Our Guarantee - The Spirit

Israel’s possession of the Land of Canaan was an earlier stage in God’s redemptive plan, a plan that always envisioned something larger than Israel or the small plot of land in Palestine. With the arrival of the Messiah and the Gift of the Spirit, the covenant promises began to find their fulfillment in the true “Seed of Abraham,” and in his “brethren” and “coheirs,” promises that include the bodily resurrection and the coming New Creation.

The fulfillment of the promises has been achieved through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, and the future consummation of all God’s promises is attested and guaranteed by the Gift of the Holy Spirit received by the followers of Jesus Christ.

[Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash]

Scriptural passages that promised land to Abraham employ words like “inheritance” and “heir,” including the Hebrew word translated as “possession,” terms linked to the Abrahamic covenant that referred originally to the “possession” of Canaan - (Genesis 12:1-3, 13:14-16, 17:1-8).

In the New Testament, terms like “inheritance,” “heir” and “possession” are reapplied to what God has done through His Son, the true Heir of Abraham. The Gift of the Spirit is the “guarantee” and the “down payment” of the covenant promises - (Matthew 21:38, 28:18, Mark 12:7, Luke 20:14, John 13:3, Romans 8:17, Colossians 1:12, Hebrews 1:2).

Jesus is the real “Seed” of Abraham, and his followers become “heirs according to promise” along with him. All men and women who have the “faith of Jesus” become “children of Abraham” and heirs of the covenant.

The inheritance of Abraham belongs to the “brethren” of Jesus, the saints who “are no longer slaves but sons, and if sons, then heirs through God,” both Jewish and Gentile alike. No longer is the covenant limited by geography or nationality - (Exodus 19:5, Galatians 3:29).

The Spirit is the “earnest of their inheritance for the redemption of the possession,” it is the “blessing of Abraham” for the nations promised by Yahweh. Because Abraham believed the word of God, it was “reckoned to him for righteousness.” Men and women who are of the same faith are the “sons of Abraham,” whether Jewish or Gentile and the Gift of the Spirit is irrefutable evidence that they are heirs of the covenant - (Galatians 3:4-9).

The Gift of the Spirit is the rock-solid assurance of their coming possession of the full inheritance, especially the bodily resurrection, and life in the New Creation when Jesus returns – (Ephesians 1:14).

If the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead “dwells in us,” we are guaranteed that God will raise us from the dead also. Not only so, but the Spirit is the “first fruits” of the final harvest and the “redemption of our body” - (Romans 8:10-23, 2 Corinthians 1:20-22, 5:5).

When he returns, Jesus will declare to all who have responded to him with faith, “Come, you blessed of my Father, INHERIT the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Jesus did not abandon the original promise to Abraham, but he universalized it, making the Patriarch a blessing to “all the nations of the Earth” - (Matthew 6:10).

[Photo by George Sparks on Unsplash]

Likewise, the territory that was promised to Abraham has become a universal promise. The Patriarch is the “HEIR of the world” or Kosmos. The promise will be actualized in all its fullness in the New Creation when the saints inherit all things - (Romans 4:10-13).

Jewish and Gentile believers become children and heirs, a reality and promise attested and affirmed by their receipt of the Spirit. The coming resurrection and New Creation will be nothing less than the culmination of the original Abrahamic covenant, and the Gift of the Spirit is the foretaste and the assurance of God’s fulfillment of all His promises.

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RELATED POSTS:

• Life-Giving Spirit - (Jesus dispenses the Life-Giving Spirit without which there is no enduring life. His words are spirit, and they are life)

• Messianic Age Dawns - (The era of the Levitical priesthood terminated with the arrival of the word in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, our High Priest forevermore)

• Covenant Heirs - (With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations promised to Abraham commenced)