Spirit and Resurrection

The Gift of the Spirit is the First Fruits of the bodily resurrection and the Guarantee of our participation in the coming New Creation. The Apostle Paul presents Abraham as the great model of faith. God counted his faith as “righteousness” when he was uncircumcised, which means that God justified the Patriarch apart from the “works of the Law.” Thus, he became the father of all men who are also “from faith.” Circumcision was added after the promise as the confirmation of Abraham’s justifying faith.

Because of his faith, Abraham became the “heir of the world,” the ‘kosmos’, a promise which, from the beginning, envisaged something beyond the small territory of Palestine or the nation of Israel.

[Crocus Flowers - Photo by EVGEN SLAVIN on Unsplash]

All men who exercise the same faith as Abraham become heirs of the covenant promises, and the Gift of the Spirit is the down payment of the inheritance we will receive when Jesus returns, including our bodily resurrection:

• “For not through the Law does the promise belong to Abraham or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world (‘kosmos’), but through a righteousness from faith” - (Romans 4:13-18).

The references to “promise” and “heir” in the preceding passage point to future realities – things not yet received. For Abraham and his heirs, including us, the inheritance includes the ‘kosmos’ or “world.”

God appointed the Patriarch as the “Father of many nations” because he believed the word of the One who raises the dead, therefore, the Almighty granted Abraham “seed” even though Sarah’s womb was “dead.”

Paul’s terms - “heir,” “seed,” “children,” the “raising of the dead” – anticipate his later discussion in Romans chapter 8 about the “First Fruits of the Spirit,” the bodily resurrection, and the redemption of the creation from bondage to death.

We are heirs because through faith we become “coheirs” with Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God, and because we receive the “Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead. He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will quicken our death-doomed bodies through his indwelling Spirit” - (Romans 8:10-11).

Our mortal bodies are “dead because of sin,” and all men remain subject to death. However, that is not the end of the story for those of us who have the “faith of Jesus.” The Spirit that now dwells in us is the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.

Thus, Paul connects the Gift of the Spirit to our future resurrection and the past resurrection of Jesus. The Spirit and our coming resurrection are linked. Christ’s past resurrection is the basis for our resurrection when Jesus returns to “gather his elect from the four corners of the Earth” - (Matthew 24:31).

If God will redeem humanity and recover all that was lost to sin and death, redemption must include the physical body and the universe, the Cosmos- (Romans 8:15-20, 2 Peter 3:3-13).

RESURRECTION AND NEW CREATION

Because of Adam’s transgression, all things were subjected to death and decay. This terrible plight continues to the present hour while we “await the revelation of the sons of God”:

• “For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope, that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God” – (Romans 8:20-21).

Until the day Christ returns, we are assured of receiving the inheritance since we have the Gift of the Spirit, the “first fruits” of the promised inheritance - (Romans 8:21-23).

In agricultural ceremonies, the presentation of the first fruits represents the full harvest to come. In this case, the same “Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead” is the “First Fruits” of the coming “redemption of our bodies.” It also is a foretaste of the “New Heavens and the New Earth,” the redemption of the creation.

The Apostle Paul thus links the Gift of the Spirit, the New Creation, and the bodily resurrection. Like Abraham, we will inherit all this when we are raised from the dead following the arrival of Jesus “on the clouds of Heaven” when he will gather us from every inhabited corner of the planet.

The Gift of the Spirit is not simply a means of experiencing the supernatural, but it guarantees our share in the coming inheritance, especially resurrection life in the New Creation.

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SEE ALSO:

• Esprit et Résurrection - (Le Don de l'Esprit est les ‘premiers fruits’ de la résurrection corporelle et un avant-goût de la Nouvelle Création promise)

• Life through His Spirit - (Paul describes his gospel in Romans from humanity's plight due to sin to the resurrection of the dead through Jesus of Nazareth)

• Earnest of the Inheritance - (Believers are the heirs of Abraham, and their inheritance is secured and guaranteed by the Gift of the Spirit)

• Spirit and Redemption - (Paul links the bodily resurrection of believers to the New Creation. Both events are vital for our complete redemption – Romans 8:1-23)