This week I was ordering a new cupboard for the hall at church and was requested to put down a deposit before they would guarantee manufacture and delivery. It made me think about deposits and how they act as a securement of services or a purchase guarantee. In this year of Covid I know of many people who have lost money and deposits which were supposed to guarantee something being delivered or provided, but turned out not to be the case. Even insurance is not valid for many things in a pandemic, and moving forward we may think twice before we put anything down as a deposit or payment.
In our two recent sermon series there have been references to the Holy Spirit acting as a deposit or guarantee of the coming ‘glory’ or ‘inheritance’ that we have now in Christ. Paul says in Ephesians 1 that “having 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”. In Romans 8 we are told that the Spirit testifies (witnesses) with our spirit we are God’s children, and as such are heirs, and co-heirs with Christ of the glory that is to come. There are many guarantees or deposits that are not worth the paper they are written on in life; yet in Christ we receive the Holy Spirit who is a seal from God of who we are and what is yet to come.
However, just as a young heir to an estate, or even kingship, may still be sent off to boarding school or have to make their way in the world rather than kick back and wait for dad to fall off the perch; so we too have to journey through the ups and downs of life as we wait patiently for God’s kingdom to be fully revealed. But unlike some uncertain deposit on earth, we have a hope of this future because it is built on one foundation that gives us absolute certainty. The foundation that guarantees our inheritance and future life with God is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Paul says that it is in this hope we are saved, but it is far more than just being saved. We are now participants in the triune life of God as the Holy Spirit lives in us, and in this we taste the first fruits of the full harvest that is yet to come when Jesus is fully revealed.
So as I send off my deposit for the church hall cupboard, I hope and trust it will be made and delivered, which it probably will. But with God’s Spirit living in me as an adopted heir and co-heir with Jesus, I have a certain hope that is 100% secure of life with God that has started now but will be fully realised in the future. Paul says that nothing in this world or universe, either physical or spiritual can separate you from that or take that from you. Now that is a guarantee and foundation on which I can fully trust and build my life. This pandemic has changed our lives and the world, but it can’t change who you and I are in Jesus or separate us from his love and our inheritance as sons and daughters of God. There are days when I may not feel that way, but it doesn’t change the truth because the guarantor is not me or my emotions, but God who raise Christ from the dead with power and will raise me also. So let us live as people of hope in an ever changing world.
Grace and Peace - Garry