True Belief ...

In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.
[Ephesians 1:13-14 NRSV]
      I believe that these two verses from the first chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians are complex in their construction as a single sentence. I will attempt to break them down in this brief reflection. I am praying that I will not make any mistakes.
      First, it is my understanding that the essence of this complex sentence is that, "In Jesus each of us is ... marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit." Each individual has a choice to make; we can accept Jesus, his teachings, and his examples or we can choose to ignore or disclaim them. If we choose to believe in both Jesus and his teachings; that is if we actually decide to live a life which is based on the teachings and the examples of Jesus, then we will become one who is marked "with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit." However, we should remember that our Creator has given us the most precious gift of all - Free Will.
      Second, it is also my belief that there is the implication within these words that we can also choose to not listen to "the word of truth, the gospel of (our) salvation". The implication here is that once again we have the freedom of choice; we can choose to believe that God has offered us a plan of true salvation, or we could seek another path that we believe will bring us greater happiness here upon this earth and even into the future of an unknown forever.
      Third, it would seem to me at this point that the author is once again pointing out that we need to make a choice. The reality is that we will make a choice; either we will choose to truly follow the teachings and examples of Jesus, or we will choose to turn our backs on these teachings and either follow some other plan or follow the teachings of the society we are living within in this present physical world. Of all of creation, humanity has been given the freedom of choice. We can choose to believe in the Creator and follow the teachings of Jesus, or we can choose some other path. The author is claiming that we will be recipients of "our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people"only if we are willing to faithfully follow the teachings and the examples of Jesus.