Paul speaks of the Spirit sealing believers in three texts (2 Cor. 1:21–22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30). While interpreters often associate this sealing with the down payment or guarantee of the Spirit, they tend to associate the “seal” with the Spirit himself as either a seal of authority or a pledge for full salvation. Others identify the seal with confirmation. And there are many other positions besides these.
My purpose here is not to dispute these conclusions but to point out how some Christians in the first centuries defined the seal of the Spirit as baptism itself.
In this article, then, I want to outline this historical position biblically and theologically and conclude by asking what such a view might mean for our baptismal practices today.
“Seal” in Scripture
The word “seal” in Scripture generally refers to a visible mark of ownership. As Mark Seifrid explains in his commentary on 2 Corinthians, “A ‘seal’ is a visible mark that signifies that a person or object is under the authority and protection of another.” And more concretely, it could be any sort of seal, such as a letter seal with the owner’s imprint upon it.
The term can be used in a variety of ways. Paul calls the Corinthians themselves the seal of his apostleship (1 Cor. 9:2). He also says circumcision was Abraham’s seal of righteousness by faith (Rom. 4:11). In Romans 15:28, Paul speaks of sealing the Greeks’ gift to the Jerusalemite Christians (though this does not come through in most English translations). So we can see that the NT writers use “seal” in a variety of ways.
The question we should ask then is not what does the word seal mean in general, but how does Paul associate the word seal with the Holy Spirit and baptism?
For example, Paul, in three places, identifies the seal as a key part of salvation, associated with the Spirit himself as our down payment:
- 2 Corinthians 1:21–22 (NIV): “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
- Ephesians 1:13–14 (NIV): “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
- Ephesians 4:30 (NIV): “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
Notice that in each case the seal associates closely with the Holy Spirit. Paul seems to identify the seal with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13–14) but clarifies that the Spirit in fact seals us. What seems clear in Paul’s thinking is that the Spirit and seal are very closely identified; the Spirit seals us.
That does not yet answer the question of how the seal relates to baptism. So what made some early Christians make that connection?
“Seal” in Irenaeus
As I have explained in my article, “How the Early Church Baptized,” Christians understood water baptism to be the seal. The water visibly sealed the baptized by the Spirit to show that God had saved them and that the Spirit indwelled them through Christ. Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 180 AD) clarifies how early Christians made this connection.
In his Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, Irenaeus lays out the Rule of Faith. In this summary of the Faith, Irenaeus points out that the Spirit seals us in baptism. In his own words, “baptism is the seal of eternal life and rebirth unto God, that we may no longer be sons of mortal men, but of the eternal and everlasting God” (Demonstration, section 3). Contextually, it is clear that the Spirit seals eternal life and rebirth to the believer.
And a little later, Irenaeus also points out, “the baptism of our regeneration (παλιγγενεσία) takes place through these three articles [Father, Son, and Spirit], granting us regeneration unto God the Father through his Son by the Holy Spirit” (Demonstration, section 7). He also maintains, “we have received baptism for the remission of sins” in the name of the Trinity (Demonstration, section 3).
Here, in conscious imitation of the apostles’ teaching, Irenaeus summarizes passages like:
- Acts 2:38: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
- Titus 3:5: “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”
On this point, it is important to recognize that Irenaeus asserts that his view of the seal of the Spirit is what the apostles taught.
He traces his insight into such things through his connections with the disciples of the apostles, naming one of them as Polycarp of Smyrna in his Against Heresies. Other early Christians also maintain a similar connection between the seal and baptism (Hermas, The Shepherd; Clement of Alexandria, Eclogae Propheticae; Tertullian, On Baptism; Cyprian, Epistles; Didascalia Apostolorum).
In short, Irenaeus reads passages that associate baptism with the reception of the Spirit, and he infers that baptism itself is a seal of the Spirit’s work within us. We might say that one is an outward seal (baptism) and the other an inward regeneration (Spirit).
Modern readers can struggle here. We should remember that, in the second century, Christians had not yet undergone prolonged debates about the timing and nature of baptism. So Irenaeus does not feel any need to articulate just how the seal, baptism, and Spirit correlate. They are, from his point of view, part of the whole scope of salvation.
“Seal” in Practice
Assuming for the sake of argument that second-century Christians like Irenaeus correctly made this association between baptism and the seal, what does that really mean? At one level, we cannot say for certain. And it is noteworthy that the normal practice in the 3rd and 4th centuries was to identify the seal in baptism as an act of chrismation (pouring oil over someone before/during baptism).
That could have been true also in the second century, but we have less evidence for this practice than we do in later centuries. It seems that in such early usage, the baptismal waters themselves were thought to seal the baptized. If so, we might wonder how that works with Paul’s notion that the Holy Spirit seals us.
The answer seems to be that baptism and the Holy Spirit go hand-in-hand in the New Testament. Obviously, baptism with the Holy Spirit is a major theme, and it marks Jesus’s baptism off from John’s baptism. But that does not mean Jesus’s baptism had no water; rather, John’s baptism only meant water, while Jesus’s baptism involved the Holy Spirit also
In other words, believers are baptized into water, which is associated with our baptism by the Spirit. Hence, Paul can say both “we were all baptized by one Spirit” and “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13; Titus 3:5). Notice that these two baptisms are associated but not always identical temporally. To illustrate the point, consider Acts 10 where Cornelius receives the Spirit before his water baptism.
As noted, early Christians did not have centuries of debates over baptism; they did not feel the need to carefully distinguish water and Spirit baptism. Instead, they generally associated them together in ways similar to the Apostles.
Were we to grant this view of the seal, then, we might say that baptism is the visible sign of the Spirit’s invisible work within us that tangibly shows God’s seal upon us and his promise to save in the gospel.
Conclusion
To be clear, I have not tried to argue that Irenaeus’s position here is correct. I only wanted to point out how normal it was for some Christians to make this connection in the early centuries. And, if we take Irenaeus’s word here, he calls his view of the seal part of the apostolic preaching.
I find it to be a reasonable reading of the Pauline passages. I grant that many other positions may be valid too. For example, the seal may not necessarily refer to the water but rather some aspect of the Spirit’s inner work within us.
That said, a seal is a visible imprint of ownership. So for the scriptural metaphor to work, the visible sign of water baptism is fitting. As a Baptist, I confess I also find this emphasis on the importance of baptism and the close association of the Spirit attractive because it supports my own biases.
