5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
Nothing Paul has said to this point is wishful thinking. God Himself gives assurance that all that has been noted in chapter 5 to this point is guaranteed.
5 Now He who has prepared [equipped] us
God Himself prepares the resurrection body. He designed individuals to live in immortal bodies. This is the ultimate redemption of our bodies. Oh, what a body that will be.
for this very thing is God,
God prepared every believer to be covered with a resurrected, glorified body. Christians have a pristine life ahead, which was God’s original purpose with Adam and Eve. God made us to be placed in a glorified state. He constructed the Christian for eternity. Pilgrimage on earth is temporary, but life in eternity is in a dimension without end. We live in a preparatory period now.
who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee [down payment, deposit, pledge].
Although the resurrection body is future, the Christian has the guarantee of getting it in time. The believer has the indwelling Holy Spirit, which means that He is the guarantee of the believer’s entrance into glory. He is already at work, transforming our lives (2 Co 3:18).
The Holy Spirit is the guarantee for God’s promise of a new body. The reception of the Spirit is a foretaste of the life to come (2 Co 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:14; Ro 8:23). Christians can know that their future resurrection bodies are real by the guarantee of the Holy Spirit. God will never break His Word to the believer.
Christians can be sure that they will have a glorified body because God gave them the Holy Spirit as a guarantee. Every believer possesses the indwelling of the Spirit. This is a token of our eternal future.
When the Christian goes to be with the Lord, he is without his body but still indwelt by the Holy Spirit. There never will be a time when the believer does not have the Spirit.
PRINCIPLE:
The Christian’s hope is not postdated but predated.
APPLICATION:
The Holy Spirit is the foretaste of things to come. Christians have confidence in the future now while still in our finite state. We live for it and by it. Our guarantee is the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is a God-given guarantee.
Our resurrection body is the consummation of regeneration. God assures Christians that He will bring them into the final phase of His redemptive plan. God made Himself legally liable for the performance of His promise to us. He gave us a pledge to consummate what He commenced in us. His pledge was a Person. He is a foretaste of what is to come. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence with us now. Our experience with the indwelling Holy Spirit is experience with eternal life now. The Holy Spirit is more than a promise; He is a pledge already given to us.
God sealed ownership of our souls with the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13-14) at the moment of our initial trust in Christ for salvation. The Holy Spirit Himself is like a deposit with God that guarantees our future with Him. God made a down payment whereby He obligated Himself to make a future payment. Once God makes the down payment, the settlement is fully guaranteed. The Holy Spirit is our deposit for the full salvation of body and soul.
The guarantee for the believer dispels despair. To despair is to disown our guarantee from God.
