F. F. Bruce. Ephesians Verse by Verse
Ephesians 1:14 (OYB Eph): The possessive pronoun “our” here includes Jewish and Gentile believers together. The truth which is expressed in one way by the figure of “sealing” is expressed in another way by the use of the word “earnest.” This Greek word (arrhabōn) is derived from a Semitic root represented in the Hebrew Bible by the term rendered “pledge” three times in Genesis 38:17–20. There Judah gave his daughter-in-law Tamar certain articles of his personal property as a pledge until he could redeem his promise to present her with “a kid of the goats.” The word is used in Modern Greek for an engagement ring, a fact which speaks for itself. So our possession of the Spirit here and now is the guarantee divinely given that we shall one day enjoy in its fullness all that inheritance which God has reserved in heaven for those that love him (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:9; 1 Peter 1:4).
Believers are God’s redeemed possession already, but the consummation of his redeeming work remains to be experienced by us. We “have the first fruits of the Spirit,” but the harvest still lies in the future; meanwhile we are “waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). The word for “God’s own possession” (Gk. peripoiēsis) appears in much the same sense in 1 Peter 2:9; the corresponding verb is rendered “purchased” in Acts 20:28. Such Old Testament passages as Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 14:2; Psalm 74:2 and Malachi 3:17 form a background to these New Testament expressions (cf. also Titus 2:14, where another word of similar meaning, periousios, is used). Not only our inheritance in Christ, but God’s inheritance in the saints, will be finally realized in that coming age, and “the praise of his glory” will be complete.