The Spirit received by the believers is also the pledge within them of the divine inheritance (Eph. 1:14; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5). The pledge of the Spirit, which is actually the Spirit Himself as the pledge, is a guarantee that God is our inheritance or heritage belonging to us. Thus, the Spirit within us is the pledge of God being our portion in Christ. The Greek word for “pledge” in Ephesians 1:14 and in 2 Corinthians 1:22 and 5:5 also means foretaste, guarantee, a part payment that guarantees the full payment. Because God is our inheritance, the Holy Spirit is the pledge of this inheritance. God gives the Spirit to us not only as a pledge of our inheritance but also a foretaste of what we shall inherit of God.
On the day we were saved, God began to pledge Himself to us. The pledge of the Spirit involves movement within us. This means that the Spirit is not only a pledge guaranteeing our inheritance but that He is now pledging within us. This pledging continues day by day. Furthermore, the pledging of the Spirit, which is given to us for our enjoyment and encouragement involves the dispensing of the Spirit into us. Therefore, the pledging of the Spirit is actually the dispensing of the Spirit. This dispensing makes us a new creation.
The Spirit has come into the believers to dwell in them. In Romans 8:9 Paul speaks of the Spirit of God dwelling in us. For the Spirit to dwell in us means that He makes His home in us. The Spirit of God in Romans 8:9 is not the same as the Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2, where He was brooding upon the face of the waters. The Spirit of God in Romans 8:9 now dwells in the tripartite man and is now the Spirit of Christ, who possesses humanity as well as divinity. In Genesis 1 the Spirit of God had not yet gone through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. The Spirit of God in Romans 8, however, is the Spirit of life who in Christ has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. All these elements have been compounded with the Spirit of God, who has come into us to dwell in us. Through the indwelling of the Spirit we have been made a new creation.
As the Spirit indwells us, He is not idle. Rather, He is active to impart life to us. According to Romans 8, the Spirit gives life to our spirit (v. 10), our soul, represented by the mind (v. 6), and our body (v. 11). Therefore, the indwelling Spirit is imparting the divine life into our tripartite being. Actually, the purpose of the Spirit’s indwelling is to dispense life, which is God Himself, into the three parts of our being, into our spirit, soul, and body.
Another verse that refers to the Spirit dwelling in the believers is 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” Because the Holy Spirit is in our spirit (Rom. 8:16) and our spirit is within our body, our body has become a temple, a dwelling place, of the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit indwells us, He dispenses the Triune God into us.
The Spirit has come into the believers to be the reality of Christ within them (John 14:17, 20; 15:26; 16:12-15). The all-inclusive Christ, who is the embodiment of the processed Triune God, is fully realized as the Spirit who dwells within us. The indwelling Spirit is the reality, the very realization, of Christ.
In John 14:17; 15:26; and 16:13 the Spirit is called the Spirit of reality. The reason the Spirit is called the Spirit of reality is that whatever the Father in the Son is and whatever the Son is, is realized in the Spirit. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, reality had not yet entered man. The reality was present, for Christ Himself is reality (John 14:6). But this reality was only among the disciples; it had not yet come into them. Therefore, the Lord told them that it was expedient for them that He go away (John 16:7). The purpose of His going was for Him to have a change in form, a change from the form of the flesh to the form of the Spirit. As soon as this change had been accomplished, His reality would become the reality of the Spirit, and the Spirit would become the Spirit of reality. Then this Spirit of reality would come to abide in the disciples to be in them the reality of Christ. Because the Spirit of reality has come into us, the reality of Christ now abides in us.
The Spirit of reality is the full realization of the Son. After the Spirit has brought us to salvation and has regenerated us, He will become in us the very reality of the Son Himself. Whatever the Son is, has, and has accomplished, obtained, and attained will all be fully wrought into us through the Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit becomes the realization of the Son. He is the reality of all that the Son is and has.
John 16:13 says, “When He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality.” The Spirit of reality does not guide the believers into the doctrine concerning Christ; the Spirit guides them into reality. This reality is nothing less than Christ Himself. Thus, the Spirit of reality will bring us into all the reality of Christ.