A future hope will always put to shame if there is no present guarantee that the hope will be realized. If I announce that a certain rich man is to give me a fortune of ten million dollars ten years hence, the hope of this wealth will put to shame if there is nothing to show that the millionaire will keep his word. My friends are likely to say, “We shall wait and see.” But if the millionaire gives me as an earnest of the expected inheritance a check for half a million dollars, my hope does not put me to shame. Now notice what follows God’s statement that this hope of his glory puts not to shame: “because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us.” The perfect guarantee of my _future_ likeness to the Lord Jesus is the miracle of my _present_ likeness to him. The love of God shed abroad in my heart makes me like Jesus. The love of God shed abroad keeps out hatred and all other manifestations of self, so long as the Spirit is in control and can express his fruit. The Holy Spirit is the payment down of this future glory. The Holy Spirit _hath been given_ unto us, not will be; this is not a future hope. The Holy Spirit is our earnest. “In whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:13, 14). Make Use of Your “Earnest”! In rejoicing in that glorious hope of what is to be brought to us at the appearing of the Lord Jesus, let us take care not to despise the present provision for victory and purity in the Holy Spirit. We long for the redemption of our bodies, that we may be clothed upon with that tabernacle which is from heaven, “that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life,” and that we may have a body like his glorious body; but meanwhile we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, and we rejoice in the tribulations and all the things this body endures because it works out in that growth which gives more and more of his own character (Rom. 8:23-26; 2 Cor. 5:1-5). These passages in Romans and Second Corinthians just quoted make it clear that the future hope refers particularly to the redemption of our bodies, when we shall have a body like to the body of his glory. Every Christian will receive this body and be conformed to his likeness; for this, as is every part of our redemption, is all of grace. But while all Christians will share the purity and the glory, not all Christians will have the same _measure_ of glory. “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:41, 42). The enduring of tribulation, the working out of stedfastness and approvedness,――growth in grace,――will undoubtedly determine the degree of glory in that resurrection body. The Key-Verse on Growth in Grace