"In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Ephesians 1:13-14. Paul is piling up the riches that belong to the believer — chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, sealed — and then he names the Holy Spirit with a single strange, almost businesslike word. "Earnest" sounds to us like sincerity, a serious tone of voice. In the Greek it is nothing of the kind. It is a word straight from the marketplace and the courtroom.
The word is *arrabon*. In the commerce of the ancient world it meant a down payment — the first installment of a purchase price, handed over in advance to seal the deal and legally guarantee that the full amount would follow. An *arrabon* was not a gift or a free sample; it was part of the actual payment itself, the very same currency as the rest, binding the buyer to complete what he had begun. And there is more: *arrabon* is not even a native Greek word. It is a Semitic loanword, carried into Greek from the Hebrew *erabon* — and *erabon* appears in one unforgettable scene in Genesis. When Judah leaves a pledge with Tamar until he can send the promised goat, she asks, "Wilt thou give me a pledge [*erabon*], till thou send it?" and he hands over his signet, his cord, and his staff (Genesis 38:17-18) — his very identity, left as security that his word would be kept. That is the word Paul reaches for. And by Paul's own day, and on into Greek ever since, *arrabon* had also become the word for the pledge exchanged in betrothal — to this day it means an engagement ring.
Now feel the weight of what Paul is saying. The Holy Spirit given to you is God's *arrabon* — His legally binding first installment, put down in advance to guarantee everything He has promised. The verse says exactly what the deposit secures: it is "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." The purchase has already been made — bought, Peter says, "not with corruptible things... but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19). The full redemption is still to come. And between the price paid at the cross and the inheritance delivered at the end, God has placed a deposit inside you that He cannot and will not forfeit: His own Spirit, the same "currency" as the glory to come, a genuine first portion of the inheritance rather than a mere promissory note. Like Judah's signet in Tamar's hand, God has handed over something of Himself as security that His word will be kept.
This changes how you read the Spirit's presence in your life. The comfort, the conviction, the quiet assurance, the groanings too deep for words — these are not consolation prizes handed out to tide you over until the real thing finally arrives. They *are* the real thing, in first installment. God does not deal in samples; He deals in deposits. And a deposit is only ever the beginning of a payment the giver has already bound himself to finish. If the Spirit is God's *arrabon*, then your inheritance is not a hope He might get around to — it is a transaction He has already legally guaranteed, with a pledge He would never abandon.
Reflect: Where are you treating the Spirit's work in you as a faint sample of God's love rather than His binding down payment on your whole inheritance? What changes if the peace you feel right now is the first installment of the very glory to come — guaranteed, not merely hoped for?