Have you ever had to reserve something for a future date, like a wedding venue? Or have you ever decided on the purchase of something very valuable, like a house? No doubt that the seller required that you leave a sizable deposit as proof of your intention to come back for the item. No doubt you, as the buyer, considered very carefully whether you really wanted this particular house or venue, since the amount of the deposit alone came at great cost to you. And leaving a deposit made you feel secure, because then the item would legally be kept in safekeeping for you and not given away to anyone else.
The Bible says that on those that have accepted Christ as Lord, God places his seal of ownership. You now belong to Him! That is something you can rejoice over! And in order to “reserve” you for Himself, God has placed a deposit in you, which is called the Holy Spirit. Yes, that Holy Spirit, as in “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” the one that helps to make up the entity we know as God. You’ve got part of Him living in you—and He’s going to want it back. Therefore, you can rest safe in the knowledge that God will never forget about you or leave you behind. His deposit in you is extremely valuable.
How valuable? Before we answer that, let’s consider some important facts that we already know to be true. You know that the only way you can stand in the presence of God and have eternal joyful life with Him in heaven is if you are pure and absent of any sin. And you know that you blew that chance a long time ago. You’ve committed lots of intentional wrongs—sins—and could never stand in the presence of God on your own merits. The sin in you is like radioactive taint—you can’t get rid of it on your own, because dirty can’t clean up dirty. How do you clean up radioactive waste? You don’t. You bury it in the ground forever, and that’s what was in store for you too. But God loved you too much to leave you consigned to a grave forever. So He sent a Savior in the person of His Son, Jesus. His execution, in place of yours, was how you could be liberated from that grave. If you accepted His help, he would be buried instead of you, and your radioactivity would be cleaned from you forever. And God would be overjoyed, because you could now live with Christ and your Heavenly Father on a new earth eternally.
Back to our question...how valuable was that deposit God left for you? Let’s consider. Think of the person living down the street from you. You may know him well, you may not. Let’s assume that he is a decent, upstanding individual. If he was arrested today and put in jail for some crime, would you go to a judge and beg the judge to put your son or daughter in prison in exchange for your neighbor? If he was condemned to death, would you arrange for your son or daughter be traded to spare his life?
I thought not. And yet, this is the measure of the love that God has for you, that He willingly let His own son, who’d done no wrong, be arrested and executed just to spare you. Think of the enormity of that sacrifice—losing a good Child to save a bad one: you. You are not even capable of the love God has already demonstrated for you. So even though you have fallen short, try to imagine the value you have to God. You are not “worthless.” God has deemed you so valuable that he traded a Child for you. God has a left a deposit in you, and He will always come and claim you. You are His child now, and He will bring you to join the rest of your heavenly family in due time. Know Whose you are, and never again believe the lie that you are no one special!
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“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.” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”