What Are the Firstfruits of the Spirit?

As mentioned in the introductory article on firstfruits, one of the New Testament uses of the concept of firstfruits is found in Romans 8:23, which says

Romans 8:22-23
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

What are these firstfruits of the Spirit? I am aware of two common explanations (feel free to comment if you have another view!):

1. That believers in this present age are the first people to receive the Spirit of God, and, in that sense, represent the "firstfruits" of those who will receive the Spirit.
2. That the measure of the Spirit given to believers in this present age is only a small portion of what God intends - i.e., individuals currently have the "firstfruits of the Spirit" in their lives but will receive the fullness of the Spirit at the resurrection.

If you had asked me a few weeks ago what I thought the "firstfruits of the Spirit" were, I would probably have said something along the lines of view #1. When I came across view #2, it also seemed to make sense. After some analysis, I don't think either of them accurately describe what is being said in Romans 8:23.

The Holy Spirit, our... Midwife?

 The life of a Christian can be put into a rough correspondence with the events of the Exodus, and this imagery is especially helpful for us during the Passover season. I've written previously about the similarities between Pharaoh and the "old man" written of by Paul (Romans 6:6, Ephesians 4:22), and this post is along the same lines. The "old man" is the person that we were before repentance and baptism. As much as we would like to be a 100% new person who doesn't sin anymore after baptism, it just doesn't work that way! We are still physical beings, and we have to struggle against the flesh and bring it into subjection to God. Occasionally, the Old Man gets the upper hand, and our spiritual lives wane - in effect, we go back to bondage in spiritual Egypt.

God allowed Israel, His people, to suffer slavery in Egypt for over 400 years. Even while they were slaves, God watched over them and allowed their population to grow larger and larger, working to fulfill a promise made to Abraham. Eventually, the Pharaoh came to see Israel's increasing numbers as a threat, and so he devised a plan to keep their population under control. 

Exodus 1:9-11
And [Pharaoh] said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land." Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them.

Becoming Circumcised as a Christian

Thus far, I have examined the relationship of circumcision to the New Covenant in two parts: that it is the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, which is the foundation of the New Covenant, and that it was an outward sign intended to mirror an internal spiritual process. In this article, I would like elaborate on how Christian circumcision, which is spiritual, differs from the physical circumcision undergone by Israel under the Old Covenant.

Sharing in Christ's Death: Escaping the Consequence of Sin

In the previous 2 articles in this series leading up to Passover, we observed that sin causes death and we learned that sin is the transgression of God's law - the same law that is found in the Old Testament. We deserve death for our sins, but God has given us a way that leads to life. This post is going to elaborate on exactly what we have to go through to obtain the life that God has promised.

Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned

Aren't we dead already if that's the case? YES, we are, and that's exactly the point that I'm now going to make. In Acts 2, the people heard Peter's sermon and were terrified when Peter condemned them for their sins because they knew that they deserved to die:

Acts 2:37-38
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

The Sanctifying Work of the Spirit

The opening statements in many of the letters of the New Testament always sound the same to me. As I was reading a few days ago, I came to the beginning of 1 Peter and noticed just how dense it is:

1 Peter 1:1-2

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect… who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

As my title may suggest, I'm going to focus on what this says about the Spirit, but first I want to cut through the syntax of these verses and highlight the important points:

Jesus Will Build the House for God’s Name

Recall from the previous snack that the book of Hebrews reveals that some of the prophecies concerning Solomon are also applicable to Christ. Of those that I examined, I’d now like to focus on 2 Samuel 7:13: “He is the one who will build a house for my Name.” Let’s notice first of all that Jesus referred to His own body as God’s temple when talking to the Pharisees:

John 2:19

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

The Fire of the Holy Spirit

In the midst of Paul’s closing remarks to the Thessalonians, he likens the Holy Spirit to a fire that dwells within us:

1 Thessalonians 5:19

Do not put out the Spirit’s fire

It’s easy to read this and say, “Oh, I get it. The Spirit is like a fire and we’re supposed to always have the Spirit in us, like not letting a fire go out” (this was my first thought, anyway). But then I remembered something from the Old Testament. God gave the Old Covenant law for very deliberate and specific reasons. Every sacrifice in Leviticus reveals something special about Christ. Every article of the tabernacle in Exodus reveals something about how we are to live, since we are now the temple of God. Recall one of the Lessons from Psalm 1: we should delight in God’s law, but we cannot delight in the law if we do not know the law. When we read that the Spirit is a fire that we must not put out, then we should remember what is written in the law:

Do You Trust in the Flesh or in the Spirit?

I've been remiss in writing during the Feast of Tabernacles, partly due to lack of internet and partly due to lack of time. Now that I'm back, I should have a fair amount of both, and I'm full of ideas from the Feast, so hang on tight! For today, a subtle point about the following scripture in Jeremiah occurred to me.

Jeremiah 17:5

Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

When I asked in the title, "Do you trust in the flesh or in the Spirit?" I can't imagine that many people would answer that they trust in the flesh - but the reality is that many people who call themselves Christians trust in the flesh rather than the Spirit!

How to Change Your Mind

I was at a food safety seminar recently, and the subject of how to get people to practice better sanitation standards came up. The remark was made that in many cases people know what good sanitation standards are and can easily pass quizzes on the most important points, and yet so many food-handlers don’t practice them. The speaker remarked that indeed we all do this sometimes – we know that we should wash our hands after going to the restroom, but sometimes we just don’t. Why is that, and what does it have to do with God?