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The filet mignon of the word, part 17, The law of pledges and the Holy Spirit

There are three Hebrew words translated “pledge.” Two of them are in the law itself. First, there is khawbal (“to bind, destroy”) used in Exodus 22:26. The second is abote (“security for debt”), used in Deuteronomy 24:10.

We will focus primarily on the third word, arrabon, which means the same as abote, “security for debt.” This word is used three times in Genesis 38:17, 18, and 20.

Arrabon

This word arrabon is what the Apostle Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 5:5,

⁵ Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge [arrabon].

Normally, Paul used Greek words to speak of pledges, but when he spoke of the Spirit, he used a Hebrew word, taken from Genesis 38. It records how Judah met a woman that he took for a prostitute, not knowing that she was his dead son’s widow, Tamar. After enlisting her services, he agreed to pay her a young goat. He did not have a goat with him, so she asked for a pledge on his debt (Genesis 38:17).

She asked him for “your seal and your cord and your staff that is in your hand” (Genesis 38:18). Thus we see the difference between a debt and a pledge on that debt. A debt is what a debtor owes to his creditor, and when the debt is paid, the creditor must return the pledge to its original owner.

So we come to a startling truth in Scripture. God gave the Spirit as a pledge. That means God was treating Himself as a Debtor. It means that God owes us a debt that He decided not to pay up front, but the Holy Spirit was His pledge until such time as His debt was paid. I have heard it said that God will be no man’s debtor, but that is not true. The Holy Spirit is security on God’s debt to us.

This is not something that is commonly understood, mostly because long ago the church stopped teaching the law. And so when the KJV translated 2 Corinthians 5:5, they used the phrase, “the earnest of the Spirit.” They thought that the Spirit was earnest money, that is, a downpayment on something more that was to come later. But earnest money is not returned to the one buying the property, for it is a partial payment on a debt; pledges are to be returned when the debt is paid.

So let us dig a little deeper to see why God would consider Himself to be our Debtor.

Debts and Debtors

All sin is reckoned as a debt. This is seen in the basic law of restitution, where a thief, when convicted in court, owes his victim double restitution. In Luke 11:4 Jesus taught us to pray,

⁴ And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

Here sin and debt are equated. We see this in various parables as well, such as the one about the great debtor in Matthew 18:23-35. The servant’s debt was forgiven, but because he refused to forgive the minor debt that his neighbor owed him, his own debt returned to him. Matthew 18:35 KJV gives the moral of the story,

³⁵ So likewise shall My heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

In other words, Jesus’ parable about forgiving debts was really about forgiving trespasses.

This parable applies to Adam himself, whose sin incurred a debt he could not pay. Therefore, he was sold into bondage on account of his sin. He lost his original glorified body, which had clothed him from the beginning. God took it from him and clothed him with alternate clothing, of which Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:2, 3,

² For indeed, in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. ³ inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked.

Jesus, being “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45), reversed the effects of Adam’s sin by paying for the sin of the whole world (1 John 2:2). As soon as this debt was paid, God owed us “our dwelling from heaven.” However, He chose to remain in our debt for a season, and this is why He gave us a pledge at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is His security on the debt He owes us for the glorified body, or the heavenly clothing.

The pledge is a guarantee that we will receive this heavenly clothing when He returns. This clothing will be given to those who fulfill the feast of Tabernacles. The Old Testament practice was for people to leave their houses (made of dead wood and stone) and to build booths from living branches. Living branches represented immortality in those days, but under the New Covenant, we expect to be clothed with immortality so that, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:4, “what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.”

When the feast of Tabernacles is fulfilled, and we receive our heavenly garments, the Holy Spirit will remain as His pledge toward immortality.