In the Roman world and kingdom, Caesar had a seal. When the seal was affixed to anything, it denoted the authority and ownership of Caesar. This seal was often used to close things until one with the proper authority could come, break the seal, and open that which was closed. Greek scholar, A. T. Robertson, seems convinced that when Jesus was crucified, His tomb was sealed with the seal of Caesar, meaning that no one should open that tomb except an authorized representative of Caesar. Whether that seal was Caesar’s seal or the seal of someone else, early one Sunday morning, God broke the seal and rolled the stone away! This was not so much so Jesus could get out, but that the world would be able to look in and see the miracle of the resurrection.

Similarly, the Bible teaches us that we are sealed, by the Holy Spirit, with heaven’s seal, which denotes that we belong to God and His authority protects us from any tampering, until the authorized representative, Jesus, the Christ, shall come to redeem us.

Now, we come to the sealing work of the Holy Spirit. This work of the Holy Spirit is captured in a number of outstanding Scriptures. Let’s work our way through some of the more important ones, in biblical order. Paul wrote:

It’s a shame that more sermons are not preached from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. This is probably because it is more autobiographical than Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Nevertheless, it contains some powerful truth. In these verses, Paul makes a powerful statement. "Now, He who is establishing us (present tense), i.e. Paul and his companions, with you, in Christ, and has anointed us (aorist tense), is God."

The Greek word translated "with" denotes a close association or relationship. So, it could be translated, "Now He who establishes us together with you, in Christ . . ." The phrase "in Christ" is distinctively Pauline, i.e. characteristic of Paul, and relates to the sphere of salvation or genuine belief in Christ. The verb "establishes" is in the present tense, but the second verb "anoint" is in the aorist tense. The word "anoint" means to literally apply oil. When used of the Holy Spirit, it means to consecrate with the receiving of the Holy Spirit.

Although God was in the process of establishing Paul and His companions with the Corinthians, He had already anointed them with the Holy Spirit sometime in the past, with the results of that anointing continuing into the present.

So, we assume that this anointing took place on the Great Day of Pentecost.

Paul does not stop there but continues his statement. Not only was God establishing them in Christ and had anointed them with the Holy Spirit, He had also sealed them and given them the Holy Spirit in their hearts as a pledge. Both the verbs "sealed" and "gave" are also in the aorist tense. Even as the anointing took place in the past, probably on the Great Day of Pentecost, so this sealing and giving of the Holy Spirit must have also taken place sometime in the past—probably on the Great Day of Pentecost.