PLEDGE
Object or sum of money that the buyer delivers to the seller at the time of making a contract, to ensure its execution. The deposits have a legal value: they are an external sign of consent given and a guarantee of execution of the contract.
Earnest money has been used in Israel since ancient times: Judah promised his daughter-in-law Tamar (without knowing that it was her daughter-in-law) a goat if he would allow him to reach her.
Tamar agreed on the condition that she give him a “pledge”; Judah gave him as a deposit, as a guarantee, his seal, the cord that held it and the staff (Gen. 38: 17-20).
The evidentiary value of the seal that Judah gave is evident and pledges the giver’s word more than any other object.
In the New Testament, Saint Paul speaks three times of the “earnest of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14). The apostle remembers God’s faithfulness in fulfilling all his promises, and then adds that, in proof that he will fulfill his promise, he has given us the Spirit as a pledge.
The Holy Spirit is the guarantee that the believer has salvation, that he already possesses the inheritance of the kingdom of God, and his gifts and charisma are very clear evidence that this inheritance is beginning to bear fruit. The earnest of the Spirit is a pledge of the fulfillment of divine promises.