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And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God\u2019s possession\u2014to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:13-14)

Let\u2019s now turn our attention to the second image for the Holy Spirit in this text, a \u201cdeposit guaranteeing our inheritance\u201d. To wrestle with this image, we need to remember that salvation is much more than just a free \u2018get out of jail\u2019 card, jail being this earth and freedom being heaven. In the Bible salvation is always so much more.

The Biblical image for salvation is rooted in Israel\u2019s exodus from Egypt. Certainly, God delivers Israel from slavery in Egypt. What is often not mentioned is that he set them free for a purpose. In Exodus 19, God says, \u201cNow if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation\u201d (5,6).

Here we are squarely in the arena of obedience, which, as we have noted, is the domain of the Holy Spirit. But we also see a much larger vision of God\u2019s redemption. Israel will be God\u2019s treasured possession, not for Israel\u2019s sake, but for the sake of the world. This treasured possession is God\u2019s beacon through which he will redeem the entire world for himself.

Paul adds a new dimension in Ephesians 4 writing that when the Christians were saved, they were taught \u201cto be made new in the attitude of [their] minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness\u201d (23-24). This language picks up the words of Genesis 1 in which God creates us in his image, stewards of his creation. Salvation\u2019s purpose is to restore us so that we can fulfill our original purpose.

But this does not happen the moment we come to believe in Jesus. This will not be fully realized until the work of redemption is complete with Jesus\u2019 return. The Spirit is God\u2019s deposit guaranteeing that he will finish this work. And he is at work now, in each of us. The Heidelberg Catechism addresses this several times.

In answer 53 we learn that the Holy Spirit \u201chas been given to me personally, so that, by true faith, he makes me share in Christ and all his blessings, comforts me, and remains with me forever.\u201d When the student wonders why we must do good, the teacher replies, \u201cwe do good because Christ by his Spirit is also renewing us to be like himself, so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all he has done for us, and so that he may be praised through us\u201d (A 86). Sounds like our text.

The HC is even more pointed in its teaching on the Sabbath. The second half of the answer is often missed, but I think is the most important part. To keep Sabbath means \u201cthat every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath\u201d (A 103).

Elsewhere the Catechism teachers write that \u201cby the Spirit's power we make the goal of our lives, not earthly things, but the things above where Christ is, sitting at God's right hand\u201d (A 49).

As the Spirit moves into our lives, we change. We become less tied to this present evil age and long increasingly for the fullness of God\u2019s shalom. As a deposit, the Spirit awakens in us a deep longing for a world as it should be. As we look forward to the new heavens and earth, we live more and more like the people who will populate the redeemed creation.

Over this coming weekend, allow the Spirit to test your longings. Let him change them.