Key Verse: "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept."
- 1 Corinthians 15:20 KJV
Christ risen is the firstfruits of that mighty crop of
buried dead whose remains still sleep in the silent dust, and who will be
joined by successive ranks of those who die in him, until all are together
wakened up in the resurrection morn. The figure is that of the sheaf of the
firstfruits which was waved before the Lord before the harvest was allowed
to be reaped (Lev. 23:10, 11). This offering of the wave sheaf was the
consecration and dedication of the whole crop in the field to the Lord, as
well as the manifest pledge that the harvest was fully ripe for the reaper's
sickle.
The firstfruits represented the whole of the crop, as Christ is the representative of his saints; the offering of them sanctified what was still unreaped in the field, as Christ sanctified or consecrated unto God the yet unreaped harvest of the buried dead; and the carrying them into the tabernacle was the first introduction therein of the crop, as Christ entering heaven as the firstfruits secures thereby the entrance of the bodies of the saints into the mansions prepared for them before the foundation of the world.
Thus Christ rising from the dead presented himself before the Lord as the firstfruits of the grand harvest of the resurrection yet unreaped, and by doing so consecrated and dedicated the whole crop unto God. As, then, he rose from the dead, so shall all the sleeping saints rise from the dead at the last day, for his resurrection is the fitst-fruits, the pledge, and the earnest of theirs.
