Ephesians 1:13 - The Plan

"...in Whom also you all having heard the Word of truth, the Good Message of your salvation, in Whom also having trusted you were sealed in the Holy Spirit of promise..."

-And now others are joining in the chorus.  Those who first believed, including Paul, had been faithful to spread the truth of God’s grace and goodness and of His Plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.  They eventually began to boldly spread it beyond the cultural confines of the dispersed nation of Israel to other nations, and others, including the ones in this assembly in Ephesus, have trusted in their word, in this Good Message of Christ.  And this is our part.  God has done the heavy lifting, and we respond by believing the Message.  He does not force us at this point - it is our choice whether to believe and trust in Christ or continue in some form of disbelief, perhaps trusting in our own works to make us acceptable to God, or to deny the truth of the Message, or to deny His existence altogether.  Our part is to first believe, and then to speak.  Do not miss the fact that if those who first believed had kept the Message to themselves, there would be no subsequent letters to assemblies of believers in Ephesus (or Philippi or anywhere else).  There would be no epistles, no Gospels, no New Testament - no Word whatsoever for the rest of us to hear and believe.  Obviously God would not have been so constrained by any such non-compliance with His Plan (Christ's last directive was to make disciples of all nations), but His Plan has always included His blessings being borne on the backs and lips of His people unto every nation and to the ends of earth.

-These others who have believed were all also sealed with the Holy Spirit.  And all they did was believe - there was no subsequent asking or some level of faith or piety to be attained.  They believed, and when they did God sealed them in Christ with His Holy Spirit.  The word refers to closing something up for security, possibly with an authenticating mark (cf Matthew 27.66, Revelation 20.3), and here it is in the aorist tense which means it has definitely happened already.  All those who trust in Christ are sealed with the Spirit, they are locked in for life, secure, and are marked out.  The presence and power of God’s Spirit in the life of a disciple of Christ is a distinguishing mark for all to see, AND it is also an integral part of the Plan.  This Spirit Who locks in is the same One Who gives God's people the power (and the words) with which to carry out the Plan (Acts 1.8).

-And this sealing is actually the fulfillment of a promise which God had made long before Paul wrote this letter and which was reiterated by His Son (cf Acts 2.33, John 7.37-39, Joel 2.28, Isaiah 44.3).  Not a new Plan, this, just new to the ears of a lost broken and dying world.  It is news, Good News.  Hope for the hopeless.  Peace and forgiveness.  And we are the News-casters... 

-Thus we have the Plan in a nutshell - saved, sealed, and spreading it to others.