Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
23but not only [them], but we ourselves, [the] very ones having the firstfruits of the Spirit, also are groaning in ourselves, ones waiting eagerly for adoption, the redemption of our body. 24For we were saved in this hope, but hope being seen is not hope, for who is hoping for what he is seeing? 25But, if we are hoping for what we are not seeing, we are waiting eagerly through patience.
I believe this passage answers another question that has baffled me for years. Back commenting on the end of chapter 7, I said,
“What my basic question comes down to is that I am surprised the Holy Spirit’s indwelling doesn’t do more good that it seems to. This very indwelling is at least a partial fulfilment of the New Covenant promise, ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees…’ (Ezek. 36:26,27) … So the Messiah did come. He did win the victory over sin and death. He did send the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and now believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit … What I don’t understand is why it doesn’t seem to do any more good than it does or has done … You’d think Christians in general would be noticeably more godly people … Why doesn’t it seem to make much difference if we in this dispensation are literally indwelt by the very Holy Spirit of God? Why is there still such a minimal level of general spiritual maturity amongst us believers? … Well, I’ll just have to wade into chapter 8 and see what I find!”
I’ve never noticed that
here in Romans 8:23, what is says we have been given is the “firstfruits of the
Spirit.” Firstfruits. There is the answer to my questions. I’m so excited. All of
a sudden a LOT of things make sense to me. My head feels like a pot boiling
over. I will try to record what I believe I’m seeing
Practically speaking, my basic question is, “Why hasn’t Spirit-indwelt Christianity done any better than ancient Israel?” However, theologically it goes back to the New Covenant promises of the Old Testament. As quoted above, Ezekiel recorded, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees…” People today, almost universally, would teach that this passage applies directly to us and that we are, in fact, under the New Covenant. I would like to believe that, but, as Jeremiah said, “’The time is coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…’” (31:31).
Notice, the New Covenant is with “the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” That has not happened. It won’t happen until the end of Daniel’s “Seventy Weeks.” Yet, in Acts 2, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out, and Peter said, “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people’ …” What Peter seems to be saying is that, in fact, on that day the New Covenant promises were being fulfilled. That is exactly what people today teach – but, what bothers me is that it was the Church, not Israel, being blessed that day.
Once again notice, what does Romans 8:23 say we’ve been given? The firstfruits of the Spirit. Aha! No wonder it all happened on the Day of Pentecost – the celebration of firstfruits! The very idea of the celebration was not of a full harvest but the firstfruits of it. However, the celebration is a celebration specifically because the firstfruits represent the hope of a full harvest. Those first bushels of wheat or ears of corn are part of the harvest, but only part. The full harvest is yet to come. Then again, it is not something different from the firstfruits – just MORE of it! So, there in Acts 2, what Peter is saying is not necessarily that this is a full and final fulfilment of the New Covenant promises, but it is the firstfruits of that fulfilment – not different in kind, but in fullness.
Obviously, the book of Romans has been filled with the “You will, but not yet.” We are adopted, yet we wait for our adoption. We are redeemed, yet we wait for our redemption. We are saved and heaven is our home, yet we’re still here in this broken world. What I’m seeing in this term “firstfruits” is that somehow the full ministry of the Holy Spirit is itself another “You will, but not yet.” We are indwelt, yet what we currently have are only the firstfruits of His ministry to us.
That answers my question theologically of what exactly happened on the Day of Pentecost if it wasn’t the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as prophesied in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Joel. Jesus’ enactment of the New Covenant “with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” is something different and still yet future. What happened on the Day of Pentecost was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but only the firstfruits.
That also answers my question why it hasn’t done more good than it has. Once again, you would think people indwelt by the Holy Spirit, even with the continuing struggle with the flesh, would do observably better than the people of Israel. Yet I can’t see much improvement from them to us. We have had some truly great Christians, but then they had David and Daniel and Moses. It simply is not totally fulfilled yet what God promised, “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be My people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Jer. 31:34).
Now we can also better understand the language in Eph. 1:13,14: “… When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of His glory.” We have received the Holy Spirit. He is a seal of our salvation, and then He’s described as a “a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.” Once again, we see the “you will, but not yet.” He is called there a deposit – once again the promise of something much, much more.
This helps so much. For myself, this answers a lot of questions I’ve been pondering for literally years.
Romans 8. Wow. What a chapter!
No comments:
Post a Comment