Earnest
“A deposit, pledge, or down payment guaranteeing completion of a purchase”
Summary
A mercantile term denoting a deposit or down payment given as a pledge and first installment guaranteeing the completion of a transaction, used by Paul to describe the Holy Spirit as God's pledge of believers' future inheritance.
☩Origin and Meaning
The Greek 'arrhabon' is derived from the Hebrew 'erabon,' meaning a pledge, and was adopted into Greek through Phoenician commerce. It signifies the deposit paid by a purchaser upon entering an agreement, serving both as security for the fulfillment of the bargain and as part-payment of the total price. Unlike a mere pledge, which might be of a different nature and returned when the contract is fulfilled, an earnest is part of the actual payment and therefore implies identity in kind between the deposit and the full amount to come. The word passed into Latin as 'arrabo' and survives in the French 'arrhes' and the old English 'arles-penny' given by a master to a servant at engagement.
☩New Testament Application
Paul uses this term three times, always in reference to the Holy Spirit as God's earnest or pledge to believers. In Corinthians, God is said to have given 'the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts' as His seal and guarantee. The Spirit dwelling in believers is thus described as a first installment assuring them that their full inheritance as children of God shall follow in the age to come. Jerome exclaimed upon considering this truth: 'If the earnest is so great, how great must be the possession!' The earnest of the Spirit guarantees believers' future heavenly habitation upon the supposition of their continued fidelity.
☩Theological Significance
The metaphor carries profound implications beyond mere security. Because an earnest is part of the full payment, it implies continuity and identity in kind between the Christian's present spiritual privileges and future inheritance. Present blessings imparted by the Spirit are both pledge and foretaste of the glory to come—not merely a token of different nature, but the actual beginning of what shall be completed. Heaven perfected will continue heaven already begun in part. The work of the Spirit in believers' hearts is thus the first fruits of their full redemption, assuring them that what God has begun He will surely complete.
Related Verses8 mentions
See Also
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Earnest," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. III (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Earnest," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. II (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.James Hastings (ed.), "Earnest," in Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, vol. I (T. & T. Clark, 1915–1918).
- 4.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Earnest," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).