The Spirit and Resurrection
In his Letter to the Romans, Paul presents Abraham as the great exemplar of faith. God counted his faith as “righteousness” when he was yet uncircumcised, which means that He justified the Patriarch apart from the “works of the Law.” Thus, he became the father of all men who are also “from faith,” the “faith of Jesus Christ.” Circumcision was added after the promise as the “seal” of Abraham’s justifying faith and the “sign” of the Covenant.
Due to his faith, he became the
“heir of the WORLD,” a promise that envisioned something greater than the
tiny territory of Palestine or the nation of Israel. Every man who now exercises the
same faith as Abraham becomes an heir of the promises - “For not through the Law does the promise belong to Abraham or to his seed,
but through a righteousness FROM FAITH” - (Romans 4:13-18).
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| [Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash] |
References to “promise” and “heir” in Paul’s letters point to future realities - things not yet received. Moreover, the inheritance will be nothing less than the kosmos, the “world,” if not the entire Universe.
God appointed Abraham as the “father
of many nations” since he believed the word of the One who raises the
dead. Therefore, He granted him “seed” though Sarah’s womb was “dead.”
Paul’s terms - “heir,” “seed,”
“children,” the “raising of the dead” – all anticipate his discussions
in the Letter to the Romans about the “first fruits of the Spirit,”
the resurrection, and the redemption of the creation.
Believers are “heirs” since
through faith they become “coheirs” with Jesus. Moreover, because they
now have “the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the
dead, he that raised Christ Jesus from the dead will quicken their death-doomed
bodies through his indwelling Spirit” - (Romans
8:10-11).
Our present mortal bodies are “dead
because of sin.” All men remain subject to death, but that is not the end of the story for the
followers of Jesus. The Spirit that now dwells in believers is the same Spirit
that raised him from the dead, therefore it will also resurrect those who have
the “faith of Jesus.”
Thus, Paul connects the Gift of
the Spirit to the resurrection of the saints and the past resurrection of Jesus.
His bodily resurrection, the Gift of the Spirit, and the future raising of righteous
men and women from the dead are all inextricably linked. His resurrection is
the model and the legal grounds for our own resurrection.
If God is to redeem humanity
and recover all that was lost to sin and death, redemption must include the physical
body and the creation itself - (Romans 8:15-20).
FIRST FRUITS
Because of Adam’s
transgression, all things were subjected to death and decay. This terrible
condition continues until the present hour while we “await the revelation of
the sons of God.” On that day, the “Creation itself also shall be freed
from the bondage of decay into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God.”
Nevertheless, believers can rest assured they will obtain the inheritance. Already they enjoy a foretaste of everlasting life in the possession of the Gift of the Spirit, the “first fruits” of the coming inheritance in the age to come - (Romans 8:21-23).
In
agriculture, the “first
fruits” represent the coming full harvest. In the case of believers, the same
“Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead” is the “first fruits,”
the foretaste of the “redemption of our bodies” in the coming “New Heavens
and New Earth.”
Paul connects the Gift of the
Spirit, the New Creation, and the bodily resurrection. Like Abraham and
the promise of land for his descendants, the followers of Jesus will inherit
the New Heavens and the New Earth though their inheritance will be infinitely
grander than anything even imagined in the promise of the Land of Canaan.
This glorious vision will become
reality when they are raised from the dead at the “arrival” or ‘Parousia’
of Jesus as he consummates the Kingdom of God and overthrows the “last
enemy, death” at the end of the age – (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).
The Gift of the Spirit is not
simply or primarily a means for performing miraculous deeds or undergoing mystical
experiences. It is the guarantee and foretaste of our inheritance, namely, the
everlasting resurrection life we will enjoy forevermore in the New Creation.
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