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We are made heirs for a purpose:
that we should be the praise of his glory, we who put our hope in Christ previously, [Eph 1:12]
Here is grace indeed! We used to be totally unprofitable to God, and were at enmity with him, but now we are to be held up so that people praise his glory! Again, we might seem to have been exalted too high, but God through Christ really has given us this exceedingly high inheritance.
We have been sealed:
after you believed, you were sealed by the holy spirit of promise, [Eph 1:13]
A seal is a sign of an irrevocable decision. In the book of Esther we read that Haman persuaded King Ahasuerus to issue a decree to persecute the Jews. The decree was sealed (Est 3:12) with the king's ring. After Esther, the queen, had revealed herself as one of the Jewish people, King Ahasuerus could not revoke the first decree, and had to issue a new decree, enabling the Jews to defend themselves. This decree too was sealed and could not be revoked:
Write to the Jews as seems right in your sight, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring, for any writing which is written in the name of the king and is sealed with the king's seal cannot be rescinded. [Esth 8:8]
Our blessings are absolutely secure:
after you believed, you were sealed by the holy spirit of promise, and he is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of the special possession, to the praise of his glory. [Eph 1:13-14]
In fact our blessings are in the safest possible place - with God. Our life is also in this safe place, as Colossians tells us:
for you have died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. [Col 3:3]
The seal is the Holy Spirit, which has been discussed in connection with the righteousness it imparts under blessing numbers 5 and 6.
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