But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
Christ is now truly risen from the dead as the firstfruits of those who have died. As first ripe grain gathered before the harvest, He is the first of the immortal harvest and the sample, pattern and pledge of the resurrection of all the righteous dead. He fulfilled the wave-sheaf type, rising on the third day on the very day the first sheaf was to be presented before the Lord, and ascending with the multitude of captives raised with Him as the firstfruits presented to the Father. Because He is risen, preaching and faith are not empty, believers do not remain in their sins, and those who sleep in Jesus have sure hope of being raised, changed to be like His glorious body, and freed from death at His coming. His rising conquered Satan on his own territory of death, broke the power of death and removed its terror, and guarantees the great harvest to be gathered for the kingdom of God.
Risen as Firstfruits
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept, declaring that He is truly risen as the first of those who have died. His rising is the decisive evidence for the resurrection of the dead, for without it preaching and faith would be empty, believers would remain in their sins, and those who died in Him would be lost. Because He is risen, the dead in Him have hope of resurrection and labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Firstfruits means the first ripe grain gathered before the harvest, so He is the first of the immortal harvest and the sample, pattern, type and pledge of the resurrection of all the righteous dead. As the sheaf dedicated to God represented the harvest, so He represents the great spiritual harvest to be gathered for the kingdom of God. Those raised to blessedness will be gathered at His coming with bodies changed to be like His glorious body, and their hope rests on resurrection rather than on receiving blessedness at death.
For more than a thousand years the first heads of ripened grain had been gathered from the harvest fields and waved as a thank-offering before the Lord when the people went up to Jerusalem to the Passover. The offering was specifically barley on the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, carefully gathered and waved in the temple as a thank-offering sacredly dedicated to God in acknowledgment of Him as Lord of the harvest. Only after that ceremony could the sickle be put to the grain to gather it into sheaves and gather the rest of the harvest. The ceremonies of that feast were types of His work, and the sheaf represented the Saviour.
As antitype of the wave-sheaf and of the sheaf of the firstfruits, He rose on the third day on the very day the wave-sheaf was to be presented before the Lord in its appointed time. Ascending while blessing His disciples and encircled as a cloud by an army of angels, He took with Him the multitude of captives raised with Him as His trophy and presented them to the Father as the firstfruits of those who slept. This presentation is assurance that He is conqueror over death and the grave, and the risen saints who came from their graves with Him are witnesses to the promise that His resurrection is the pledge and pattern of the resurrection of all the righteous dead. He is therefore the antitype of the sheaf of the firstfruits to the glory of God, a living Saviour and living Redeemer no longer dead to be mourned but to be rejoiced over, whose coming forth is the greatest message ever given to the world.
Pledge of Final Resurrection
Without the resurrection preaching would be empty and faith would be empty, believers would still be in their sins, and those who have died in Christ would be lost. Because Christ is risen, the dead in Christ have hope of resurrection, and labor in the Lord is not in vain. He is not only a crucified Saviour but a risen Saviour who came up from the grave over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, breaking the fetters of the tomb, and paved the way for everyone who believes in Him to come up in the morning of the resurrection. He is the joy and hope of believers in every age, as much the Saviour of Abraham and all the patriarchs and prophets as of those now living, for there was no hope for them any more than now except by believing in Jesus Christ.
His rising is the beginning, guarantee and sure evidence of the final resurrection of those who sleep in Jesus at His coming and second coming. It is sure evidence that God’s people will triumph over death and the grave, the last enemy, with complete victory and redemption, be freed from death, and share Christ’s glory, for Jesus ascended as humanity’s representative and God will bring those who reflect Christ’s image to behold and share that glory. The resurrected just will have their bodies changed to be like His glorious body. Their hope of full blessedness therefore rests on resurrection rather than on receiving it at death.
When He came out of the tomb He raised a multitude of captives from the dead as trophies of His victory over death and the grave, a foretaste, sample and undeniable evidence of the future resurrection. This settled the question whether the dead will rise and gives believers assurance about the future life of the faithful dead. They were summoned when He as Lifegiver came forth proclaiming Himself the resurrection and the life, went into the city and appeared to many declaring His rising and their own, shook the enemy’s prison-house to its foundations, and as witnesses give assurance about the future life of the faithful dead. His resurrection also showed His power over death, confirmed that He had paid humanity’s ransom, and made it possible for believers to overcome Satan in Him.
Those who came forth at His resurrection had borne unflinching testimony for truth at the cost of life, were redeemed from Satan to be with Him where He is never more to see death or experience sorrow, and were raised to everlasting life and ascended with Him. Unlike the son of the widow of Nain and the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus raised during His ministry, who were not clothed with immortality but remained subject to death and decay, those who came forth at His resurrection were raised to everlasting life. They were presented to the heavenly universe as samples and a symbol of the final resurrection of all who receive and believe in Jesus as personal Saviour, for that same power that raised Christ will raise His church and glorify it with Christ as His bride above all principalities and powers.
His resurrection is the pattern for the final resurrection: as Jesus rose with recognizable identity, familiar appearance and voice, the resurrected will rise with individual identity perfectly preserved and be known by those who love them, and they will recognize one another as the disciples recognized the risen Jesus. Even if deformed, diseased or disfigured in mortal life, even if disease, disfigurement or deformity marked them, they will rise in glorified bodies with faces reflecting the light of Jesus, retaining the features by which loved ones recognize them. Resurrection does not require the same particles of matter from the mortal body to make up the immortal body, for identity lies in organization rather than identical matter, as the grain illustration in the chapter shows, answering the objection that resurrection is impossible unless the original matter is restored.
By rising, Christ as the second Adam met Satan upon his own territory of death and conquered him there, breaking the devil’s hold on the power of death, shaking his prison-house to its foundations, and deciding the conflict. He removed death’s stinging despair and terror for the Christian because He Himself felt its pangs, so that death is robbed of its terror and its despair is removed for Christians. Risen, He sits at the right hand of the Father with all power in heaven and on earth. His death would yield a harvest because He would rise again as the firstfruits of a great harvest: like a corn of wheat that must fall into the ground and die to bring forth much fruit, He had to give up His life, for if He drew back He would abide alone. His resurrection guarantees a glorious harvest of ripe grain for the heavenly garner when He as Lifegiver will call from their graves the dead united with Him by faith. The harvest follows His death and includes the gathering of the Gentiles, with the partition wall between Jew and Gentile thrown down and the broad harvest field becoming the world, so that all nations, tongues and people hear the glad tidings of salvation.
Hope and Proclamation
Christ risen stands together with Christ crucified, Christ ascended into the heavens, and Christ coming again as central words of life about Christ and part of the science of salvation to be learned and taught. Ministers who deal with minds capable of the highest development are to let this truth so soften, gladden and fill the mind that they present it in love and deep earnestness, with self lost sight of and Jesus made manifest. In the gospel of His death and resurrection and of the resurrection of the dead, life and immortality are brought to light and heaven's kingdom is opened to all believers.
The verse presents Christ as a living Saviour and living Redeemer and True Witness who came down from heaven from the Father to reveal the Father. He is no longer dead to be mourned but to be rejoiced over with joy as in a new world. His coming forth from the grave is the greatest message ever given to the world, glad tidings on which the hopes of the human family for time and for eternity depend and hang, to be carried to the sorrowing ones and repeated over and over. His raising establishes that His testimony is verity and truth to be accepted, studied and revered because He is divine and sent from God, and it proves the resurrection of everyone who believes in Jesus. He is the joy and hope of believers in every age, as much the Saviour of Abraham and all the patriarchs and prophets as of those now living, for there was no hope for them any more than now except by believing in Him.
His rising made the resurrection no longer a mystery to believers. The favor of God is no longer thought difficult to obtain through temple service or sacrifices, but a new and direct way revealed by God is laid open through which all who will may enter into full comfort and hope. This grounds the commission of God's people till the close of time to offer a full and free salvation through Christ with simplicity, its attraction seen in persuasiveness of heart and words.
The verse gives comfort to those grieving believers who have died and hope in the face of death. Because Christ rose victorious from the tomb and passed into the prison house of death and came forth, death is not the end for those who die in faith. By passing through the tomb He made it a place of rest brightened by the promise of resurrection, so those who die in Jesus can be laid to rest with confidence that they will meet their loved ones again. The dead may be raised to life to share an inheritance where sickness and death are no more. Because He lives He is with His people in sadness and grief, can bring them out of affliction, and gives strength and grace to endure sorrow. His personal resurrection assures believers of their own resurrection at His coming, which will free them from death, the last enemy, and complete His victory and their redemption, and this hope led believers to face death willingly and long for His return. His resurrection secures the coming glory when the golden gates of the city of God open and overcomers, parents with children, enter in to receive the crown of life and the harp, with victory gained.
Christian faith is to have a resurrection after the pattern of the verse. When faith is resurrected, believers lift the cross of Calvary and are lifted by it, and stand in their own lot and place catching the inspiration of Christ's work for souls. They endure as seeing Him who is invisible with the ardor of a Christian hero, and as soldiers of the cross exert a positive influence for good, because indifference in the Christian life denies Christ.
Christ is now truly risen from the dead as the firstfruits of those who have died. As first ripe grain gathered before the harvest, He is the first of the immortal harvest and the sample, pattern and pledge of the resurrection of all the righteous dead. He fulfilled the wave-sheaf type, rising on the third day on the very day the first sheaf was to be presented before the Lord, and ascending with the multitude of captives raised with Him as the firstfruits presented to the Father. Because He is risen, preaching and faith are not empty, believers do not remain in their sins, and those who sleep in Jesus have sure hope of being raised, changed to be like His glorious body, and freed from death at His coming. His rising conquered Satan on his own territory of death, broke the power of death and removed its terror, and guarantees the great harvest to be gathered for the kingdom of God.
Risen as Firstfruits
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept, declaring that He is truly risen as the first of those who have died. His rising is the decisive evidence for the resurrection of the dead, for without it preaching and faith would be empty, believers would remain in their sins, and those who died in Him would be lost. Because He is risen, the dead in Him have hope of resurrection and labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Firstfruits means the first ripe grain gathered before the harvest, so He is the first of the immortal harvest and the sample, pattern, type and pledge of the resurrection of all the righteous dead. As the sheaf dedicated to God represented the harvest, so He represents the great spiritual harvest to be gathered for the kingdom of God. Those raised to blessedness will be gathered at His coming with bodies changed to be like His glorious body, and their hope rests on resurrection rather than on receiving blessedness at death.
For more than a thousand years the first heads of ripened grain had been gathered from the harvest fields and waved as a thank-offering before the Lord when the people went up to Jerusalem to the Passover. The offering was specifically barley on the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, carefully gathered and waved in the temple as a thank-offering sacredly dedicated to God in acknowledgment of Him as Lord of the harvest. Only after that ceremony could the sickle be put to the grain to gather it into sheaves and gather the rest of the harvest. The ceremonies of that feast were types of His work, and the sheaf represented the Saviour.
As antitype of the wave-sheaf and of the sheaf of the firstfruits, He rose on the third day on the very day the wave-sheaf was to be presented before the Lord in its appointed time. Ascending while blessing His disciples and encircled as a cloud by an army of angels, He took with Him the multitude of captives raised with Him as His trophy and presented them to the Father as the firstfruits of those who slept. This presentation is assurance that He is conqueror over death and the grave, and the risen saints who came from their graves with Him are witnesses to the promise that His resurrection is the pledge and pattern of the resurrection of all the righteous dead. He is therefore the antitype of the sheaf of the firstfruits to the glory of God, a living Saviour and living Redeemer no longer dead to be mourned but to be rejoiced over, whose coming forth is the greatest message ever given to the world.
Pledge of Final Resurrection
Without the resurrection preaching would be empty and faith would be empty, believers would still be in their sins, and those who have died in Christ would be lost. Because Christ is risen, the dead in Christ have hope of resurrection, and labor in the Lord is not in vain. He is not only a crucified Saviour but a risen Saviour who came up from the grave over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, breaking the fetters of the tomb, and paved the way for everyone who believes in Him to come up in the morning of the resurrection. He is the joy and hope of believers in every age, as much the Saviour of Abraham and all the patriarchs and prophets as of those now living, for there was no hope for them any more than now except by believing in Jesus Christ.
His rising is the beginning, guarantee and sure evidence of the final resurrection of those who sleep in Jesus at His coming and second coming. It is sure evidence that God’s people will triumph over death and the grave, the last enemy, with complete victory and redemption, be freed from death, and share Christ’s glory, for Jesus ascended as humanity’s representative and God will bring those who reflect Christ’s image to behold and share that glory. The resurrected just will have their bodies changed to be like His glorious body. Their hope of full blessedness therefore rests on resurrection rather than on receiving it at death.
When He came out of the tomb He raised a multitude of captives from the dead as trophies of His victory over death and the grave, a foretaste, sample and undeniable evidence of the future resurrection. This settled the question whether the dead will rise and gives believers assurance about the future life of the faithful dead. They were summoned when He as Lifegiver came forth proclaiming Himself the resurrection and the life, went into the city and appeared to many declaring His rising and their own, shook the enemy’s prison-house to its foundations, and as witnesses give assurance about the future life of the faithful dead. His resurrection also showed His power over death, confirmed that He had paid humanity’s ransom, and made it possible for believers to overcome Satan in Him.
Those who came forth at His resurrection had borne unflinching testimony for truth at the cost of life, were redeemed from Satan to be with Him where He is never more to see death or experience sorrow, and were raised to everlasting life and ascended with Him. Unlike the son of the widow of Nain and the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus raised during His ministry, who were not clothed with immortality but remained subject to death and decay, those who came forth at His resurrection were raised to everlasting life. They were presented to the heavenly universe as samples and a symbol of the final resurrection of all who receive and believe in Jesus as personal Saviour, for that same power that raised Christ will raise His church and glorify it with Christ as His bride above all principalities and powers.
His resurrection is the pattern for the final resurrection: as Jesus rose with recognizable identity, familiar appearance and voice, the resurrected will rise with individual identity perfectly preserved and be known by those who love them, and they will recognize one another as the disciples recognized the risen Jesus. Even if deformed, diseased or disfigured in mortal life, even if disease, disfigurement or deformity marked them, they will rise in glorified bodies with faces reflecting the light of Jesus, retaining the features by which loved ones recognize them. Resurrection does not require the same particles of matter from the mortal body to make up the immortal body, for identity lies in organization rather than identical matter, as the grain illustration in the chapter shows, answering the objection that resurrection is impossible unless the original matter is restored.
By rising, Christ as the second Adam met Satan upon his own territory of death and conquered him there, breaking the devil’s hold on the power of death, shaking his prison-house to its foundations, and deciding the conflict. He removed death’s stinging despair and terror for the Christian because He Himself felt its pangs, so that death is robbed of its terror and its despair is removed for Christians. Risen, He sits at the right hand of the Father with all power in heaven and on earth. His death would yield a harvest because He would rise again as the firstfruits of a great harvest: like a corn of wheat that must fall into the ground and die to bring forth much fruit, He had to give up His life, for if He drew back He would abide alone. His resurrection guarantees a glorious harvest of ripe grain for the heavenly garner when He as Lifegiver will call from their graves the dead united with Him by faith. The harvest follows His death and includes the gathering of the Gentiles, with the partition wall between Jew and Gentile thrown down and the broad harvest field becoming the world, so that all nations, tongues and people hear the glad tidings of salvation.
Hope and Proclamation
Christ risen stands together with Christ crucified, Christ ascended into the heavens, and Christ coming again as central words of life about Christ and part of the science of salvation to be learned and taught. Ministers who deal with minds capable of the highest development are to let this truth so soften, gladden and fill the mind that they present it in love and deep earnestness, with self lost sight of and Jesus made manifest. In the gospel of His death and resurrection and of the resurrection of the dead, life and immortality are brought to light and heaven's kingdom is opened to all believers.
The verse presents Christ as a living Saviour and living Redeemer and True Witness who came down from heaven from the Father to reveal the Father. He is no longer dead to be mourned but to be rejoiced over with joy as in a new world. His coming forth from the grave is the greatest message ever given to the world, glad tidings on which the hopes of the human family for time and for eternity depend and hang, to be carried to the sorrowing ones and repeated over and over. His raising establishes that His testimony is verity and truth to be accepted, studied and revered because He is divine and sent from God, and it proves the resurrection of everyone who believes in Jesus. He is the joy and hope of believers in every age, as much the Saviour of Abraham and all the patriarchs and prophets as of those now living, for there was no hope for them any more than now except by believing in Him.
His rising made the resurrection no longer a mystery to believers. The favor of God is no longer thought difficult to obtain through temple service or sacrifices, but a new and direct way revealed by God is laid open through which all who will may enter into full comfort and hope. This grounds the commission of God's people till the close of time to offer a full and free salvation through Christ with simplicity, its attraction seen in persuasiveness of heart and words.
The verse gives comfort to those grieving believers who have died and hope in the face of death. Because Christ rose victorious from the tomb and passed into the prison house of death and came forth, death is not the end for those who die in faith. By passing through the tomb He made it a place of rest brightened by the promise of resurrection, so those who die in Jesus can be laid to rest with confidence that they will meet their loved ones again. The dead may be raised to life to share an inheritance where sickness and death are no more. Because He lives He is with His people in sadness and grief, can bring them out of affliction, and gives strength and grace to endure sorrow. His personal resurrection assures believers of their own resurrection at His coming, which will free them from death, the last enemy, and complete His victory and their redemption, and this hope led believers to face death willingly and long for His return. His resurrection secures the coming glory when the golden gates of the city of God open and overcomers, parents with children, enter in to receive the crown of life and the harp, with victory gained.
Christian faith is to have a resurrection after the pattern of the verse. When faith is resurrected, believers lift the cross of Calvary and are lifted by it, and stand in their own lot and place catching the inspiration of Christ's work for souls. They endure as seeing Him who is invisible with the ardor of a Christian hero, and as soldiers of the cross exert a positive influence for good, because indifference in the Christian life denies Christ.