Future

Oneday my friend Arthur Lewis, an expert in biblical Greek, was walking along the streets of Athens. Accompanying him was a professor who taught Greek. They stopped occasionally to read the signs in shop windows.

As they gazed into a jewellery shop, they saw a sign with the word arrabon on it. When they entered and talked to the shop owner, he told them that in modern Greek the word arrabon means “an engagement ring”. The Greek professor thought for a moment, then commented, “How interesting! In the New Testament that’s the term for ‘a guarantee, a down payment’.”

In Ephesians 1:13-14, we are told that the Holy Spirit is given to believers as an arrabon, a down payment, a guarantee of heaven. The blessing of the Spirit’s presence in our lives is a foretaste of the greater blessings we will enjoy when we are welcomed into heaven and eternally united with the Lord Jesus.

Now the Spirit lives in us to give us guidance and power to live for God (John 16:13; Galatians 5:22-23). But someday we’ll have even more: we will live in the very presence of God. With joyful expectancy we await that day—for our future is guaranteed! —Vernon Grounds

God’s guidance and help that we need day to day Is given to all who believe; The Spirit has sealed us—He’s God’s guarantee That heaven we’ll one day receive. —Branon