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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Seven Steps to the Rest of God, #4
Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. (II Corinthians 1:22)
The Holy Spirit whom we have now is a security deposit, a deposit on the redemption that is to be revealed at the end of the age. Since we now are in the last days the anticipated work of redemption has begun with the release of God's people from moral bondages. The breaking of the chains of Satan on us will attain its climax in the redemption of our mortal body. The last enemy that will be destroyed is physical death.
God's promise to the saints is that when Christ returns, the mortal bodies of the royal priesthood, the Lord's victorious judges, will be redeemed (Revelation 20:4-6). After that, immortality in the body will come to all who are saved (Revelation 21:4).
It is the redemption of the body that especially is the "salvation" preached by the Apostles of the Lamb. Eternal life has to do particularly with life in the body, for it was bodily immortality that was denied to Adam and Eve when they were driven from the Garden of Eden.
All spirits are eternal. But it is only in Christ, our Tree of Life, that we have the promise of being resurrected and then filled with the Divine Life of God. We who are saved possess the Divine "earnest," the guarantee, the pledge, the security deposit that insures we shall be restored in personality and brought into the Presence of God when the Lord Jesus returns from Heaven.
It is the Holy Spirit who dwells in us now who will extend into our mortal frame, making it immortal when the Lord returns.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)
Paul pressed forward toward the conquering of the last enemy, toward the redemption of his mortal body.
And not only they [the material creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)
Again:
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection [Greek, out-resurrection] of the dead. (Philippians 3:11)
God has sealed us to that day, to the day of redemption.
Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest [pledge; guarantee] of the Spirit in our hearts. (II Corinthians 1:22)
God is fashioning us today so we may be prepared for the clothing over of our mortal body with a "house" from heaven—a body of glory that is formed as the direct result of our response to afflictions (II Corinthians 4:17-5:2). God has given us His Holy Spirit as the guarantee of this promised redemption.
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing [to be clothed with a glorious body from heaven] is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest [pledge] of the Spirit. (II Corinthians 5:5)
To be continued.