No Question About My Birth Certificate

I don't plan on running for President (too busy), but in case I ever did, my birth records clearly indicate that I'm a Kansan by birth.  And if anyone wants to know about my spiritual heritage, my birth certificate plainly states that I was born in Zion.  Sinclair Ferguson explains:

It is interesting to notice that Paul speaks of believers as having 'the firstfruits of the Spirit (Rom. 8:23).  He does not mean that we have only part (the first part) of the Spirit, but that the Spirit himself is the firstfruits of our inheritance.  The word he uses (aparche') was also used to describe the birth certificate of a free man!  Perhaps this nuance was present in Paul's mind here, too, in a passage that is dealing so much with the concept of the believer as a son of God, adopted into his family.  So, the Spirit serves as our 'birth certificate', actively engaging in our lives to assure us that we belong to the Father!  - Excerpted from Children Of The Living God.