What are the firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:23)?

Later on in this chapter we read of the whole creation groaning, while waiting for the liberty of the children of God (verses 19-23). There is also a groan in the Christian's heart, in fellowship with creation. It is in every one who is Christ's. You could not be a Christian without suffering with Christ. just as Christ felt what ravages sin had produced in this Satan-ruled, and death-governed scene, you and I must feel as we go through it. The Spirit of Christ in us will be the source of the sentiments that filled the bosom of Jesus. Possessing a moral nature that is opposed to all that is around us in the world, we are pained by it and groan. Therefore we read, "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." We feel the misery, and sin of creation. You see, the Christian is still linked to the old creation, and the link with it is his body. Alas! he is often governed by it. It is a sad thing how ofttimes we are governed by our body. What, then, is the Christian's link with the new creation — with heaven? It is the Holy Ghost. Consequently Paul says, "Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." You must not understand by "firstfruits" that we receive a little bit of the Spirit, and then have to expect more to follow. We have the "first-fruits" of the scene, and land, to which we are going, before we get there. We know the atmosphere of the country, the colour, the taste, the goodness of the fruit that grows there, long before we reach it. We are like the Israelites in the wilderness, when the two men returned with the grapes of Eshcol. It was a wonderful bunch that needed two men to carry it. The grapes of Eshcol are the enjoyment of heavenly things, the "firstfruits" of that land, which the Holy Ghost gives us to know, while we are here in this scene, yet on our way to glory, and waiting for the redemption of our body.

We are already sons of God. Yet we wait for "the adoption," that is, for the full state and glory of the position, which will be reached when our bodies are redeemed at the coming of the Lord. We have been saved in hope (not, by hope) and are consequently put in the position of patient waiting for the promised glory. Saved are we in expectancy of glorious things to come, yet we have the Firstfruits in the Spirit who has been given to us. The firstfruits were offered up in Israel as the pledge and foretaste of the coming harvest (see, Lev. 23:10, 17, 20), so in the Firstfruits of the Spirit we have the pledge and foretaste of the redeemed body and the glory that is ahead.

The Spirit is the firstfruits of the inheritance that we are about to enter into; the firstfruits of the glory that is to be revealed to us; the firstfruits of the new order that God will bring in with Christ in the day of His glory. How sweet the firstfruits should be to us, as we now taste by the Spirit the blessedness of our portion with Christ. Our place of nearness to Christ in the coming day, our place in the affections of God then, can now be enjoyed because we have the Spirit as the firstfruits (Rom. 8:23).

“And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” “The firstfruits of the Spirit” gives us a foretaste in anticipation of that bright day of glory; but despite the unutterable blessedness of this, we are still in the body connected with a sin-tainted creation. So that our rejoicing is mingled with groans. Thus God gives His renewed saints to feel the sorrows of the old creation, and to yearn with more earnest desire for the glory to be revealed. We see here there is an added meaning given to adoption, when comparing v. 15 and Gal. 4:1-7. In one sense we have received the adoption (Gal. 4:5-7), becoming sons of God by faith. In this case we wait for the adoption, the redemption of the body — that is, our bodies being delivered from this sphere of sin and corruption, and conformed to the image of Christ, we shall be publicly manifested as sons of God. By faith we have the adoption now; by manifestation we shall have it in glory.

"For we, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption," that is, the full manifestation of what we are as sons of God, now hidden. That involves the body being glorified. We wait, therefore, for the adoption, that is, the redemption of the body. The firstfruits of the Spirit would seem to imply that after all what we possess in this way is but a pledge in anticipation of that which is to come, and we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, on that very account, are made to groan. The hope we have of a condition so different from the present makes us only the more groan over the present. Our salvation is in hope, as to the full character of it. Of course, there is a salvation of which we can say already that God hath saved us. If it be a question simply of guilt and condemnation, then we are already completely saved; but salvation is very commonly looked at in a very different way from this, and it implies deliverance of the body itself and the fulfilment of all God's purposes as to us. We are saved now in hope, but then that means that we have not got before us that which we hope for. If we behold it, how can we still hope for it? "If we hope for what we behold not, then do we with patience wait for it." How beautiful a thought it is that this hope is so perfect, there is such complete assurance with regard to it, that the not having it only produces patience in us — not doubt, but patience! All human hopes may possibly disappoint, but die hope which God has given us is as sure as if we already possessed it. We wait with patience, and the patience itself is holy discipline for us. We wait upon His will, but all that He can give us in the way of assurance is already ours.

The firstfruits of the Spirit are the witness of our final deliverance.

Christians are said to have the first-fruits of the Spirit: they have the earnest or pledge of still future and larger blessing. Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 5:5; Eph. 1:14.

As an Earnest. Two of the passages already cited speak of the Spirit as the earnest. "Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (2 Cor. 1:22); "In whom 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, unto the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1:13-14). It is the latter passage which defines most exactly the character of the earnest. The Holy Spirit as now given is regarded as "the earnest of our inheritance"; that is, He is the first-fruits of that which we shall inherit in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. As indeed when a sale is effected of a property, a portion of the purchase-money is paid down as earnest-money for the completion of the bargain, so God graciously gives us the indwelling Spirit as the earnest of our inheritance, thereby assuring us that we shall possess all that He has promised, and binding Himself (if we may so speak) to accomplish His own faithful word; for the earnest-money is both a promise and a pledge. But the Holy Spirit is even more, because, as we have seen, He is also the seal, thereby securing us for the inheritance, as well as certifying us that God will put us into possession of it to the praise of His glory.

But more: the earnest was a part payment in kind. The full payment would be of the same character as the earnest. So we are said to have received "the first-fruits of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:23). Greatly rejoicing, and yet now for a season in heaviness through manifold trials, as Peter says. The first-fruits of the Spirit remind us of those fruits of the land brought by the spies to their brethren yet in the wilderness. To faith, those fruits were the pledge that the inheritance was theirs but they were also a sample of the fruits yielded by that good land.

"The firstfruits of the Spirit," (Rom. 8:23), given to all believers is the seal of their oneness with Christ, the earnest and pledge of their resurrection and association with Christ in glory and the power for enjoying this great truth now. If Christ had not been glorified at God's right hand, the Spirit would not have come down to dwell in believers. (John 7:39). The presence of the Holy Spirit on earth is the witness that Christ is glorified at God's right hand. (John 15:26)