“5Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.” 2 Cor 5

Some say Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit being given to Apostles and Prophets for them to do the supernatural things like healing and speaking the Word by inspiration. What do you think? Consider what Paul says in Ephesians….

“13In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation– having also believed, you were SEALED in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14who is given as a PLEDGE of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of [God’s own] possession, to the praise of His glory.” Eph 1 .

Here is Paul not talking to Apostles and Prophets, but to the Christians in Ephesus who heard the gospel and were saved by it. He says to them God gave to them the Holy Spirit (hagios pneuma) as a seal and PLEDGE of their inheritance (in heaven). See the word “pledge”? It’s the same as in the previously quoted verse in 2 Cor. The Holy Spirit is given as a pledge and not only to the supernaturally endowed Apostles and Prophets. Need more proof?

See the word SEALED in the previous passage in Eph. 1? Consider another passage in Ephesians….

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were SEALED for the day of redemption.” Eph 4:30.

That word “sealed” in this verse is the same Greek word as in the previously quoted passage. Both passages tell the Ephesians the were SEALED by the Holy Spirit. And this passage in chapter 4 says therefore not to “grieve” the Holy Spirit. There is no good reason to say the Holy Spirit is not given to Christians. Paul makes it clear that the Holy Spirit is given by God to Christians as a Pledge or guarantee of their inheritance. So where is the Holy Spirit that is given to Christians? Considered the following passage….

“17But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit [with Him]. 18Flee immorality. Every [other] sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is a TEMPLE of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

This passage again say the Holy Spirit is IN YOU, because you are the temple in which it dwells. That verse 19 says Christians who can defile their body by sexual sins is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We can easily see that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who have been saved and who are therefore sanctified, holy by the blood of Christ. Therefore He places His Holy Spirit in them as a pledge, to seal them as belonging to them until the day of redemption. The Christian being made holy is the temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. Consider another passage concerning the Holy Spirit….

“And we are witnesses of these things; and [so is] the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.” Acts 5:32.

The supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are imparted by the Holy Spirit to whom He chooses and there was no guarantee anyone would be so gifted, so says Paul in 1 Cor. 14 when he says that the gifted who may, for example, prophesy or speak in tongues, must be mindful to edify the “ungifted” Christians. Not everyone had what Paul had. Contrary to what the charismatics claims, not everyone spoke in tongues, 1 Cor. 12:30. Not everyone had hands laid on them to impart the Holy Spirit the way Timothy did by Paul, 2 Tim. 1:6.

BUT, all who obeyed had salvation and received the Holy Spirit to indwell the temple they are, as a pledge of and seal unto salvation. The Holy Spirit “in” you is not beside you or outside of you. The location is in you. He is not standing outside of the temple. He does not “DWELL” just outside of the temple you are. God makes it clear the Holy Spirt dwells in Christians. Need more proof?

2 Cor. 1:21-22 says Jesus anointed you and the Holy Spirit sealed you. Romans 8 says the Spirit of God that raised Jesus dwells in you, He will also give life to your mortal body. I believe in the Holy Spirit. As I believe in the Father and the Son, I believe the Holy Spirit is active today in the lives of believers. And the Bible makes it abundantly clear that the Holy Spirit dwells in the Christian who is made a holy temple by the anointing of Jesus Christ. Anyone who is not washed in the blood cannot have the Holy Spirit in him. But if you obey the Gospel, repent and are baptized, you are washed by faith and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you. Amen.

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