A Blessed Hope; A Godly PREFERENCE;
“Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge,{Down payment}.
“God is preparing us right now for our eternal destiny. Here, Paul connects the ideas of our light affliction and the eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). Our light affliction is (in part) how God has prepared us…
b. Who has also given us the Spirit as a guarantee: When the trials are hard on earth, it isn’t always easy to take comfort in our heavenly destiny. God knew this, so He gave us the Spirit as a guarantee. He backs up the promise of heaven with a down payment right now, the Holy Spirit.
i. Guarantee is the ancient Greek word arrhabon, which described a pledge or a partial payment that required future payments but gave the one receiving the guarantee a legal claim to the goods in question. In the modern Greek language, arrhabona means “engagement ring.”
ii. Many Christians experience great blessing from the Holy Spirit right now. When we consider how glorious the down payment is, we should consider how great the whole gift will be.
iii. “So the Holy Spirit is a part of heaven itself. The work of the Holy Spirit in the soul is the bud of heaven. Grace is not a thing which will be taken away from us when we enter glory, but will develop into glory. Grace will not be withdrawn as though it had answered its purpose, but will be matured into glory.” (Spurgeon)-{ David Guzik}
“Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and PREFER rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”-{2 Cor 5:6-8}
Note twice in the passage,“Good Courage,” is mentioned in light of “knowing,”- knowledge of something. It is a continuous command, an attitude of confidence, a certainty in the context of difficulties that Paul speaks of with a desire, not merely to escape the difficulties but a desire far greater, to be present with the LORD. A looking forward to this reality, gave hope, assurance, confidence in the midst, that we are a people away from Home, living as foreigners with the Hope we are heading Home to be with Him some day.
The Holy Spirit has been given as a pledge and produces the confidence, and so with that hope, assurance, confidence we walk, live by faith in Him in everyday life, not by sight, for we know whom we have believed in and know the difficulties, distractions we face are not the end, but Christ Himself is for His own, to be present with Him! The Holy Spirit produces this confidence and courage. Paul didn’t trust in what he could see but his confidence,courage was in the LORD and in doing so, allowing His Word to have effect on the way to live. Doing all of live living by faith- {Read 2 Cor 5:7}. His Word is where we find out about Him, His ways, promises. And so we must live there in His Word, renewing our mind, meditating upon it, doing it! -{Read Matt 4:4; Rom 12:2; Psalm 1:2; James 1:22-24}
We are all walking by faith and one moment upon His doing our walk becomes SIGHT! We will SEE Him!{Read 1 John 3:2}. Glorious thought. We have reason to be of “good courage,” confidence today we are walking towards Home with each passing day…
* Courage for the moment
* Confidence for the future
* Christ Our Companion
* Christ Our destination
* Contemplate Him
* Celebrate Him
“Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and PREFER rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”-{2 Cor 5:6-8}