The Downpayment of Our Eternal Inheritance
 
The Holy Spirit and our Eternal Inheritance
Part 3 - The Holy Spirit

By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© February 24, 2013
www.pastorkennedy.com


The Unusual Second Letter written by Paul to the Corinthian Church

2nd Corinthians is a unique book compared to many other New Testament Letters written by Paul to Churches during his missionary journeys.  

In the Acts of the Apostles we are accustomed of hearing stories of Paul’s exploits and trials as he took the gospel to difficult places and hostile people.  Stories like Paul and Silas singing in prison.  About the earthquake that shook open the doors of their prison, and the jailor, on the verge of suicide, hearing Paul’s voice telling him that everybody is still in their jail cells – not to hurt himself.  We then read about the jailer rushing in to ask what should he do to be saved!  We like that.  We enjoy the adventure and exploits of the stories told of Paul, but these are not what Paul recounts in Second Corinthians.  This book is not a letter of instructions on problems in the church, which consumed the first letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians.  The second letter deals alot with the personal struggles facing the Apostle himself!

In this book Paul shares the extreme pain and sometime desperation of the persecution he has experienced, and we sense the frustration of Paul when he explains why he was not able to visit the Corinthian Church as they expected.  He even had to defend his apostleship to those in the Corinth Fellowship who were questioning his spiritual credentials, which Paul felt he had earned long before by being their genuine spiritual father.  None of these responses were normal for Paul in any of his other letters.

In this unusual letter to the unstable Church at Corinth we glean nuggets of spiritual truths, both for our own personal encouragement and faith, as well as instruction on a wide variety of spiritual subjects, such as the topic we are studying today on the Holy Spirit - regarding the person and presence of the Holy Spirit, given as God’s “down payment” of our Eternal Inheritance.  God’s Presence in us, which allows us to be sustained in any hardship which may arise in our life, and which gives us hope for a certainty in our eternal destiny.

The background of a passage is often critical in understanding the depth of any book we are studying.  The dynamics given in the first chapter of Second Corinthians set the tone for the whole book.  

In the first chapter Paul reveals the depth of his own personal distress, in which he thought he was going to die.  We do not normally hear words like these coming from Paul.  It is in this context that comes the precious concept of the Seal of God’s Spirit within us confirming our Eternal Inheritance.  It is because we more clearly understand the personal distress expressed by Paul and the accompanying sustaining Grace and hope given by the indwelling Holy Spirit, that we too can be encouraged to rest in the Holy Spirit’s sustaining hope during life’s trials.

Paul’s Comfort during Personal Dilemmas
Look at the seriousness of the situation in which Paul finds himself.

2 Corinthians 1:3-11
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. 
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. 

Crowded into this rare glimpse of Paul’s personal suffering, and even apology of his inability to visit the Church are four concepts in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, about our relationship with God through Christ – and the seal of God’s Spirit as our guarantee.

The Holy Spirit Came to Put God’s Seal upon Us and become God’s Down payment Guarantee of Our Eternal Inheritance… within Us!

A Spiritual Jewel in a chapter revealing Paul’s severe trials:

2 Corinthians 1:21–22 
21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 


If we are God’s Children through belief in Jesus Christ:
 
•	God Establishes us in our relationship with other Believers in Christ,
•	God Anoints us, 
•	God Puts His Seal on us, 
•	And God Gives us His Spirit as a Down payment Guarantee of our future Eternal Inheritance!

As Paul continues writing in this second letter he deals with various issues stemming from his first letter, but returns to the personal suffering he is enduring in chapter 4, for the wellbeing of the Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 4:7–12 
Treasure in Jars of Clay:  Death in us, Life in you 
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. 

Paul continues this theme of personal suffering to the conclusion of chapter 4:

2 Corinthians 4:14–18 
14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 

Then Paul writes chapter 5 of 2nd Corinthians.  It is here he gives us a glimpse of the wonder and glory of our Eternal Inheritance and the Holy Spirit who is the down payment given by God, to keep us going in a death-facing, suffering-prone, topsy-turvy, godless, and distressing world.

2 Corinthians 5:1–8 
Our Heavenly Dwelling 
5	Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 
8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 

Look at a somewhat parallel passage written by Paul in 
1 Corinthians 15:

1 Corinthians 15:35–38 
The Resurrection Body 
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 

1 Corinthians 15:42–44a
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body….

1 Corinthians 15:51–57 
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 
		“Death is swallowed up in victory.” 
	55 	“O death, where is your victory? 
O death, where is your sting?” 
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Paul’s suffering had brought him to have a great desire for heaven – his Eternal Inheritance.  

A third passage confirming this glorious hope of the believer in Jesus Christ, in this perishing world, is found in Romans 8.

Romans 8:18–25 
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 

Here is another way to verbalize the hope of our Eternal Inheritance, using the concepts that Paul has given us:

We now simply live in a faulty tent of a body that has a lot of holes in it allowing constant drafts of cold air, with flimsy insecure poles holding up the skin of the tent offering such a limited vision, fuzzy comprehension, dull discernment and incomplete understanding about things of God.  On the other hand, our New Eternal Body is part of our Heavenly Inheritance!  This Brand New Body is an awesomely amazing, well-constructed permanent building (instead of being a temporary tent), galvanized together with fantastic space age heavenly materials, which will never deteriorate, get sick, break down, grow old or die!

Our heavenly Body is so complete, so profound, so wonderful that, in comparison, it makes our earthly imperfect tent-body seem like a naked, rickety, rusted out heap of bones.

We groan with all the aches and pains, struggles with sin, and agitating confrontation that comes about in this old tent-body when people are carnal.  

We wish we had on our perfect heavenly body to clothe our spirit in, so the “mortalness” of who we are will be swallowed up by the “fantasticness” of our new body:

•	The Perishable being swallowed up by the Imperishable!
•	That which is dishonorable transformed into that which is glorious!
•	Our eternal spirit trapped in this old, rickety, broken down, weakened and falling apart cocoon of a body, finally raised and springing free to be clothed into a dynamic Spiritual power – God’s fantastic Power!

God did not intend for our eternal Spirit, made in the exact specifications in the Image of His Deity, to be kept cloistered in this dark, old, drafty, corruptible, perishable tent-body; His true desire is for our spirit to be clothed in His perfect, eternal, imperishable, and glorious New Spiritual Body!

God gave a down payment of what we can expect, to those who by faith have been born again by receiving Jesus Christ’s free gift of Salvation.  God has given us the earnest money, the down payment:  a portion of the eternal dynamic of His Holy Spirit to live in our mortal bodies until He brings us home to live with Himself.

Now, we all would like the transition from this old tent-body to our New Spiritual Body sooner than later, because we instinctively know that while we are in this tent-body we are away from the complete fulfillment of being at Home with the Lord.

Now let’s take a step back and review aspects from two previous messages on The Holy Spirit.

•	God is Spirit

Jesus, speaking to the woman at the well who was seeking to know about God…

John 4:24 
“God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 

•	God the Father has never been seen 

John 1:18 
18 No one has ever seen God... 
(see also John 5:37; Ex. 33:20; 1 Tim. 6:16; 1 John 4:12, 20)

•	God is a Trinity:  The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit

o	A Singular Plurality – Unity in Diversity is an essential life dynamic of our Creator, displayed in many ways, but in particular for creative and diverse individuals to become unified in societies of people.  This dynamic is not found in the foundation of any other philosophy or religion, except for Christianity. 

At Creation

Genesis 1:26 
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…."   

After the Fall of Adam and Eve, and their partaking of the forbidden fruit

Genesis 3:22
And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us…."   

At the Tower of Babel 

Genesis 11:5-9
7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 

•	The Jewish Doctrinal Declaration includes inference to the Trinity:

Deuteronomy 6:4 
Hear, O Israel: The LORD (Yeh-ho-vaw' – singular) our God ('Elohiym - plural), is one LORD (Yeh-ho-vaw' – singular).

Singular Plurality – Unity in Diversity

Genesis 2:7 	
…the LORD (Yeh-ho-vaw' – singular) God ('Elohiym - plural) formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

•	The Angelic Cherubim Cry a Triune “Holy, Holy, Holy”

Isaiah 6:3
And they [the angelic Cherubim] were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."   

•	Jesus Christ, God the Son, the 2nd Person of the Godhead Reveals the Image of God and God’s Plan of Reconciling sinful mankind to Himself through the Blood of His Cross:

Colossians 1:15-20 (with Hebrews 1:1-3)

o	15 Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God…

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His Being (Heb. 1:3).

o	16 For by him (Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.…

…“through whom also he made the universe.” (Heb. 1:2).

o	17 He (Jesus Christ) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together…

“He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3).

o	18 (Jesus Christ) is the Head of the Church…

o	(Jesus Christ) is the beginning… 

o	(Jesus Christ) is the firstborn from among the dead…

o	(Jesus Christ) has supremacy in everything…

o	19 God was pleased to have all His Fullness dwell in Him (Jesus Christ)…

o	20 Through (Jesus Christ), God reconciled all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by (Christ’s) making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

 (Jesus Christ) provided purification for sins, and then sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (Heb. 1:3).

Comparing The Holy Spirit’s work in the Old Testament and the New Testament

In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was poured out on selected Individuals for God’s service (see notes of the previous two messages), in comparison to the New Testament when, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on all people – all who came to Christ for Salvation (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:38).

Quoted from the Prophet Joel in Peter’s message at Pentecost:

Acts 2:16–18  
16 …This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 
17	“ ‘In the last days, God says, 
I will pour out my Spirit on all people. 
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, 
your young men will see visions, 
your old men will dream dreams. 
18	Even on my servants, both men and women, 
I will pour out my Spirit in those days, 
and they will prophesy. 

Ezekiel 36:25–27 
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  

(This is fulfilled in those who are believers and disciples of Jesus Christ since Pentecost… and will be fulfilled in the Jewish Nation during the Millennium – Ezekiel 36:26-29; 37:14; 27-28; 48:35b; Zechariah 2:10-13; 3:3-8; Isaiah 4:3-4; 32:15; 44:3; etc.)

Of God, the Holy Spirit, it is written:

John 14:16–17 
16 And I will ask the Father, [Jesus said] and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 

Acts 1:8 
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 

1 Corinthians 6:19 
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own….

This is what happens when a Person accepts Jesus Christ as their Messiah…their Redeemer from Sin, and they become Transformed (Born Again) through the power of God, the Holy Spirit:

Our sins are judicially and eternally cleansed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, which He shed on the cross!

o	We are judicially justified, and “made right”, before the eternal Throne of a Holy God, our Creator (Acts 13:39; Rom. 3:23-28; 5:1; 8:30-33; 1 Cor. 6:11; Titus 3:7); 

Our spirits are “Born Again” to become Children of the Most High God, and our bodies become the Temple of the Holy Spirit (John 3:3, 5-8; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19–20); 

We are led, encouraged, taught and empowered by His Holy Spirit in our daily life (Rom. 8:14; John 14:26; Acts 1:8) and, 

We become part of the eternal Bride of Christ to be in His Kingdom, forever! (Rev. 19:6-9).

Why did the Holy Spirit Come?

•	The Holy Spirit came to Convict us of sin, righteousness, judgment and things to come, so we will turn to Christ, and turn away from sin (John 16:7-11, 13).

•	The Holy Spirit came to Transform those who put their faith in Christ (John 3:3, 5-8, 16; Titus 3:5-6).

•	The Holy Spirit came to Teach us about Christ and the meaning of His Word (John 16:13-14).

•	The Holy Spirit came to Comfort us in our daily life 
(Acts 9:8; John 14:16).

•	The Holy Spirit came to Guide us in life’s direction (Romans 8:14).

•	The Holy Spirit came to Empower us for Spiritual Service (Acts 1:8).

•	The Holy Spirit Came to Transform a sinful person, who comes to believe in Jesus Christ for his or her salvation, to become a Child of the Most High God, and to live with God, forever! (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 1:22)

•	The Holy Spirit Came to Put God’s Seal upon Us and become God’s Down payment Guarantee of Our Eternal Inheritance… within Us!

A Spiritual Jewel in a chapter revealing Paul’s severe trials:

2 Corinthians 1:21–22 
21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 

If we are God’s Children through belief in Jesus Christ:
 
•	God Establishes us in our relationship with other Believers in Christ,
•	He Anoints us, 
•	He Puts His Seal on us, 
•	And God Gives us His Spirit as a Down payment Guarantee of our future Eternal Inheritance!

We now simply live in a flimsy tent of a body that has a lot of holes in it allowing constant drafts of cold air, with flimsy insecure poles holding up the skin of the tent offering such a limited vision, fuzzy comprehension, dull discernment and incomplete understanding about things of God.  On the other hand, our New Eternal Body is part of our Heavenly Inheritance!  This Brand New Body is an awesomely amazing, well-constructed permanent building (instead of being a temporary tent), galvanized together with fantastic space age heavenly materials, which will never deteriorate, get sick, break down, grow old or die!

Our heavenly Body is so complete, so profound, so wonderful that, in comparison, it makes our earthly imperfect tent-body seem like a naked, rickety, rusted out heap of bones.

We groan with all the aches and pains, struggles with sin, and agitating confrontation that comes about in this old tent-body when people are carnal.  

We wish we had on our perfect heavenly body to clothe our spirit in, so the “mortalness” of who we are will be swallowed up by the “fantasticness” of our new body:

•	The Perishable being swallowed up by the Imperishable!
•	That which is dishonorable transformed into that which is glorious!
•	Our eternal spirit trapped in this old, rickety, broken down, weakened and falling apart cocoon of a body, finally raised and springing free to be clothed into a dynamic Spiritual power – God’s fantastic Power!

God did not intend for our eternal Spirit, made in the exact specifications in the Image of His Deity, to be kept cloistered in this dark, old, drafty, corruptible, perishable tent-body; His true desire is for our spirit to be clothed in His perfect, eternal, imperishable, and glorious New Spiritual Body!

God gave a down payment of what we can expect, to those who by faith have been born again by receiving Jesus Christ’s free gift of Salvation.  God has given us the earnest money, the down payment:  a portion of the eternal dynamic of His Holy Spirit to live in our mortal bodies until He brings us home to live with Himself.

Now, we all would like the transition from this old tent-body to our New Spiritual Body sooner than later, because we instinctively know that while we are in this tent-body we are away from the complete fulfillment of being at Home with the Lord.


“For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.   Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
2 Corinthians 5:4-5

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