Over the last two weeks, I’ve looked to the opening verses of 2 Corinthians 5 for the Christian to draw strength from as we aim to lay our lives down in sacrificial ministry in service to the body of Christ. Two weeks ago, we looked at what we might call the minister’s persuasion—his persuasion that if he wears out the earthly tent of his body in service to the church, he can look forward with hope to his resurrection body and life on the new earth. Last week, we considered the minister’s priorities—how a proper view of this life, the intermediate state, and the eternal state ought to fuel our sacrificial service. This week, we come to a third component of the Christian’s view of life and death that energizes him for ministry, and that we might term the Father’s promises.
“Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God,
who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:5 –
The strength for life-giving, sacrificial ministry is grounded upon the minister’s confidence that we will one day be glorified in our resurrection bodies. And the promises of God are the ground of that confidence. In 2 Corinthians 5:5, Paul gives a twofold assurance that the glorious destiny we’ve thought through over the past two weeks is sure to be ours. The certainty of glorification is rooted in the purpose of God and in the pledge of the Spirit.
The Purpose of God
Can there be any doubt that those who are in Christ will be raised from the dead into a body like His? Paul says that glorification is the very purpose for which God has prepared us! From the beginning of God’s plan of salvation, His intention has always been to save whole persons in the integrity of body and soul. God’s saving purpose doesn’t stop at conversion and justification. Those on whom God determined to set His electing love “He predestined to become conformed to the image of Christ. And these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Rom 8:29–30). He has never been concerned to save us only from the penalty of sin. Neither does His saving purpose stop at sanctification; He will save us from even more than the power of sin. God’s purpose extends all the way to glorification—to saving His people from the very presence of all sin, even in our flesh!
Jesus Himself taught this when He announced,
“I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:38–40)
This has always been God’s saving will! And Jesus knew it when He came to accomplish our salvation in His earthly ministry. From our election by the Father in eternity past, to our redemption in Christ at the fullness of time—God’s saving purpose was always to bring the blessings of His saving grace to consummation in our glorification. And remember: God always finishes what He starts! That’s why Paul says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He [God] who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6). Believer, God has begun salvation in you, and He will complete salvation in you.
The Pledge of the Spirit
And as if that wasn’t enough—if the Spirit-inspired promise of the saving purpose of Almighty God was too much of an external promise for you—God guarantees that He will bring this promise to pass by depositing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of His faithfulness.
Paul says God “gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.” And the Greek word that gets translated “pledge,” or “earnest,” is just packed with significance. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “This is surely one of the most glorious things anywhere in the Scripture” (Great Doctrines, 259). Arrabōn is a commercial term that refers to an earnest or a down payment. It was the first installment of a payment that served as the guarantee that the rest would follow. If the purchase wasn’t completed, the down payment was lost, and so as an earnest, it bound the one who gave it to make good on his promise.
By using this terminology to speak of God’s promise, Scripture teaches us that the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s heart is God’s 
pledged guarantee that the one united to Christ will receive all the promised future blessings of his salvation. In giving the earnest of the Spirit, God has bound Himself to bring to full completion the salvation He has begun in every believer. And God is no welsher! He doesn’t go back on His promises! If there’s anything the entire Old Testament teaches it’s that God is faithful to His covenant promises!
Dear Christian, do you want a guarantee of God’s faithfulness? He has made the Third Member of the Trinity to permanently dwell within you—the very Spirit who was Himself the efficient cause of the resurrection of Christ. The One who raised your Forerunner and Head from the grave is the same One who dwells in you! And “if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:11).
But it’s not just that the Spirit is the surest guarantee of God’s faithfulness. The permanent indwelling of the Spirit is the firstfruits of the consummation of saving blessings that we will experience on the New Earth. Part of what is to be glorified is to be filled with the Spirit without measure. And so by giving us the Holy Spirit Himself, God has given us a small portion of the very thing that will characterize our resurrected life. As one teacher put it, in the person of the Spirit, we have a little bit of heaven in us already. The Holy Spirit Himself is the first installment of the very inheritance now being guarded in heaven for us, ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Pet 1:4-5).
Strengthened to Serve
It is on the sure foundation of this pledge, believer, that your confidence in the resurrection is grounded. You can be absolutely certain that if your earthly tent is torn down in service to Christ—if you give your life to the ministry of the Gospel—you will live again! You have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens! And if that’s true, let the unshakeable assurance of your glorification drive you to radically sacrificial ministry—to lay down your life taking the Gospel to the lost and serving the body of Christ.
Gospel Centered Family 