THE EARNEST OF OUR INHERITANCE
By Uriah Smith
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” Eph. 1:13, 14. Heaven is ours by inheritance; it is not purchased by merit, nor won by strength, but is obtained by birthright. But what are we to do? for flesh and blood can not inherit this possession; the natural life, which is of the earth, earthy, can not lay claim to it. This we are to do: The rule of the inheritance is, “Ye must be born again”—born into a new life, a new nature, a new relationship. The inheritance rests upon the promises; and by the promises we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and are thus brought into the family of God, and “through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Heb. 6:12. Of that inheritance we have an earnest, or foretaste, here. The “earnest of our inheritance” means “the experience of it, in some measure, beforehand,” until the time when, redemption completed, it shall be held in actual possession. And this earnest is of the nature of a pledge, or guarantee, that we shall come into literal and actual possession of the full inheritance by and by. The Holy Spirit is this “earnest” of our inheritance. 1. It brings joy. This, next to love, is the leading fruit of the Spirit. It is a joy to have this earnest of the inheritance in anticipation of the glory of soon possessing the inheritance itself. 2. The Holy Spirit is not only the pledge of eternal bliss, but is itself a foretaste of that blessed state. Thus the entrance of the Spirit into the soul brings with it that same life which, when the purchased possession is fully redeemed, becomes, in its continuity, everlasting life. 3. The Spirit abiding in us consecrates to the same purpose to which we shall be devoted throughout the ages of eternity; namely, the service of the Lord our God. 4. The work of the Spirit in us creates the same holiness in us which is essential to the enjoyment of heaven. 5. The influence of the Spirit over us brings us that same communion with God which we shall enjoy forever in heaven. To the same extent, then, that we have the presence and communion of the Holy Spirit, to that same degree we have the dawn of glory in our hearts. Verily, it is a blessed thing to have with us the earnest of our inheritance, till the redemption of the purchased possession. The presence of the Holy Spirit brings to us many things that are blessed foretastes of the heavenly inheritance promised. Prominent among these is rest. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matt. 11:28, 29. To a happy degree we have this rest in the present tense. Another blessing it brings to us is delight in the service of the Lord. We walk in the ways of the Lord with delight and gladness, more and more, the more largely we drink into His blessed Spirit. The more of the Lord’s Spirit we have, the more we rejoice over the repentance and conversion of sinners. This we can in large measure attain unto now, and so begin to enter into the joy of our Lord, whose chief joy in His work for the rescue of the world from ruin, is to see weary souls turning their loving10footsteps toward their Father’s house, and escaping from the destruction to which sin is driving them. The only way we can enter into the joy of our Lord is to have contributed our part toward the salvation of others. The more the Spirit dwells in our hearts, the more we enjoy the communion of saints. How sweet is that communion, even in this imperfect state; and what, then, must it be, when the redemption of the purchased possession has come? By this possession of the Holy Spirit, this earnest of our heavenly inheritance, we gain an enlarged knowledge of God and all divine things. The way in which these things are revealed unto us, says the apostle, is by God’s Spirit. “But God hath revealed them unto us, by His Spirit.” 1 Cor. 2:10. Here we know in part, and see through a glass darkly. But we shall see, by and by, face to face, when the time comes that that which is in part is done away, and we know as we are known. 1 Cor. 13:9-13. Victory over sin, and Satan, and the world is another blessing, which the Holy Spirit brings to us. Who could imagine one enjoying an “earnest” of his heavenly inheritance, and being at the same time a slave of sin, a captive of Satan, and a friend of the world? This is to be, according to the verdict of the Scriptures, an enemy of God. By the working of the Holy Spirit in us, we are made one with Christ. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. . . . And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.” Rom. 8:14, 17. With this Spirit, which is an earnest, we are sealed. Sealing implies the direct contact of the seal with the thing sealed, and embodies the idea that the consequence of the sealing is the impression, on the thing sealed, of the device engraved on the seal; and the purpose of the sealing, of which Paul speaks in Eph. 1:13, is security and safety. The thought is this: God’s Holy Spirit comes into real contact with our nature, and there stamps and impresses on our character the character and copy of the Spirit’s own likeness; and these godlike desires, feelings, emotions, thoughts, the whole reflected character of the divine majesty, are mirrored and molded in our believing hearts. This becomes the pledge of our security, and of the certainty that we shall be kept in the way in which we go. “If you take that,” says A. Maclaren, “for your doctrine of final perseverance, there is no fear of its ever being turned to anything but the noblest purpose, or being found to contain anything but the mightiest of inducements to walking in the divine life, and to seeking to possess the mirrored image of the divine Word.” These are the windows by which we look through, and get a glimpse of “the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” But there is another side, a dark and foreboding contrast, to this pleasing scene. For if the presence of the Holy Spirit confers such great and priceless blessings, the loss, or absence, of Him, entails, in equal proportion, the absence or loss of the blessings and good secured on the other hand, and leaves a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation; the “earnest” on this side, presaging, instead of inheritance, coming calamity and death. The Holy Spirit is a sensitive and tender power, which can easily be grieved, and even quenched. Hence the many exhortations in the Scriptures, to us, to deal carefully and tenderly with that Spirit. “Quench not the Spirit,” is the admonition of the apostle. 1 Thess. 5:19. Again he says, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Eph. 4:30. “To quench the Spirit,” says Bishop Temple, “to go on, disobeying the calls of our own hearts, to stifle the perpetually repeated warnings that recall us from sin and folly, to persist in sins which we know to be sins, to seek temptations which we know to be temptations, to harden our hearts when we feel that they are softening, to let pride uphold us in evil, to let indolence and appetite seduce us from good,—these are as much a sin now as when Saint Paul warned his converts against them, and are liable to the same condemnation. Great bursts of sin, sudden and unexpected falls, giving way to some torrent of temptation,—this is terrible; and this, when it happens, costs us bitter tears, and most painful repentance. But much more dangerous is the habit of disobedience, which marks the soul with a slight mark each day, and heaps those marks one upon another, till the whole soul is stained unawares.” The apostle sends us a solemn warning in reference to the time in which we are now living: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:17. Who can depict the danger and the folly of turning away from the wooings of the Holy Spirit, and trampling underfoot the earnest and pledges of the inheritance we might by and by possess? Talmage, speaking of this kind of folly, thus describes it: “Here is a man who has been all his life among Bibles, and churches, and Christians. He knows his duty. Christ has been presented before him, in all the loveliness of His life; in all the appealing, and constraining love of His sacrifice and death. Heaven has been opened before him in all its inviting beauty and glory; and he has been invited, nay, urged, to enter—but here he sits unmoved! He has had the opportunity for fifty years to save his soul; and all his opportunities and privileges he has abused. What shall we say of such a man?” We can only say of him, as Peter said, “What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” and leave it for the Judgment to declare. But let us rather give diligence to make our “calling and election sure.” 2 Peter 1:10. U. S.