Earnest of our inheritance

That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 

In whom ye also trusted, after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 

Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory. Eph 1:12-14 

 

earnest — the first installment paid as a pledge that the rest will follow (Rom 8:23; 2Co 1:22).

until — rather, "Unto the redemption," etc.; joined thus, "ye were sealed (Eph 1:13) unto," that is, for the purpose of and against, the accomplishment of "the redemption," namely, not the redemption in its first stage, made by the blood of Christ, which secures our title, but, in its final completion, when the actual possession shall be ours, the full "redemption of the body" (Rom 8:23), as well as of the soul, from every infirmity (Eph 4:30). The deliverance of the creature (the body, and the whole visible creation) from the bondage of corruption, and from the usurping prince of this world, into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom 8:21-23; 2Pe 3:13).

of the purchased possession — God's people purchased ("acquired," Greek) as His peculiar (Greek) possession by the blood of Christ (Act 20:28). We value highly that which we pay a high price for; so God, His Church (Eph 5:25-26; 1Pe 1:18; 1Pe 2:9; "my special treasure," Mal 3:17, Margin).  (JFB)

 

The assurance of the Christian inheritance

How is the assurance of the spiritual inheritance to be attained? is one of the most vital questions of Christian life; and men conscious of its importance have variously endeavored to answer it. Is it by searching into our inward experiences that we become sure of the future kingdom, or by measuring our outward actions by the standards of spiritual morality? Are we to look for it in moments of peculiar ecstasy, or are there aspirations constantly present in the Christian soul which form Divine pledges of its reality? This question is one of great practical significance to us. Paul here gives us the answer—he speaks of the Holy Spirit sealing us with an earnest of the kingdom. Our subject, therefore, is, The assurance of the Christian inheritance: Its nature—"Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise"; Its necessity - "Until the redemption of the purchased possession."

I. Its nature.

1. The ground on which the certainty is founded. We have seen that Paul teaches that the promises given us by the Spirit are earnests of the future, and at once the question arises, How do we know that they are? By what right do we feel so sure that these hopes and aspirations of today are the infallible assurances of the kingdom of God tomorrow? At first sight, the ground of assurance may seem very doubtful. Every man has his dreams, his aspirations, which seem to him to be promises of what he might be, and every man has found out how often they are vain. Visions of the future haunt the child, and he imagines they will be realized, but as life advances they flee like shadows away. Many, perhaps most, men are afraid of the awful light which Hope throws on the dark future, and fear to trust the whisper she breathes within. The question, therefore, is most important: if, in actual life, we find these promises of hope so delusive, do they form any ground of assurance to the Christian? How separate the false from the true, or rely on such longings as earnests of a kingdom to come? That is a question we have a right to ask; and let us try to answer it clearly, because in reality there is one of the strongest grounds of assurance here. It is a great law that those deep and unconquerable longings of a man are earnests of what he might be; they are proofs of hidden power—flashes of sleeping capacity. What you long to be—so deeply that your longings become a very spirit of promise—you may be. Apply this to spiritual things. The longings of the Christian life are the promises and actual earnests of what we shall be, for they are the whispers of the Holy Spirit, who is omnipotent to realize the promises He utters. He creates longings for what He can and will bestow; and the expectation is the dawning of their fulfilment. Thus we have the assurance—the hope, the outflashing of hidden capacity, the germ of the hidden spirit life; and the longings and aspirations of the soul promising the future kingdom are the actual commencement and first-fruits of its glory.

2. We pass on to illustrate the manner in which this assurance rises in the soul. This inheritance of spiritual life consists of three great elements: love, power, blessedness.

(1) Love. And by Divine love I mean the firm conviction of God's love to us, and the answering love of the soul to Him; and we can only correspond to the love of the Infinite One by consecrating our natures to Him—by being filled with the love of the Father. This is our inheritance—the spiritual kingdom we seek for. It is a kingdom now. It robes life in splendor. It brings the glory of heaven into the soul.

(2) Power. There can be no spiritual kingdom until the soul is king in its own house. But the Holy Spirit gives might to dash aside temptation, to endure with strength equal to our day; and all this is but an earnest of what we shall be. Kings to God we shall become, by being priests over the sacrifice of our own selves.

(3) Blessedness, as a result of love and power. The Holy Spirit tells the soul of depths of bliss inconceivable, of which no tongue can speak—earnests are they all, assurances of the spiritual kingdom.

II. Its necessity. Mark again the words, "Until the redemption of the purchased possession." The inheritance is given, but not reached. Between the gift and its attainment there lies a long path of conflict, in which the old struggle between the flesh and the spirit reveals itself in three forms.

1. Sense against the soul. The body must be mastered, or it will master; its animalizing tendencies repressed, and brought into subjection.

2. The present against the future. We are constantly tempted to sell our heavenly birthright; to forget the eternal in the struggle for the temporal; to live carelessly here, for mere pleasure, regardless of our immortality.

3. Steadfast work against the roving propensities of the heart. We are ever prone to be discontented with the sphere in which God has placed us; to grow weary of the work which God has entrusted to us; to become faithless of the immortal harvest of spiritual toil; to despair, and to renounce the old quiet way of patient, persevering service to God. Therefore, until clothed with a spiritual body—until the temporal is changed for the eternal—we have need of the assurance of our eternal inheritance. "Grieve not," then, "the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."

(E. L. Hull, B. A.)

The Holy Spirit an earnest of our inheritance

I. In what respects the Spirit is an earnest to us.

1. A pledge of something yet future.

2. A part of something hereafter to be received in its entirety. As such the Spirit itself will never pass away from the possession of the Church. It is in itself a final end and supreme blessedness. But in another aspect of its presence and work it is only a part of what shall be. Powers (as of faith and holiness) are awakened and developed by its influence within us which do not belong to our bodily nature, but are the beginnings of a higher life, hereafter to be perfected in the presence of God. And it is one of a number of manifestations belonging to a new supernatural order or kingdom, whose completeness and glory are yet to be revealed (2Co 4:18; 2Co 5:5). Above all, it is "the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:4)—a consciousness which seems to open up infinite vistas of possibility (Rom 8:17; 1Jn 3:1-2). We are thus brought into universal relations, and are indissolubly linked with the eternal and Divine.

II. What effect it is intended to produce. The Gentile Christians were "sealed" with it, and were thus—

1. Separated from unbelievers. As circumcision was a seal to Abraham of the personal acceptance with God of which he had been already assured (Gen 15:6; Gen 15:18; Gen 17:11), so it became a seal to his children in the sense of separating them to God in covenant. In like manner the saints are said to be sealed with the name of the Lord (Rev 22:4; Rev 9:4), Something of the same general sense is conveyed by 2Ti 2:19. Christians are, by the indwelling of the Spirit, set apart, consecrated to God.

2. Confirmed in their own souls. By intensifying and rendering more vivid religious impressions and resolves, it seals believers "unto the day of redemption." (A. F. Muir, M. A.)

 

The earnest of our inheritance

An earnest is part of that which is to follow, and it is of the same kind as that of which it is the earnest. The earnest is not withdrawn. In this it differs from a pledge or bond. A pledge or bond is restored or cancelled when it is fulfilled. God's promise and oath are His pledges to His people, and they shall never be withdrawn till He has fulfilled His word. But the Holy Ghost given is the earnest of our inheritance; and he who gives an earnest pledges his faithfulness to give the rest. For this reason the earnest of the Spirit is called "the first fruits of the Spirit." Now, the first fruits of the harvest were a part, sample, and earnest of the harvest which would follow. The first fruits, moreover, consecrated the coming harvest for the use of God's people. The Holy Ghost is the earnest from God to us of His inheritance in us; and He is, also, the earnest to us of our inheritance in God. Now where the Spirit of the Lord is, the fruits of the Spirit follow. "As many as received Him." Notice, all is in the receiving. It is not something we have to do or to suffer, but only to receive: "to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." "And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal 4:6). We probably repeat the Lord's Prayer daily. We call Him Father, alas! often without apprehending that He is our Father. Let us not mock God. Believers have a rich, mighty, loving Father; and if we, being evil, know how to give good things to our children, how much more will He "give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" God first sends the life of His Son into the soul, and then the spirit of His Son into that soul. First God the Holy Ghost gives us to believe, and then He seals us as believers. He first gives us the seal of the Spirit, and then He makes the sealing Spirit to be the earnest of our inheritance. When we seal a document we remove the instrument that makes the impression; but when God seals it is altogether different, for He leaves the instrument with which He seals the soul to be the earnest of the inheritance "until the redemption of the purchased possession." This earnest of the Spirit is not only our security, but also our ability for the enjoyment of our inheritance in faith here and in fruition hereafter. When the Holy Ghost is the earnest of our inheritance, everything of the believer's is sealed unto the day of redemption. Our Head has been sealed. He is the head of all principality and power. "Him hath God the Father sealed" (Joh 6:27). He is our life, our title, our representative, our wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. The foundation on which we rest is sealed. "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His, and, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2Ti 2:19). (M. Rainsford, B. A.)