Promise of the Father
Paul calls the Gift of the Spirit the “Promise of the Father,” and he links it to the Abrahamic covenant. The promises to Abraham and to “his Seed” find their fulfillment in the New Covenant inaugurated by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. The bestowal of the Spirit marked the start of the age of fulfillment, and Gentile believers are now welcome into the one covenant community as heirs of the Patriarch and coheirs with Jesus.
The Gift
of the Spirit is an essential part of the Gospel. Not only has God provided the
means to reconcile us to Himself and one another, but also the power to walk in
“newness of life” through the Spirit that now dwells in every true
believer.
[Waterfalls - Photo by Carlo Borella on Unsplash] |
Paul identified the “Promise of the Spirit” with the “Blessings of Abraham.” The original covenant always envisioned the inclusion of the nations, a point he used when arguing for the acceptance of Gentiles without undergoing the rite of circumcision.
All men
and women who belong to Jesus become “Abraham’s
heirs according to promise.” The old
distinctions between “Jew and Gentile” no longer apply in the Assembly
of God, and the inclusion of the Gentiles was never an afterthought or later
adjustment to the covenant - (Genesis 12:1-3, Galatians 3:1-14, 3:29):
- “In whom, you also are hearing the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also believing, were sealed with the Spirit of the promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, for the redemption of the acquisition, for his glorious praise” - (Ephesians 1:13-14).
The Gift
of the Spirit is the “earnest,” the “down payment” that
guarantees the disciple’s participation in the inheritance. The references in Ephesians
to “inheritance” and “acquisition” allude to the territory
promised by God to Abraham - “I will give to you and your seed all the land
of Canaan for an everlasting possession” - (Genesis 17:8).
Thus, Paul connects the Gift of
the Spirit to the Abrahamic covenant, including its promise of territory. Likewise,
Jesus labeled the Gift as the “Promise of the Father.” Before his Ascension,
he commanded his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the Spirit.
Only then would they become his “witnesses to the uttermost parts of the Earth”
and take his Gospel to the nations under the guidance and empowerment of the
Spirit - (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4).
PROMISES FULFILLED
In his sermon
on the Day of Pentecost, Peter declared that the outpouring of the Spirit was according
to the prophecy in the Book of Joel - “In the last days, God will pour out His Spirit on
all flesh.” It demonstrated
that the final period, the “Last Days,” was underway, an era that would
continue until the return of Jesus - (Genesis 17:7-10, Joel 2:28-32, Acts
2:38-39).
The Gift
of the Spirit is how men and women receive the “Blessings of Abraham.”
By it, men from every nation find themselves blessed with faithful Abraham, heirs
of the promises and equal members of the covenant community - (Genesis 12:3,
Acts 3:25, Romans 4:13).
The
actualization of the promises began with the outpouring of the Spirit on the
Day of Pentecost. Since then, everyone who receives the Gift becomes a “child
of Abraham,” and therefore, the old boundaries between Jew and Gentile are
wholly inappropriate in the people of God, singular - (Galatians 3:27-29).
The Mosaic
legislation anticipated the need for something beyond the Law. The Torah could
not complete what God had begun through Abraham. Inevitably, the nation of Israel
violated the covenant. However, after chastisement and repentance, the nation
would “return to Yahweh and obey His voice,” and He would gather His
people from all nations and “circumcise their hearts to love Him” -
(Deuteronomy 30:1-6).
[Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash] |
The themes of renewal and the circumcision of the heart were taken up centuries later by the prophet Jeremiah. God fully intended to “make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,” one not like the covenant made at Sinai. With the arrival of the Spirit, God began to write His laws on the hearts of His people, and the promised circumcision of the heart was and is being actualized in the Body of Christ - (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Hebrews 8:6-13).
The Book
of Ezekiel added the aspect of the Spirit to the coming “New Covenant.”
When Yahweh gathered the children of Israel, He would put “a new spirit”
in them, and thereby He would “cause them to walk in His statutes.”
The Book
of Ezekiel combines the promises of the Spirit, the circumcised heart,
and the New Covenant, making the covenant promises dependent on the receipt of
the Spirit by the people of God - (Ezekiel
36:16-28, 37:25-28, 2 Corinthians
3:1-6).
Consistently,
the New Testament links the promise to Abraham with the Gift of the Spirit that
is granted freely to Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus, and it labels it the
“Promise of the Father” and the “Blessing of Abraham.”
The Gift
of the Holy Spirit is the identifying mark of the End-Time People of God.
The Spirit empowers believers to walk in the New Covenant, to fulfill the “righteous
requirements of the Law,” to proclaim the Gospel to the “uttermost parts
of the Earth,” and to do so until the moment Jesus appears “on the
clouds of Heaven.”
RELATED POSTS:
- Earnest of the Inheritance - (Believers are the heirs of Abraham, and the possession of their inheritance is secured and guaranteed by the Gift of the Spirit)
- The Life-Giving Spirit - (Jesus declared, The Spirit makes alive. The flesh profits nothing. The words which I have spoken to you, they are spirit, and they are life)
- The Blessing of Abraham - (The Gift of the Spirit is imparted by Jesus as part of God’s promise to bless all the nations in Abraham’s Seed, namely, Jesus)