Concise Bible Dictionary:
Sealed (Notarized) Document
A legal process by which the validity of a deed of conveyance is confirmed (see Jer. 32:7-11). A seal is often employed as a witness and proof of genuineness. This may help us to understand the force of the term as applied to Christ and to Christians.
1. The Lord Jesus spoke of Himself as sealed by God the Father (John 6:27), doubtless referring to the Holy Ghost having come upon Him at His baptism. He was thus witnessed of as the Son of God.
2. Believers are sealed by the Spirit for the day of redemption, and the Spirit is also the earnest of their inheritance (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 4:30). The gift of the Spirit is the seal. This could not be until redemption had been wrought and righteousness secured thus for man. But the seal is now the distinctive mark of those who are of God. The idea of sealing is distinct from that of being born of the Spirit, as well as from that of being led of the Spirit after He has been received. Believers only are sealed, in virtue of their faith in a Savior who died for them and rose again. The sealing, based on forgiveness of sins, gives the consciousness of the benefit gained by faith.
Various incidents in the Acts of the Apostles throw light upon this. On the day of Pentecost, after Peter had proclaimed the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ, the hearers being “pricked in their heart,” said, “What shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). So also when Peter preached to Cornelius and those gathered with him, while he was saying “Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins....the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word” (Acts 10:43-44). In Ephesians 1:13, it is said of the Gentiles that having believed the gospel of their salvation they were sealed. See HOLY SPIRIT.
3. The hundred and forty-four thousand of the twelve tribes of Israel referred to in Revelation 7:3-8 will be sealed in their foreheads. The number typifies the completeness of the remnant which is preserved through the great tribulation for blessing, and they are conspicuous as bearing the witness and mark of the living God.
“420. Impressions of Seals” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Job 38:14. It is turned as clay to the seal.
The bricks of Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria boar marks which have evidently been made with a seal. Egyptian wine jars and mummy pits were sometimes sealed with clay. There have been found in Assyria public documents made of clay, and having the letters stamped in them, and the marks of official sealing. In the East, doors of granaries or of treasure rooms are to this day sometimes sealed with clay, so that it is impossible to enter without first breaking the seal. The sepulcher of Christ was probably sealed in this way. See note on Matthew 27:66 (#735). Clay is used in preference to wax because the former hardens with the heat, while the latter melts. The engraving represents a lump of clay from Assyria, having several impressions of seals upon it.
For description of seals, see note on 1 Kings 21:8 (#323).
“797. Sealing” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
John 6:27. Him hath God the Father sealed.
Burder (Oriental Customs, No. 1120) suggests that there may be an allusion here to the sacrificial death of Christ, and cites from Herodotus an account of the ceremonies accompanying the selection of a victim for sacrifice among the ancient Egyptians. If, after careful search, the animal was found without blemish, the priest bound a label to his horns, applied wax to the label, and sealed it with his ring. This set it apart for sacrifice, and no animal could be offered unless thus sealed. We have no knowledge of any such ceremony among the Jews, though they were careful in selecting their victims; but the sacrificial customs of other nations were doubtless known to them. The meaning of the text may; therefore, be, that Jesus bad been set apart or “sealed” as a sacrifice in order that he might obtain eternal life for those who believe on him.
On the other hand, Lightfoot interprets the passage to mean that God had confirmed Jesus by his seal to be “the great Ruler both of his kingdom and family”; and he refers for illustration to a rabbinical form of instruction which declares the seal of God to be Truth, one of the names which Jesus applies to himself. See John 14:6. Compare also John 3:33.
References to the sealing or setting apart of the people of God are made in 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30; Revelation 7:2. For a description of seals and sealing in a literal sense, see notes on 1 Kings 21:8 (#323) and Job 38:14 (#420).
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