Q. We have in 2 Corinthians 1:22, “The earnest of the Spirit,” and in Ephesians 1:14, “The earnest of our inheritance.” If the Spirit is the “earnest of the inheritance,” what is the “earnest of the Spirit”?
A. The subject in hand in Ephesians 1:1-14, is the calling of God (vss. 3-6), which is our present portion, and the inheritance which we have in Christ in the future over all created things. Christ’s place in the calling and Christ’s place in the inheritance is ours, as joint-heirs with Him. The inheritance being a matter still to come, we receive the Spirit as a seal, as looking back at the fullness of redemption which sets us in the calling, and looking forward as the earnest before we possess the inheritance. He is named, consequently, the “Spirit of promise,” as connected with what we have not yet received.
In 2 Corinthians 1 the inheritance is not named, but He who is its earnest has been given us. It is a wonderfully comprehensive passage (vss. 20-22). God had made promises of old; His Son comes in the “yea,” the fulfillment in His person, and the “Amen” — the certainty of them all. Those to whom the promises were made (the Jews) reject Him, and so the promises are deferred until another day, when Israel will “Amen” the promises of God, when grace restores the seed of Jacob.
Another thing now unfolds itself. God had purposes and counsels before He made the promises — before the foundation of the world. His “delights were with the sons of men” ere the world was (Prov. 8). The history of the first man’s responsibility was closed in the Cross; and the second Man enters into His glory when cast out in shame from this world. The people of God’s counsels are now called; His eternal purposes are unfolded, and God has a fresh and wondrous glory “by us” — Christians — the objects of those counsels. God establishes us “in Christ” before Him. Then He “anoints” us with the Holy Spirit for power for our pathway and service while awaiting the day of glory, and seals us as His own to secure all this glory to us. This brings into our hearts the conscious earnest of all, and by the Spirit thus given. The affections are thus kept in the joy and enjoyment of our own things.
The context in each case makes the difference of language simple.