An – God’s Seal of Approval 1: 15-22

God’s Seal of Approval
1: 15-22

God’s seal of approval DIG: What was Paul being accused of? Who led the charge against him? What does ADONAI guarantee through the Ruach Ha’Kodesh? What is His seal of approval? Why is that important? What does Paul mean when he says the God’s promises are “Yes” in Messiah? Corinth was the commercial center of the Roman Empire. What do the metaphors in 1:22 indicate what Yeshua has done for believers?

REFLECT: What does Paul’s example mean to you in terms of how you relate to others? What does it mean that Yeshua is the “Yes” of God’s promises to you? What have you promised to God? What has He promised to you? Can you keep all the promises you make to God or other people? Can God keep all of His promises to you? How would you paraphrase the “business deal” of 1:22 into today’s terms? How have you experienced this type of spiritual “new deal.”

ADONAI has set His seal of approval upon us,
and given us His Spirit in our hearts guaranteeing everything He has promised us.

When you think about the criticisms that had been leveled at Paul in Corinth, they seem quite trivial. First, they picked at him for changing his travel plans (to see link click Al – Change of Plans). In his first letter he had mentioned that it was his plan to come by land through Macedonia and then to visit them. Evidently they had understood that he was coming to them first, and were upset at what seemed to them a change of plans. In their childlike behavior they had completely forgotten that Paul had qualified his plans with the words: I am hoping to spend some time with you if he Lord allows it (First Corinthians 16:7).⁴⁷

The subject of Paul’s visits is taken up intermittently throughout his letter – here, 2:1-2 and 12-13, 7:5-7, 8:16-24, 12:14 and 13:1. More than any other of his letters, he does not progress straight from one subject to next, but constantly moves back and forth in his writing between distance and presence, past and future, advice and praise, comfort and warning, abstraction and detail, theology and practice, reverence and irony, a firm hand and kid gloves. The effect is to create a many-layered texture of humanness.⁴⁸

Paul begins by outlining the travel plans he had intended to follow before his plans changed, as well as his motivation for those initial plans. At the time of the writing of First Corinthians, during the previous calendar year, Paul outlined his plans for a visit to Corinth, which would coincide with the Corinthians’ finalization of the collection for the poor Jews in Jerusalem. He would leave Ephesus after Shavu’ot (in the spring), travel through Macedonia during the summer and fall, and arrive in Corinth, where he would spend the winter before being sent on his way to Jerusalem (First Corinthians 17:5-6).

As things turned out, however, he made an unscheduled visit to Corinth beforehand, which resulted in pain for both him and the Corinthians (see Ao – Paul’s Painful Visit). It was probably during this visit that he changed his plans, confident of the Corinthians’ understanding of him. At the time he felt the Corinthians would give him the benefit of the doubt on such a change, especially since it would involve the benefit of two visits instead of one. Reflecting on his original plans, he now writes: So sure was I of this that I had planned to come and see you, so that you might have the benefit of a second visit. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, visit you again on my way back from Macedonia, and then have you send me on my way to Y’hudah (1:15-16). The implication being that the second visit would be more pleasant, and for a longer period of time than his brief and painful visit.⁴⁹

But Paul enemies, led by the false apostles (see Af – The Problem of the False Apostles), pounced on this minor change in travel plans and accused him of not being trustworthy and being double-minded. They ridiculously, but apparently with some success, argued that if Paul’s statements about his travel plans were untrustworthy, why should the Corinthians believe anything that came out of his mouth. However, Paul was not two-faced. His circumstances had changed, but not his heart attitude. Here Paul affirms that he is loyal to his flock.⁵⁰ His travel plans had been overruled by ADONAI, whom he followed without hesitation.

Paul categorially deines that his change of travel plans was due to any flaw in his character. His plans were made for their benefit (1:15); therefore, they were not made lightly. Did I make these plans lightly? Or do I make plans the way a worldly man does, ready to say, “Yes, yes,” and “No, no,” in the same breath (1:17)? He did say one thing and do another, but that didn’t mean he was indifferent to them, that he made his plans without thinking, or that he was irresponsible. He goes on to explain that his shift in plans was made after the painful visit, with them in mind. The apostle simply didn’t want to cause them any more sorrow. Nevertheless, at least some of the Corinthians denounced him for lacking integrity.

Paul then strategically begins to shift the focus from his own trustworthiness to the trustworthiness of ADONAI. As surely as God is trustworthy, we don’t say “Yes” when we mean “No” (1:18)! The apostle uses these same words at two other places in the Corinthian correspondence (First Corinthians 1:9 and 10:13). It’s as if Paul is saying, “With God as my witness,” thus appealing strongly to YHVH as the One before whom he lives with integrity, pointing to Him as the ultimate witness of his motives and actions. Therefore, Paul does not respond to doubts about his character by saying, “Trust me! I know what I’m doing and it’s for your own good.” Rather, he says in effect, “Trust God, His promises have been fulfilled in Messiah, and our trustworthiness in dealing with you has been guaranteed by our preaching Messiah to you.”⁵¹

So Paul confidently asserted: For the Son of God, the Messiah Yeshua, who was proclaimed among you through us – that is, through the preaching of me and Sila (Silas, Silvanus in Acts 15:22) and Timothy during Paul’s Second Missionary Journey (see the commentary on Acts Cc – Many Respond to the Good News in Corinth). This Word of the gospel was not filled with contradictions or wracked with uncertainty, with God giving a promise one minute and taking it back in the next. Rather, the word of promise, that word of which Yeshua is the heart, the Author, the content, the subject, the perfecter and the relational goal, has been answered with Him a resounding “Yes!” It is always “Yes” with Him. That is why it is through Him that we say the “Amen,” in effect our “Yes,” when we give glory to God (1:19-20b)!⁵²

Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You that Your promises are all one-hundred percent trustworthy. You never get too busy to forget a promise. You are never too sick or too tired to help. Your love is always operating at one hundred percent all the time, and is matched by Your perfect omniscience – knowing all about the problem and all about the best way to solve it. You are a God who desires to bless and to guide me. Your promise to always be with me – in good and in hard times, during the day, and all night long, is so comforting to me. For God Himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

Praise You that any where in the world that I go, You are always right there with me. If I go up to heaven, You are there, and if I make my bed in Sheol, look, You are there too. If I take the wings of the dawn and settle on the other side of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me (Psalms 139:8-10). It is such a comfort that when it is dark and I don’t know where to go or what to do, You see with the light of the future because nothing is dark to You. If I say, “Surely darkness covers me, night keeps light at a distance from me,” even darkness is not dark for You, and night is as bright as day – darkness and light are alike (Psalms 139:11-12). Your “Yes” is trustworthy! I love to trust, worship and obey You. Thank You for being my promise-keeping, wonderful heavenly Father! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen

For however many promises God has made, they all find their “Yes” in connection with Yeshua (1:20a). Sometimes He fulfills them in His own Person, “He has become wisdom for us” (First Corinthians 1:30); He is the last Adam, so that His resurrection is guaranteed (First Corinthians 15; Romans 5:12-21). More than that, YHVH fulfills all His other promises through Him, because He embodies the fulness of the Trinity (Colossians 2:9), YHVH accomplishes everything through Him (John 1:1-5; Colossians 1:16-18; Heb 1:1-3).

Replacement theologians, who teach the traditional but mistaken doctrine that the Church has replaced the Jews as God’s people, misuse this verse. They say that since God’s promises find their “Yes” in connection with Yeshua, and Yeshua came two thousand years ago, “all the Old Testament promises have, in some mystical sense, already been fulfilled in Messiah, so that none remain for the Jews.” But the verse doesn’t say or mean that all the promises have already been fulfilled in, through, or by Yeshua. He is the instrument through whom God the Father has fulfilled, is fulfilling, and will fulfill every promise He has ever made to the Jewish people – including the promise that they will return from the diaspora to possess and live in the Land of Isra’el, the promise that the Kingdom will be restored, with the Son of David, Yeshua Ha’Meshiach, on the throne ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. Therefore, this verse, quite the opposite of saying that the Church has replaced the Jews in God’s future plans, assures us that YHVH wil fulfill every single one of His promises to the Jews (see the commentary on Romans Cn – The Centrality of Isra’el in the plan of ADONAI), and must not be turned into a pretext for cancelling them! Because, in the view of Replacement theologians, all the promises of YHVH made in the TaNaKh to the Jews have already found their “Yes” in Yeshua, they must necessarily regard as a fluke the existence of the State of Isra’el and the fact that a third of the Jews in the world now live there. For them this is a mere coincidence that no connection with prophecy fulfillment! ⁵³

Next we can see why Paul introduced the idea of the trustworthiness of Messiah, the One in whom ADONAI promises find their “Yes.” For it is in trustworthy Messiah that Paul and his co-workers have been established and anointed by YHVH as messengers of the gospel, and it was through Messiah that the Corinthians had received the seal of the Ruach. Simply put, Paul’s answer to those who said he was wishy-washy because of the change in his travel plans, is that God’s work in his life guaranteed the trustworthiness of what he said. So to explain the nature of this work of Ha’Shem in his life, Paul introduces us to four important words.

First, moreover, it is God who establishes (Greek: bebaioo, meaning to establish, to confirm, or to walk where it is fully reliable) believers in Messiah at salvation (1:21a). This is the saving grace that puts believers into a firm union with the Messiah (Romans 8:1, 16:11-3; First Corinthians 1:30, 3:1, 7:22; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:8; Colossians 1:2 and 28, 4:7) and with each other. Paul’s truthfulness could not be separated from that of the Corinthians, and to deny it was to deny the reality of their own spiritual life. Because they were fellow members of the body of Messiah, by attacking Paul’s truthfulness, the Corinthians ripped the fabric of the church’s spiritual unity. As their spiritual father (First Corinthians 4:15), to deny his truthfulness was, figuratively, to saw off the branch on which they were sitting.⁵⁴

Second, He has anointed (Greek: chrio, meaning to commission them for service) us (1:21b). Chiro is found in four other places in the B’rit Chadashsh, once in Hebrews 1:9, “O God, Your God has set You [Messiah] above Your companions [the angels] by anointing You with the oil [the Ruach Ha’Kodesh] of joy (Hebrews 1:8-9 quoting Psalm 45:6-7 CJB). And three times in the writings of Luke (Luke 4:18; Acts 4:27 and 10:38), where he uses it twice quite explicitly with respect to the anointing of the Ruach, and arguably it is implied in the third. Given the emphasis on the Spirit in the present context it is best to see here a reference to Paul and his collogues having been anointed by the Ruach, recognizing that their commission is intimately bound up with that. The related noun chrisma describes the anointing of all believers at the moment of faith into one body (First Corinthians 12:13).⁵⁵

Third, He has put His seal upon us (Greek: sphragizo, which signifies ownership and the full authority of its owner). In commercial documents it is the sealing of letters and sacks so the nobody could tamper with the contents. Used figuratively, to seal means to keep secret or stamp with a mark of identification (see the commentary on Revelation Cr – Then I Heard the Number of Those Who Were Sealed, 144,000 from all the Tribes of Isra’el). In Ephesians 1:13b-14a, Paul would say, “You were sealed with the promised Ruach Ha’Kodesh who guarantees our future inheritance.” Here, as in Ephesians 4:30 and Second Timothy 2:19, it refers believers’, stamped with God’s seal of approval, receiving the indwelling Ruach (Romans 8:9), whose presence identifies them as ADONAI’s true and eternal possession, whom He will protect and keep.⁵⁶

Fourth, and He has given us His Spirit in our hearts guaranteeing (Greek: arrabon, meaning a down payment or a deposit, the first installment) everything He has promised us (1:22), even eternal life (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer). Paul develops this idea in Ephesians 5:25-27, where the Church is portrayed as the bride-to-be and Messiah as the expected bridegroom. On His return they will be married. Meanwhile, the Church is in the process of being cleansed through the Word, so that she might be presented to Messiah as a radiant bride without spot or blemish.⁵⁷

Some people think that ADONAI is like a cosmic killjoy whose favorite word is “No!” But nothing could be further from the truth. God’s favorite word is “Yes.” Now, it doesn’t mean He condones sinful behavior, but He greatest desire is to say “Yes” to us. YHVH has made over eight thousand promises to you in the Bible and every one of those promises is “Yes.” Here are five promises that every believer should claim. We all claim different promises at different times in our lives. That’s human nature as we go through different circumstances. There is a promise for whatever you are going through in God’s Word.

God loves you unconditionally. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor other heavenly rulers, neither what exits nor what is coming, neither powers above nor powers below, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which comes to us through the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). How do we know that God loves us unconditionally, because First John 4:16 says: God is love. How do we know? Because the Bible says: For God so loved the world that He gave His only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in Him may have eternal life (John 3:16). But how do we really know? Because God’s Word says that God demonstrates His own love for us in that Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).

God loves you unconditionally, just the way you are. You don’t have to clean yourself up. You don’t have to fix yourself. You don’t have to get new clothes, you don’t have to get your tattoo removed. He loves you just as you are. But here is the other side of the coin. But God loves you too much to leave you like you are. When you come to Him, He is going to mold you into His image. He is going to transform you into the likeness of Messiah. He is going to make you a little more like Yeshua each and every day.

Since you have trusted in Yeshua, you are eternally secure in Him. Everyone who calls on the name of ADONAI will be saved (Romans 10:13). ADONAI is not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (Second Peter 3:9). How do I know that? Because God’s Word promises it. If I raise my eyes to the hills, from where will my help come? My help comes from ADONAI,the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip – your Guardian is not asleep. No, the Guardian of Isra’el never slumbers or sleeps. ADONAI is your Guardian; at your right hand ADONAI provides you with shade – the sun can’t strike you during the day or even the moon at night. ADONAI will guard you against all harm; He will guard your life. ADONAI will guard your coming and going from now on and forever (Psalm 121:1-8). How do I know that? Because First John 5:11 says: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Those who have the Son have the life (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer).

God formed you intentionally and He knows you intimately. For you formed my inmost being, You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I thank You because I am awesomely made, wonderfully; Your works are wonders – I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from You when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes could see me as an embryo, but in Your book all my days were already written; my days had been shaped before any of them existed (Psalm 139:13-16). God formed you in His image and intentionally made you to have a relationship with Him. And He knows you imtimately: Examine me, God, and know my heart; test me, and know my thoughts. See if there is in me any hurtful way, and lead me along the eternal way (Psalm 139:23-24). You need to know something about God. There is not public life and private life with Him. He knows everything about you. He knows your thoughts. He not only knows what you do, He knows why you did it. There is not anything that you can tell God about what you’re going through and what you’re feeling that He doesn’t already know. So be honest with Him.

God has a plan for your life. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). The original context of this passage is from Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC (see the commentary on Jeremiah Ej – A Letter to the Exiles). But we can make an application to us today because the Bible says that our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20) and we are strangers, in effect, aliens and temporary residents on the earth (Hebrews 11:13b; First Peter 2:11a). God has formed you with a purpose. When you call to me and pray to Me, I will listen to you. When you seek Me, you will find Me, when you search for Me with all of your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).

You can do all things through Messiah. We are all human and there are times when we feel weak and don’t think that you can put one foot in front of the other. But God’s promise is that you can do all things through Messiah who gives you strength (Philippians 4:13). What then are we to say to these things? Think of all the profound questions to which God says “Yes.” Do you love me? Am I forgiven? Am I secure in Your love? Is there any purpose for my life? Is there life beyond the grave? To all these questions and more, God answers with an everlasting “Yes!” For if God is for us, who can be against us (Romans 5:31)?⁵⁸