Who is the earnest of our inheritance. The gift of the Spirit is not only a seal, but an earnest, firstfruit, or installment, a pledge that the rest shall follow. The seal of the Spirit not only assures us of the full inheritance to come, but gives us a right conception of its nature.
It shows us the kind of provision God makes for those whom he takes as his heritage, his peculiar people. It is an inward heaven the Spirit brings them. "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."
The full inheritance will consist in a heart in full sympathy with God, and in those occupations and joys, intellectual and moral, which are most congenial to such a heart. Unto the redemption of the purchased possession.
The until of the A.V. is not textual, and does not give the force of εἰς, which implies that the earnest of the Spirit is a contribution toward the result described; it tends to realize it. "Redemption" here is not quite equivalent to "redemption" in Ephesians 1:7; for there it is a thing accomplished, here it is a thing to come.
It is obvious that here the meaning is the completed redemption—the full and final deliverance of the Lord's heritage from all sin and sorrow, from all the evils and disorders of this life. The term περιποιήσις, translated" purchased possession," is an unusual one.
But its resemblance to περιούσιος, the Septuagint rendering for "a special people;" its use by Peter, λαὸς περιποίησεως, "a peculiar people;" the use of the verb ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ ἢν περιεποιήσατο διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτου, "the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood;"—show that it must be regarded in this place as denoting the special, own, purchased possession of God, whose final glory is so often presented to our thoughts in this Epistle.
To the praise of his glory. For the third time in this paragraph, these or similar words are introduced. In this place the precise meaning is that the consummation of redemption will be the highest tribute to God's glory—his infinite excellence will be wonderfully manifested thereby.
Neither men nor angels are qualified to apprehend the glorious excellence of God in an abstract way; it needs to be revealed, exhibited in acts and operations. The teaching of this verse is that it will be manifested with triumphant brightness in the final redemption of the Church, when the groans of nature shall come to an end, and the creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into "the glorious liberty of the sons of God" (Romans 8:21).