Ephesians 1.14a-The Holy Spirit is the Down Payment of the Church Age Believer's Inheritance
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday May 6, 2023
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:14a-The Holy Spirit is the Down Payment of the Church Age Believer’s Inheritance
Lesson # 45
Ephesians 1:3 The God, namely the Father of the Lord ruling over us, who is Jesus Christ, is worthy of praise. Namely, because He is the one who has blessed each and every one of us by means of each and every kind of Spirit appropriated blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. 4 For He chose each and every one of us for His own purpose because of Him alone before creation in order that each and every one of us would be holy as well as uncensurable in His judgment. 5 He did this by predestinating each and every one of us for the purpose of adoption as sons because of His love through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will. 6 This was for the purpose of praising His glorious grace, which He freely bestowed on each and every one of us because of the one who is divinely loved. 7 Because of whom, each one of us are experiencing that which is the redemption through His blood, namely the forgiveness of our transgressions according to His infinite grace. 8 This He provided in abundance for the benefit of each and every one of us because of the exercise of a wisdom, which is absolute and divine in nature resulting in the manifestation of an insight, which is absolute and divine in nature. 9 He did this by revealing the mystery of His will for the benefit of each and every one of us according to His pleasure, which He planned beforehand because of our faith in and resultant union and identification with Himself. 10 This was for the dispensation which brings to completion the various periods of history. Namely, to unite for the benefit of Himself each and every animate and inanimate object in the sphere of the sovereign authority of the person of the one and only Christ. Specifically, to unite for the benefit of Himself those things in the heavens as well as those things on the earth in the sphere of the sovereign authority of Himself. 11 Because of whom, each and every one of us has been claimed as a possession because of having been predestinated according to the predetermined plan. Namely, the one who is causing each and every animate and inanimate object to function according to His purpose, that is, His sovereign will 12 in order that each and every one of us would belong to a particular group of people. Namely, those who are certain of possessing a confident expectation of blessing because of their faith in and union and identification with the one and only Christ for the purpose of praising His glory. 13 Correspondingly, because of whom, each and every one of you were sealed by means of the omnipotence of the one and only promised Spirit, who is holy because each and every one of you obeyed the one and only message, which is truth, namely, the proclamation of the one and only gospel, which produced your salvation. Specifically, because each one of you believed in Him. 14 The Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until He redeems His possession for the praise of His glory. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 1:14 continues and completes Paul’s thought regarding the Holy Spirit which he began in Ephesians 1:13, because it is describing a ministry of the Holy Spirit during the church age which will continue until the rapture or resurrection of the church when the church age believer will receive their resurrection body.
This verse is composed of the following: (1) relative pronoun clause hos estin arrabōn tēs klēronomias hēmōn (ὅς ἐστιν ἀρραβὼν τῆς κληρονομίας ἡμῶν), “The Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance.” (2) prepositional phrase eis apolytrōsin tēs peripoiēseōs (εἰς ἀπολύτρωσιν τῆς περιποιήσεως), “until He redeems His possession.” (3) prepositional phrase eis epainon doxēs autou (εἰς ἔπαινον δόξης αὐτοῦ), “for the praise of His glory.”
Therefore, the apostle Paul is asserting in Ephesians 1:14 that the Holy Spirit is the down payment of the church age believer’s inheritance, which we will note, not only involves receiving a resurrection body at the rapture or resurrection of the church but also rewards for faithful service at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church, which immediately follows the rapture, which is imminent.
He also asserts that the Spirit is the down payment of the church age believer’s inheritance until the Father redeems His possession, which is the church and as we will also note, He will do this at the rapture or resurrection of the church.
Paul asserts that this is all for the praise of the Father’s glory, and which glory was not only manifested through the work of the Son during His First Advent (Eph. 1:7-12) but also through the work of the Holy Spirit on behalf of the church age believer at their justification.
The noun arrabōn (ἀρραβών), “the down payment” is used in a figurative sense for the Holy Spirit referring to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in the church age believer as a “down payment” of future blessings the Father promised them as a result of declaring them justified through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
This word describes the Holy Spirit as both as the church age believer’s initial enjoyment of their salvation in time and as the guarantee of the perfection of their salvation when they receive a resurrection body at the rapture or resurrection of the church and rewards for faithful service at the Bema Seat, which immediately follows the rapture.
The noun klēronomia (κληρονομία), “inheritance” refers here in Ephesians 1:14 to the church age believer not only receiving a resurrection body at the rapture or resurrection of the church but also rewards for faithful service at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church, which immediately follows the resurrection or rapture of the church.
With regards to rewards for faithful service, this word also speaks of the church age believer acquiring valuable possessions, property and exalted position of authority from the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat as a reward because of faithful service on earth.
This exalted position of authority would refer of course to being a member of Jesus Christ’s millennial government.
Interestingly, the noun klēronomia (κληρονομία), “inheritance” is the cognate of the verb klēroō (κληρόω), which appears in Ephesians 1:11 and is expressing the idea of being chosen by God.
Specifically, it speaks of the church age believer being claimed by God as His own possession.
This verb actually identifies the referent of the noun peripoiēsis (περιποίησις), “possession,” which appears here in Ephesians 1:14.
The former identifies the referent of the latter as being the church age believer as the Father’s possession, which is the direct result of the substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths of His Son on the cross, which redeemed the entire human race out of the slave market of sin in which they were all born physically alive yet spiritually dead and under the wrath of God.
This redemption was appropriated by the church age believer when they exercised faith in the Father’s Son, Jesus Christ, which resulted in the Father declaring them justified.
Simultaneously, the Father identified them with His Son in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at His right hand through the baptism of the Spirit.
The apostle Paul not only speaks of the church age believer’s inheritance in Ephesians but also in Colossians.
Colossians 3:23 Whenever any of you, at any time, should do something, each of you from your entire being, for your own benefit, must continue making it your habit of working hard as for your one and only true Lord, indeed, never for people 24 The reason for this command is that each of you know without a doubt that each of you will certainly receive for your own benefit your reward, which is your inheritance. Each of you continue making it your habit of serving the Lord, who is the Christ. (Lecturer’s translation)
Paul mentions this inheritance in Colossians 1:12.
Colossians 1:3 We continue making it our habit of giving thanks to God namely the Father of our Lord, who is Jesus, who is the Christ when we make it our habit of occupying ourselves with praying on behalf of each and every one of you as a corporate unit. 4 We do this because we heard about your faith in Christ, who is Jesus and in addition your love which you continue to regularly demonstrate for the benefit of each and every one of the saints. 5 All of you do this because of the confident expectation which is, as an eternal spiritual truth reserved in the heavens for all of you. All of you heard this by means of the teaching, which is the truth, namely the proclamation of the gospel 6 which all of you continue to appropriate for the benefit of all of you. Just as in fact throughout the entire world, it continues to produce fruit as well as spread so also it continues to produce fruit as well as spread among all of you from the day all of you obeyed. Consequently, all of you acquired an objective experiential knowledge of the grace originating from God by means of the truth. 7 Just as all of you learned the truth from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant who is faithfully serving the Christ on behalf of each and every one of us. 8 The one who also revealed to us your divine-love by means of the Spirit’s power. 9 For this reason also, from the day we ourselves heard about all of you, we never permit ourselves to cease making it our habit of occupying ourselves with praying on behalf of each and every one of you. Specifically, we make it our habit of occupying ourselves with making urgent requests that (God) would cause all of you to be filled with that which is knowing His will experientially by means of a wisdom which is absolute resulting in a discernment which is spiritual. 10 The purpose would be all of you living your lives in a manner worthy of the Lord so as to be fully pleasing to Him. This would result in all of you bearing fruit by means of each and every kind of action which is divine good in quality and character and in addition increasing in knowing experientially God the Father. 11 This is because of all of you are empowered by means of a power which is absolute, because of a power which is sovereign, namely, His glory. The purpose of which is to perfectly embody perseverance as well as patience with joy. 12 All the while, all of you making it your habit of giving thanks to the Father who has qualified each and every one of you with regards to sharing in the saints’ inheritance residing in that which is characterized by light. (Lecturer’s translation)
The inheritance in the Bible: (1) Related to God’s plan for the believer after conversion. (2) Added blessings to the Saved (i.e. Rewards on top of salvation). (3) Possession. (4) Is meritorious ownership of the kingdom (i.e. Millennium and eternal state) (5) Conditioned on faithful obedience to the will of God. (6) Can be forfeited through habitual disobedience to the will of God. (7) Two Types of inheritance (God and the possession of land in the Millennium) (Every believer receives God as their inheritance).
Although the believer’s salvation cannot be merited but is received when a person expresses faith alone in Christ alone (Eph. 2:8-9), the believer’s inheritance on the other hand is meritorious meaning they have to fulfill the condition of being faithfully obedient to the will of God till physical death or the rapture (i.e. resurrection of the church).
Because the church age believer can forfeit their eternal inheritance through unfaithfulness to the Lord, there are many warnings regarding being unfaithful (Heb. 10:35-39).
The believer is promised that if they fulfill the condition of being faithful, they will be given the privilege to reign with Christ (Rom. 8:16-18; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-1; Eph. 5:5-10; Heb. 12:12-17).
So, the inheritance mentioned in Colossians 1:12 and 3:24 is a reference to the rewards that will be given to a believer at the Bema Seat for being a faithful steward with the time, talent, treasure and truth that God bestowed upon them as trusts.