In Him you also who have heard the Word of Truth, the glad tidings (Gospel) of your salvation, and have believed in and adhered to and relied on Him, were stamped with the seal of the long-promised Holy Spirit. That [Spirit] is the guarantee of our inheritance [the firstfruits, the pledge and foretaste, the down payment on our heritage], in anticipation of its full redemption and our acquiring [complete] possession of it–to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13-14 (AMPC)
A down payment is a deposit. You pay a deposit on an item as a guarantee that you will bring the balance later.
When we got born again God gave us the Holy Spirit to live in us. The Holy Spirit is a down payment, a deposit or a guarantee assuring us and reminding us that all the rest of what God has for us, which we haven’t seen or experienced yet is secured for us and sure to come at God’s set time. For example we shall go to heaven when we put off this physical body (call it dying), we shall get a new glorified body when Jesus physically comes back to earth to take us to be physically with Him forever. The bodies of those who have died will be resurrected while the bodies of those alive at Jesus’ second coming will be changed to immortality
There’s a whole new heaven and earth awaiting us in which is no harm or hurt but only perfect and permanent happiness. All this is our heritage and the Holy Spirit in us now is the down payment, the deposit the guarantee of all this and much more.
