OH 3:5{PH 1:13{It is true that we are only sealed by the Holy Spirit after having believed. But it is not then that we are born of God. If the presence of the Holy Spirit were life, every Christian would be an incarnation of the Holy Ghost. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit that we have of God (1 Cor. 6:19). Being born of God is another thing. We have not received, as to the state in which we passed from death unto life, and the hour had already come (verse 25). Also John 3:36. We are bound to reckon that we are alive unto God by Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:11). " I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me " (Gal. 2:20). When we were dead, He quickened us with Christ (Eph. 2). We are seated only in Christ, and it is according to the power that worketh in us. God does not quicken in heaven wicked people who arrive there dead in sin! And the soul is not in the grave with the body. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 6 " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." And here it is by faith, and down here; he who eateth of this bread shall live eternally: if one does not it, one has not life in oneself. " He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." That is to say, resurrection is another thing; he has life, and made sure for eternity; he will be raised up at the last day. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. Nothing appears to me clearer than the doctrine of the word on this subject under various forms; born of the Spirit, quickened by Christ, by faith in receiving Him as the Bread of Life. It ought to make the believer perfectly assured on this point. " He who has the Son has life." Christ is my life. The gift of the Spirit is quite another thing, the seal of faith. After having believed I have been sealed. We are sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26), and because we are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into the heart, crying, Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6).
“The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified " (John 7:39). But the passage in Galatians marks clearly the difference between new birth and sealing. “Ye are," chapter 3:26 tells us, “all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Then chapter 4:6, " Because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." “Because ye are sons," not in order that ye may be. It could not be more clear.
God does not seal an unbeliever, a sinner in his natural condition. This would be impossible. He will receive such an one in His grace; then He seals him. Further, the new life is not the Holy Ghost, or we should be an incarnation of the Holy Ghost; this would be nonsense simply. " That which is born of the Spirit is spirit," but it is not the Spirit, who is God. But when the Holy Ghost dwells in us, our bodies are
temples of the Holy Ghost. The difference is of all importance. The Holy Ghost acts in us, through the word, to produce the new birth, but it is one thing to build a house, and another to dwell in it.
We are not born again without the Holy Ghost; but His work and His indwelling are two distinct things. People confound His operation and His coming. The Son of God created the world, but He did not come until His incarnation. The Holy Ghost has wrought from the beginning:.He wrought in creation; but He did not come till the day of Pentecost. The Lord said that if He went away He would send Him, but if He did not go away He would not come (John 16:7). Man must be in the glory, redemption having been accomplished, before the Holy Ghost could be given to believers, because the Holy Ghost is received by believers only.