The Spirit also pledges in the believers. Second Corinthians 1:22 says that God has “given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.” The pledge of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the pledge. Sealing is a mark that we are God’s inheritance, God’s possession. The pledge is a guarantee that God is our inheritance or heritage belonging to us. The Spirit within us is the pledge, an earnest, of God being our portion in Christ.
The Greek word rendered “pledge” also means a foretaste, guarantee, token payment guaranteeing the full payment, a partial payment in advance. Because we are God’s inheritance, the Holy Spirit is a seal upon us. Because God is our inheritance, the Holy Spirit is a pledge of this inheritance to us. God gives His Holy Spirit to us not only as a guarantee of our inheritance, securing our heritage, but also as a foretaste of what we shall inherit of God. This affords us a taste beforehand of the full inheritance that is coming.
In the purchase of land in ancient times, the seller would give the buyer some soil from the land as a sample. This sample was called by the Greek word for pledge. Hence, according to ancient Greek usage, a pledge is also a sample. The Holy Spirit is a sample of what we shall inherit in full.
God’s attaching us to Christ issues in three things: an anointing that imparts God’s element into us, a sealing that forms the divine element into an impression to express God’s image, and a pledging that gives us a sample and guarantee of the full taste of God. These three matters-anointing, sealing, and pledging-are actually one. They are one thing with three aspects. First we are anointed, then we are sealed, and then we have the pledge as a guarantee. We have the essence, the image, and the guarantee. All these are the processed Triune God who is now the all-inclusive Spirit. The Spirit is the ointment with which we are anointed, the essence with which we are sealed, and the pledge which guarantees that God belongs to us and that He is our portion.
In 2 Corinthians 1:22 Paul tells us that the pledge of the Spirit is in our hearts. Because this pledge is in our hearts, it becomes part of our consciousness. Now we may be conscious of the fact that the Spirit is within us as a pledge.
Second Corinthians 5:5 says, “He who has wrought us for this very thing is God, who has given to us the pledge of the Spirit.” The Greek word for “wrought” also means fashioned, shaped, prepared, made fit. God has wrought, fashioned, shaped, prepared, made us fit for the very purpose that our mortal body may be swallowed up by His resurrection life (2 Cor. 5:4). Thus, our entire being will be saturated with Christ. God has given us the Spirit as the pledge, the earnest, the foretaste, the guarantee, of this wonderful and marvelous part of His complete salvation for us in Christ.
In relation to God’s shaping, Paul says that God has given to us the pledge of the Spirit. This indicates that the main factor of God’s shaping us is His putting Himself into us as the life-giving Spirit to be a pledge. This means that God has pledged Himself to accomplish this for us. He has placed Himself as the life-giving Spirit into our spirit to guarantee that one day He will clothe us with a body of resurrection. We have a pledge that we have been made and qualified for this purpose.
Ephesians 1:14 says that the Spirit is “the pledge of our inheritance.” The pledge of the Spirit also involves movement within us. The Spirit is not only a pledge guaranteeing our inheritance; He is now pledging within us. Hence, the pledge of the Spirit is not merely a once-for-all matter, for the Spirit is continually pledging within us.
We need both the sealing and the pledging of the Spirit because in God’s work on us two kinds of inheritances are involved. Ephesians 1:11 indicates that we were made God’s inheritance, and verse 14, that God is our inheritance. In God’s economy we are an inheritance to God, and God is an inheritance to us. This is a mutual inheritance. For us to be God’s inheritance, we need the sealing. Because God is our inheritance, we also need the pledging of the Holy Spirit as a guarantee. We shall inherit all that God is and has. For such an inheritance, the Spirit is the pledge, the guarantee.
On the day we were saved God began to pledge Himself to us, and this pledging continues day by day. The pledging of the Spirit is given for our enjoyment. Whenever we are disappointed or depressed the pledging comes in to uplift us. Pledging also means that something is given to us as a guarantee. Through the Spirit’s pledging we are encouraged and stirred up. Whenever we feel that our situation is hopeless, the pledging of the Spirit fills us with hope.
Ephesians 1:14 says that the Holy Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance “unto the redemption of the acquired possession.” The redemption here refers to the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23), that is, the transfiguration of our body of humiliation into a glorious one (Phil. 3:21). The Holy Spirit today is a guarantee, a foretaste, and a sample of our divine inheritance until our body is transfigured in glory, at which time we shall inherit God in full.
The pledging of the Spirit involves the dispensing of the Triune God into us. Every day the Spirit is pledging Himself into our being as our foretaste. This foretaste of the pledging is a guarantee of the full taste. The Triune God is pledging Himself into our being. This is the dispensing of the Spirit. The more we enjoy the divine fellowship through the Spirit, the more opportunity the Spirit has to dispense Himself into us by anointing us, sealing us, and pledging in us. Therefore, in our fellowship with the Triune God, we experience the Spirit’s anointing, sealing, and pledging.
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