who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:14
My first full-time job was as a programmer for USF&G, an insurance company. Not only doesn’t the insurance company not exist anymore, neither do the punch cards we wrote our programs with.
The letters stood for United States Fidelity and Guarantee. They had a great reputation, standing with their clients and paying claims. Even though the tough times. they lived up to their last letter – Guarantee.
When they sold a policy, they honored their promise. They stood by their word. Their guarantee was to help their clients rebuild their lives, paying claims fully and quickly.
And when it comes to God, he guarantees how he loves us today, but also guarantees our eternal life with him. God describes his Holy Spirit as the deposit who guarantees our inheritance.
God’s deposit is a promise, a pledge of full payment in the future. He’s given us his Holy Spirit as a deposit on what’s to come.
I know that this is going to sound odd, but then again, it’s me. While we’ve been given a full measure of God’s Holy Spirit, eternity holds a much better blessing, experience, and life. As great and wonderful as the Holy Spirit living in us is right now, our future eternal life will be so much greater and more beautiful.
But this raises the question, why doesn’t God give us his full inheritance right now? After all, what could be better than the present?
an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you
1 Peter 1:4
This broken world and life causes everything it touches to perish, spoil, and fade. God is not holding back anything. Just the opposite, he’s guarding and preserving its full glory for all eternity.
The Holy Spirit is God’s down payment for salvation. He guarantees the future, full and final payment. He gives us his partial payment that guarantees the full delivery of all parts of salvation.
Justification - the complete and one-time payment for all sin. It also removes any and all guilt and penalty of sin. But it doesn’t end there, it also gives us his positive righteousness. All this and more happens at the moment we put out faith in the Lord Jesus as Savior.
Sanctification – this is the ongoing, continuing work of the Spirit in our life. While he is fully ours, he works to eliminate sin from our life and to produces his own fruit.
Glorification – the one-time, future act of God where he will transform our bodies and spirits into perfect, sinless, deathless ones.
We have the first two now. Our spirit was made new when we accepted Jesus. But the future making new of our bodies is yet to come. God the Holy Spirit, indwelling us, is God’s divine deposit, guaranteeing the future glorification of our body.
And what does this do for us? How are we to respond? With resulting praise of God’s glory.
I recently replaced all the major appliances in our kitchen. When I went to buy them, there were two conditions.
First – did they have it in stock? If they didn’t, they refused to sell it to me. They had to have it immediately available for delivery.
Second – could I pay for it? If I didn’t have the resources to pay for it in full, they again would refuse to sell it to me.
As soon as there was an appliance in stock, and I paid for it, it was mine. It hadn’t been delivered yet. It wasn’t installed yet. But it was still mine. My name was put on specific appliances. I even got an email saying that it was mine. Even through the details of delivery had to be worked out, it was still mine.
In Jesus Christ, all the promises of God are ours. Not because we’ve earned them, but because Jesus has already paid for them. We will not get all our future guaranteed blessings in this life. But that doesn’t mean that they are optional, dependent on us living a good life.
No, they are dependent 100% on Jesus alone. Now that’s what I call a guarantee.
Noodling Questions
How have the failed guarantees of this life affected your ability to trust God?
What do you do to try and earn God’s loving kindness?
How does God’s 100% payment and guarantee change you? Free you?
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