Ephesians 1:13,14
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvaton; in whom also after that ye beleived, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

I'm sorry that I have not posted anything the last few days. I have been sick. Although I have been reading through my bible (currently in Lamentations) and in Proverbs each day, I actually decided on today's topic after talking with a good friend of mine on the phone the other day about the eternal security of the believer.

This is a topic that I could write a series of post about. The Bible says much about it, but today I want to look at this one passage because it tells us about God not only giving his promise to keep us, but also sealing that promise with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I am sure that most of you have noticed in the Bible how often salvation and our relationship to Jesus is referred to, or compared to marriage. You find in Paul's writings that one reason the type of relationship between a man and his wife is so important is that God intends for it to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church.

Jesus told several parables dealing with salvation and the kingdom of heaven where he compared it to a marriage. You even find the bible talking about the "marriage supper of the Lamb" when we all get to heaven.

The reason I mention this is that it demonstrates a truth that many people overlook. Many times it is interesting when you look at the bible from the perspective of certain Jewish customs. The Bible is a Jewish book after all.

During biblical times when a young man and woman wanted to get married the man would have his father arrange it with the father of the girl. The four of them would come together and discuss terms of the marriage and once an agreement was met the man would give to girl he intended to marry a bag of money. This was called earnest. Basically, this sealed his promise to her, that he would take her as his wife. If he didn't deliver on his promise, she kept the money.

Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins when he died on the cross. When we accept him as our saviour we become the "espoused" of Jesus. When we get to heaven we will become his bride. Now God's word is sure enough as it is. But even on top of that he seals his promise to us with "that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance."

So we can be sure that if we accept Jesus as our Saviour we will go to heaven because not only does God give his word, and he cannot lie. But since the Holy Spirit is the earnest, that means that for us to go to hell when we died, he would have to go with us.

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