Answer
The world is presently under a curse pronounced by its Creator because of sin and rebellion (Genesis 3:14, 17). Along with everything else in creation, the children of God groan under the heavy weight of that curse (see Romans 8:19–23). This dark and broken world is all we know right now. But one day, the curse of sin will be lifted (Revelation 22:1–5). The newly created heavens and earth and all who are made new in Christ will bask in God’s glory (Revelation 22:1–5). Until then, believers experience a foretaste of that future glory: “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22–23, ESV).
Firstfruits is an Old Testament term indicating the first and best portion of the harvest, which God designated for Himself and His priests (Leviticus 2:12; 23:10; Deuteronomy 18:4). Here in Romans 8:23, the apostle Paul uses the expression firstfruits of the Spirit as a metaphor for God’s transformative work of the Spirit in His people—a work of sanctification that will eventually culminate in resurrection glory. We groan now because we live in a fallen world, but we know the best is yet to come.
At salvation, when we receive the Holy Spirit, we get a taste of the entire, all-you-can-eat spiritual buffet that will be ours in heaven when we come into our full inheritance as God’s children. Paul tells the Corinthians that God has “set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1:22; see also 2 Corinthians 5:5).
Paul writes to the Ephesians, “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession” (Ephesians 1:13–14, see also Ephesians 4:30). The firstfruits of the Spirit are equivalent to a deposit or a down payment from God providing the certainty that one day we will be given of our complete spiritual inheritance as adopted sons and daughters of God.
Having the firstfruits of the Spirit enables us to “lay aside every weight” of sin (Hebrews 12:1). It also allows us to endure hardship in our current state because “what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later” (Romans 8:18, NLT). We can be “pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed, . . . perplexed, but not driven to despair, . . . hunted down, but never abandoned by God, . . . knocked down, but we are not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8–9, NLT).
The firstfruits of the Spirit empower us to “rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance” (Romans 5:3, NLT; see also James 1:1–12; 5:7–12). And we don’t give up or lose hope because, “though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:16–17, NLT). We know with all assurance “that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us . . . to himself” (2 Corinthians 4:14).
The firstfruits of the Spirit remind us daily as we groan in this life that this world is not our permanent home: “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. . . . [W]e want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:1–4, NLT).
One day we will stand before Jesus face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). We will see Him, and we will be like Him (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:49), and we will live with Him and serve Him forever in glory (Romans 6:8; 2 Timothy 2:11; 4:18; 1 John 2:25; 5:11; Revelation 1:6; 20:6).
