In the passage from Ephesians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14, it is written “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“
The bolded words indicate detailed description of my thoughts. Gary North explained to us (in his words) the meaning of earnest which is the down payment of something. There are a couple meanings to the word earnest such as; showing sincerity of something or to someone, it can be a sign of serious importance, or can be someone that’s serious in respect to a particular effort. In the phrase “Which is the earnest of our inheritance” the meaning of earnest would best be interpreted as showing sincerity of our inheritance. I’ll explain what Gary north meant by ‘down payment’.
In the sentence above, ‘ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise‘, the holy Spirit of promise is the down payment in which we need to put down to receive purchased possession which is the Kingdom of God. ‘Purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory‘ Purchased possession in terms of exchanging something (holy spirit/our devotion to God) and receiving this possession that we have ‘purchased’ (Kingdom of God). Let me remind you that I’m using what Gary North discussed during the lecture into the way I personally have interpreted this particular message from Ephesians. To sum up my thoughts here, in order to obtain something from God, which is his Kingdom/eternal life, we need holy spirit and we have to prove to God that we are sincere and genuine with this gift. We are to exchange our love and devotion to God to be able to purchase or as I should say be welcomed to God’s family with the other believers.
In the sentence above, ‘ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise‘, the holy Spirit of promise is the down payment in which we need to put down to receive purchased possession which is the Kingdom of God. ‘Purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory‘ Purchased possession in terms of exchanging something (holy spirit/our devotion to God) and receiving this possession that we have ‘purchased’ (Kingdom of God). Let me remind you that I’m using what Gary North discussed during the lecture into the way I personally have interpreted this particular message from Ephesians. To sum up my thoughts here, in order to obtain something from God, which is his Kingdom/eternal life, we need holy spirit and we have to prove to God that we are sincere and genuine with this gift. We are to exchange our love and devotion to God to be able to purchase or as I should say be welcomed to God’s family with the other believers.
Adoption and inheritance plays a huge role in Paul’s descriptions, because he states that adoption is what leads us to inheritance. Once we are adopted into God’s family, we will inherit some of the things that God will reward us for our faith.
That’s all for this essay I hope you enjoyed reading or learned something from it. I’ll be posting more soon and have a great rest of your day!
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