Chapter 2:  The Indwelling Spirit: A Foretaste of Glory 

The Apostle Paul uses three striking figures of speech when he describes the indwelling Spirit. All three of these figures suggest that God has given us the Holy Spirit as a kind of first installment of the glory He has prepared for us. Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit as a seal, as a down payment, and as first fruits of a future harvest. I want us to take note that none of these metaphors would make sense unless the presence of the Spirit in us is something we can know and experience. We are not left to believe that we have the Holy Spirit; we can know it. All three metaphors suggest that what we have now is evidence and proof that we belong to God and are in line for His future blessing.

A SEAL:  Let us first look at the figure of the sealing of believers by the Holy Spirit. 

II Corinthians. 1:21-22:  “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.” 

Paul uses two figures here—the figure of the Holy Spirit as a seal, and as a deposit, or down payment. But I now want to focus only on the metaphor of a seal.  Paul says that God “has also set His seal upon us, and has put His Spirit into our hearts.”  What does Paul mean by speaking of the Holy Spirit as a seal. What does a seal do?  What purpose does it serve?  Well, a seal is first and foremost a symbol of ownership. In Paul’s day a person sealed a document or letter with wax and pressed his personal symbol, often on a signet ring, onto the warm wax. The print of the symbol on the wax identified the author of the letter or document. For example, the seal of the emperor gave a document the highest authority and authenticity. In the same way the indwelling Holy Spirit is proof that we are Christians, that we belong to Christ: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ,” Paul said in Romans 8:9; and in Romans 8:16 he said, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”  A witness is no good unless he can be heard and the testimony of the Spirit is nothing if it cannot be experienced.

Ephesians 1:13:  “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” 

The giving of the Holy Spirit at regeneration indicates that God claims us as His possessions and keeps us safe. The seal is a kind of guarantee of, and preparation for, the future day of redemption:  

Ephesians 4:30:  “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” 

II Timothy 2:19: “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are his,’ and, ‘Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.’” 

The present possession of the Holy Spirit tells us that we belong to God and that He will preserve and protect us until the Day of Redemption.  God knows who belongs to Him because He has sealed them with the indwelling Holy Spirit. A particularly striking passage is found in Revelation chapter 7, where God’s own people are sealed for their protection. 

Revelation 7:1-3:  “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.  2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”  The seal showed who belonged to Christ and who did not. 

In chapter 9, verse 4, the locusts “were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their forehead.” 

So we see that in giving the Holy Spirit God has set His mark on us to distinguish us as His own and to protect us until He returns and we share in His glory. 

A DOWN PAYMENT:  Now let us look at the scriptures that speak of the Holy Spirit as an earnest of future expectations. We use various expressions for money put down up front as a promise to pay the whole amount and to secure the object of purchase. We speak of “earnest-money,” of a “down-payment,” or maybe a “first installment.” a “pledge” or “deposit.” All of these terms speak of a partial payment of something to be paid in full at a future date. This aspect of the Holy Spirit is most clearly illustrated in Ephesians 1:13-14:  

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession — to the praise of his glory.” 

Here we have the exact meaning of the Greek word, a pledge of our inheritance in anticipation of our full redemption. Take note that a pledge, while it is not the full amount due, is still money in hand.  It is money we can spend. It is not everything, but it is something.  God has promised us immeasurable blessings when He returns. But until He comes back, bringing with Him our full inheritance, which is reserved in heaven for us, He has placed His Holy Spirit in us as a deposit, a pledge, a down-payment on the full blessing.” 

II Corinthians. 1:21-22:  “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” The Holy Spirit is an earnest and sample of our future blessedness. 

II Cor. 5:5: “Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” 

It is something we can experience here and now as a guarantee of that future glory. If there were no tangible results of the gift of the Holy Spirit, it would be no proof or guarantee of anything. For the Holy Spirit to be a deposit, a down payment, it must be something we can spend, so to speak, something that we realize in our experience.

FIRST FRUITS:  Now let us look at the scriptures that speak of the Holy Spirit as first fruits as the promise of a future harvest. Under the Law of Moses the people were told to offer the first yield of every harvest to the LORD. As every farmer or gardener knows, each year a few figs or grapes or ears of grain, or tomatoes, or beans come in early. The first ears of corn, or the first grapes tell us the full harvest is near. The Jewish people brought these “first-fruits” to the priests and Levites for their use. Again it was only a relatively small amount of produce, but it was real and available for food. 

Romans 8:18-23:  “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” 

We find that the renovation of the earth was a repeated theme in the Old Testament and it other Jewish literature.  In Genesis 3:17 God had cursed the ground because of Adam’s sin.  Since God had placed Adam in dominion over the earth, the earth participated in Adam’s Fall: 

Genesis 3:17-19: “To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”  The physical Creation is cursed because of Adam’s sin.  

Paul puts it this way: “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it.” God has linked His physical Creation with His human creatures. As they fell, the rest of Creation fell; as they are redeemed, the rest of Creation is redeemed. Just as all sin, sickness, death, and destruction came into the life of mankind by that sin, so also all natural disorder, destruction, all noxious, dangerous and pestilent natural phenomena came into being with the Fall. But God is going to restore everything when Christ returns.  

Acts 3:19-21:  “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be

wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you — even Jesus. 21 He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” 

In the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22, we see all of result of the fall totally reversed.  That ancient curse is lifted from the earth. 

Revelation 22:1-4:  “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”  The old heaven and the old earth come into their inheritance only as man, their master, comes into his. 

But Paul says that the Holy Spirit is the first fruits of our future redemption. We have in the Holy Spirit a “pledge and a foretaste” of our coming glory. In the Holy Spirit we have a taste of that coming renovation of the nature. In the age to come we have the fulfillment of all the glorious promises of God for those who love Him. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9). But through the Holy Spirit we can have a foretaste of the “powers of the age to come.” (Hebrews 6:5). 

Now let us look at some of the ways the gift of the Holy Spirit is a pledge and a foretaste of the age to come. 

· In the age to come there will be no sin; in the present age the Holy Spirit is the agent of our sanctification.

· In the age to come we will be like Christ and we will see Him as He is; in the present age the Holy Spirit is changing us into His image from one degree of glory to another.

· In the age to come we will live in glorified bodies free from pain, sickness, and death; in this present age the “gifts of the Spirit” include “gifts of healings,” and “miracles”; we have healing in answer to the “prayer of faith.”

· In the age to come we will “know even as we are known”; in the present age we “know in part” through “words of knowledge,” “words of wisdom,” and “prophecy,” and especially through the Bible, which came about through the agency of the Holy Spirit. 

The most convincing proof that we belong to Christ will always be the NEW LIFE of the Spirit, which we receive at regeneration. And last, but not least, Paul says: “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

Let us pray:  We thank you, Lord, that you have given us the Holy Spirit as your seal upon us to let us know we are yours. We thank you for the Spirit as a pledge of our future inheritance. And we thank you for the refreshing first-fruits of the Spirit that gives us a FORETASTE of our future bliss. Make us more sensitive to your Spirit; help us to get acquainted with Him, and make Him our friend and guide.   Amen.

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