The believer's earnest of his Divine inheritance.
The Spirit is the earnest—the sample as well as pledge of future blessedness. It is now we see the purpose of the seal. It is because the Spirit is an earnest of our inheritance that his indwelling is a seal. The earnest is the same in kind with the prospective inheritance. It is "the inheritance in miniature." It is a sample of the stock, a pledge that all the rest will come in due time. The indwelling of the Spirit is part of the blessings of redemption, and a security for our enjoying the rest. Therefore it is called "the firstfruits of the Spirit." Three times does the word "earnest" occur in the New Testament in relation to the work of the Spirit.
I. IT HAS RELATION TO AN ETERNAL INHERITANCE—to "the redemption of the purchased possession," that is, the final deliverance from all evil which is to take place in the end of all things. It is an earnest of that completed redemption.
II. IT IS ALSO AN EARNEST, NOT OF THE RESURRECTION MERELY, NOR OF THE CHANGE OF LIVING BELIEVERS AT THE RESURRECTION, BUT OF A CONDITION OF GLORY BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION; for the apostle refers specially to this fact in 2 Corinthians 5:5, "Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit."
III. THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT IS REPRESENTED IN, Romans 8:11 AS THE PLEDGE OF THE FUTURE LIFE OF THE BODY; for there is a redemption of the body (Romans 8:23), because the Spirit is equally the Source of the life we derive from Christ, both for body and soul. This earnest redounds to the praise of God's glory, as God is glorified in the security of believers.—T.C.