The Sealed and Sanctified Heart
—Jesus Forgave Me of All My Sins
We began this series of lessons by showing that a true imaqe of yourself reflects the destiny that God intends for you. You'll recall that God wants you to be his heir child and to give you an inheritance with the saints in light.
Our previous two lessons guided you through an understanding of how you could become an heir child of God with an eternal inheritance reserved for you in heaven (1Peter 1:3-4).
This final lesson in the Jesus Changed My Heart series, shows that God has confirmed his promise to all his heirs by an oath and by a seal. So there are three distinct actions of God that can empower you...
- (1) The promise that God has made regarding Christ (2Peter 1:2-4)
- (2) The oath by which he confirmed the promise (Hebrews 6:17-20)
- (3) The seal by which he guarantees the promise (Ephesians 1:13-14)
Achieving the Sealed and Sanctified Heart
1 Be Encouraged by God’s Promise
What could be more wonderful than "the promise of life in Christ Jesus" (2Timothy 1:1)? No matter how rough life gets here below, there is God’s promise to cling of a unimaginably happier life above. Be encouraged. God is faithful. You can trust him. Nothing that happens to you in your earthly life can stop God’s promise from coming true for you.
2 Be Assured by God’s Oath
Although God’s promises are immutable (certain and unchangeable), nevertheless God has seen fit to confirm his promise with an oath (Hebrews 6:17-20). This shows how serious God is about keeping his promise, and about making it clear to you that he will. Nothing could be more certain; there is no element of doubt; you can be fully assured.
I find it comforting that God doesn't require me to make an oath to him. He only requires me to accept the oath he has made to me. I don't trust myself. I know, however, that I can trust God completely. I don't need to have reservations about him. I don't have to look for a plan B if God lets me down. He won't. I have his oath and so I can have full assurance of faith.
3 Be Protected by God’s Seal
When you accept God’s promise confirmed by his oath, God sets his seal upon you by blessing you with the gift of his Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) Peter promised this when he told people to respond to God in repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38-39).
Paul says, "For all the promises of God in him are the “Yes” and in him the “Amen”... God is the one who establishes us with you in Christ, and he has anointed us, he has also sealed us, and given us the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts..." (2Corinthians 1:20-22).
“What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart!”