirit, are almost the only hope of the world; because the unsaved and the unsanctified will read us, although many of them never, or infrequently, read the Bible.

What a grand conception! Every saint is a letter of Christ for all the world to read. Oh, how Satan has strewn the world with counterfeit letters which many read, and believing, go down to hell.

A person professing to be a Christian without having the stamp of genuineness upon his life, stamped there by the Holy Spirit, is a bogus letter. He will cause others to lose their way and wander on in spiritual darkness, coming to a sad end at last.

PHOTOGRAPHS OF JESUS (II Cor. 3:18)

This is the last of these metaphors of the Spirit and it carries the thought to a beautiful and perfect climax. We are to be, not only books, but illustrated books. Not only epistles of Christ, but photographs of Christ. In the center of the volume of our life is a living picture, which the Holy Spirit ever seeks to perfect, and in which He wants to reveal to the world the very glory of Jesus.

The idea is very striking. We are represented as gazing with fixed look upon the face of Jesus Christ, and as we gaze, His likeness is reflected in our countenance. The Holy Spirit is taking a picture of Jesus, not on a celluloid film, as in photography, but on a human face. Then as the non-believer, the non-Christian, looks at us he should be able to see Jesus' expression there on our very countenance. As you look upon the face of one who has spent years in sin, you can see the expression of Sin and Satan. So in the saint's face Jesus is reflected.

In order that the picture may be perfectly taken we must keep our face steadfast and our eyes fixed upon Him. It is also necessary that we gaze with open face." There must be no veil nor cloud between -- as in the photographer's art the little cover must be removed from the face of the camera in order that the impression may be taken.

We are not to be stereotyped and put away in a cabinet; but the picture must be renewed from day to day, and each day should be brighter than the last. It is "from glory to glory," ever brighter and brighter.

So we are illustrated volumes, revealing to the world our blessed Savior. As He represented God the Father, so we are to represent Christ. And men will know Him by what they see of Him in us. Almost all that the great mass of humanity knows about what salvation is, and what it does for a surrendered soul, is what the Holy Spirit is able to write upon our hearts and in our lives for them to read, and the photographs He is able to stamp upon us, to illustrate those letters. Whatever of God people see in us is the work of the blessed Holy Spirit. He is the artist who stands behind the canvas, and brings out the beautiful, glorious picture.

Beloved reader, do you understand these things? May the Holy Spirit enable you to realize and fully prove the blessed meaning of the five symbols of the Holy Spirit: the anointing, the seal, the earnest, the living epistle, and the living photograph of our Savior.