Dale Partridge - March 06, 2023


Clarifying the Signs and Seals of God - Dale Partridge

Hosted by
Dale Partridge
Mentioned
Abraham Paul Holy Spirit
What Is The Purpose of the Sacraments？ - Dale Partridge What's the Difference Between Faith & Works？ - Dale Partridge

Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

153.92

Word count

1,370

Sentence count

74

Harmful content

Hate speech

9

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we discuss the difference between a sign and a seal, and how they can be used in the Old Testament and the New Testament. What is a seal and what is a sign? Is there a difference between spiritual and physical baptism?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Paul's focus throughout his ministry is to communicate that no person, Jew or Gentile,
00:00:06.440 is saved by works, but they're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
00:00:10.680 And so he's what I would call a theological clarifier. He's not introducing any new theology
00:00:18.720 or even doctrine. He's simply explaining the doctrines that have already been present,
00:00:24.700 whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament. And I'll clarify what I mean by that is that
00:00:29.000 Paul isn't bringing in new gospel theology.
00:00:33.140 No, that Jesus brought in the gospel,
00:00:34.900 the story of his life and his work on the cross
00:00:37.880 and his passion ministry and his resurrection.
00:00:40.560 Paul's ministry and the apostles' ministry
00:00:42.020 is just to explain what happened
00:00:44.060 and how it connects to the Old Testament
00:00:46.400 and how it connects to his second coming.
00:00:49.220 And so Paul's a theological clarifier
00:00:51.920 and circumcision here, as he's explaining, never saved.
00:00:57.700 It had never a purpose to save.
00:01:00.300 And again, the question that becomes, what is the purpose?
00:01:02.240 We'll talk about that here in a minute.
00:01:03.440 Verse 11 says, quote,
00:01:05.400 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal
00:01:08.280 of the righteousness that he had by faith 0.75
00:01:11.780 while he was still uncircumcised.
00:01:14.260 The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe 0.89
00:01:17.060 without being circumcised
00:01:18.240 so that righteousness would be counted to them as well. 0.91
00:01:21.300 So circumcision was an outward sign and seal
00:01:25.340 to Abraham. Actually, I'll say it this way. It was an outward sign to seal to Abraham the 0.73
00:01:33.880 righteousness that he was given by faith 14 years prior. So it was a sign that sealed to him
00:01:42.660 that certified or validated or confirmed to him what had been done 14 years prior. And so
00:01:50.420 So when we talk about a sign and a seal, I want to just bring some more clarity there.
00:01:57.540 A seal is that it authorized or authenticated to Abraham that the righteous standing to him
00:02:07.640 that was given to him by faith was now ceremonially confirmed to him.
00:02:14.720 Ultimately, circumcision covenantally sealed.
00:02:17.500 They entered into this covenant there that God would be Abraham's God and that Abraham and his descendants would be God's people.
00:02:24.520 And so there was a ceremonial reality that occurred from the promise and the imputation of faith that happened many years before.
00:02:33.300 And so it was the formalization of the promise made to Abraham.
00:02:36.940 And if his imputation was, for example, like a betrothal, then the circumcision was memorialization of the wedding.
00:02:46.820 And so this concept of a seal as certification or authentication,
00:02:52.800 it's not limited to Abraham, actually.
00:02:55.460 We can see this God-sealed Jesus.
00:02:58.500 We see this in John 6, 27.
00:03:00.700 Jesus says, quote,
00:03:01.660 Do not work for the food that perishes,
00:03:04.660 but for the food that endures to eternal life,
00:03:07.580 which the Son of Man will give to you.
00:03:09.640 For on him, God the Father has set his seal.
00:03:14.340 And so this is referring to the audible words of God, the voice of God, authenticating Jesus as
00:03:23.200 his son during his baptism, if you just look at that passage in context. And so God gave Jesus
00:03:29.660 his seal of confirmation. So there's some other language there, but a seal can also refer to a
00:03:36.020 mark of ownership. And that's another way to look at that. I think that's helpful. Ephesians 1, 13
00:03:42.140 through 14. It says, in him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
00:03:48.680 salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee
00:03:54.720 of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. All right, so
00:04:01.040 farmers often brand their animals to provide a way of identification among whose animal is whose,
00:04:10.160 Right? Circumcision and baptism also act as a seal in this manner to identify ownership. It's God's seal put upon your physical body. In the Old Testament, we have the circumcision of the flesh, which is a seal on the flesh. And we also have circumcision of the heart, or, you know, spiritual circumcision, if you will, which is a seal on the soul. That's the seal of the Holy Spirit.
00:04:38.820 In the New Testament, we have baptism of the flesh and we have baptism of the spirit.
00:04:45.380 And the baptism of the spirit is really a spiritual baptism means you're born again.
00:04:49.700 So whether you're Presbyterian or Baptist, we have Baptists who aren't saved and we have
00:04:55.700 Presbyterians who have been baptized who aren't saved.
00:04:57.860 And so the reality is, is a physical baptism doesn't save you.
00:05:01.340 You do need to be spiritually baptized in the same way that an Old Testament saint would
00:05:07.440 need to be physically circumcised, but they would also need to be spiritually circumcised.
00:05:12.820 And so ultimately, God commands us to put on physical signs and seals to signify the spiritual
00:05:21.320 truths that have been promised to us. Now, circumcision was also a sign. And I want to
00:05:26.160 talk about how that's distinguished between a seal. It was a sign in that it was a visual mark
00:05:31.720 of the promise that God made to Abraham. In a real sense, it was a physical mark that brought
00:05:36.420 about spiritual assurance to Abraham. It also brought about spiritual assurance to Abraham's
00:05:42.380 descendants that God would fulfill the promises made to Abraham. And so, it was, again, a visual
00:05:48.520 reminder of a spiritual truth. So, physically speaking, circumcision symbolized the human
00:05:54.400 sinfulness and guilt that comes through man's seed and how that guilt was cut off for those
00:06:00.160 who were the true seed of Abraham by faith.
00:06:04.140 So if the physical sealing was to point to the need
00:06:07.920 of a savior or the spiritual sealing,
00:06:12.000 the physical sign was to aid in reminding us
00:06:14.940 of the spiritual promise.
00:06:16.980 And so again, the seal talks about this certification
00:06:21.560 and validation and pointing us to the need
00:06:24.380 of spiritual sealing.
00:06:27.160 We need that reality. 0.73
00:06:29.080 we need that spiritual circumcision, we need that spiritual baptism. The physical sign was to aid in 0.96
00:06:34.360 reminding us of that spiritual promise that was given to us as God's people, as children of Abraham
00:06:40.240 by faith, or specifically here, if we're talking in the Old Testament, as the lineage, the physical
00:06:45.880 lineage of Abraham. So this is why chapter 27 in the Westminster Confession says, quote,
00:06:51.180 sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God to
00:06:57.340 represent Christ and his benefits and to confirm our interest in him as also to put a visible
00:07:04.460 difference between those that belong unto the church and the rest of the world and solemnly
00:07:09.440 to engage them to the service of God in Christ according to his word. Okay, so again, the question
00:07:15.160 that Paul is attempting to answer on behalf of his readers, remember he's anticipating their
00:07:19.880 objections or questions, is if salvation is by faith and not by circumcision, what's the purpose
00:07:26.740 of circumcision. And Paul gives this twofold answer, right? Number one, it's a sign and it's
00:07:32.660 a seal given to Abraham after he had faith and was imputed righteousness so that he would be
00:07:41.280 the father of all who are uncircumcised. And he would also be the father of those who are
00:07:47.440 circumcised. That means they're Jewish, came through Israel, but actually were spiritually
00:07:53.520 circumcised as well. And so it says in verse 12, and to make him the father of the circumcised who
00:08:01.300 are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham
00:08:05.620 had before he was circumcised. So Abraham was circumcised after he had been saved for the
00:08:12.280 specific purpose of him being the father of all future Gentile believers who were saved without
00:08:21.260 circumcision. And this is the big and, right? It's the coordinating conjunction. It's showing 0.69
00:08:28.180 two equal sides. And he would become the father of all future elect Jews or elect Israelites 0.82
00:08:35.240 who were circumcised physically, but were not just circumcised physically, but were also 0.79
00:08:41.180 circumcised at the heart. So essentially, Paul is saying that Abraham is not the father of just
00:08:47.720 the circumcision. No, he's the father of the faith for both the circumcised and the uncircumcised.