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Christ the First Fruits, June 23
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most
miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the
firstfruits of them that slept.
1 Corinthians 15:19, 20
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Christ arose from the dead as the first fruits of those that slept. He
was the antitype of the wave sheaf, and His resurrection took place
on the very day when the wave sheaf was to be presented before the
Lord. For more than a thousand years this symbolic ceremony had been
performed. From the harvest fields the first heads of ripened grain were
gathered, and when the people went up to Jerusalem to the Passover,
the sheaf of first fruits was waved as a thank offering before the Lord.
Not until this was presented could the sickle be put to the grain, and it
be gathered into sheaves. The sheaf dedicated to God represented the
harvest. So Christ the first fruits represented the great spiritual harvest
to be gathered for the kingdom of God. His resurrection is the type and
pledge of the resurrection of all the righteous dead.
The resurrection of Jesus was a sample of the final resurrection of all
who sleep in Him. The risen body of the Saviour, His deportment, the
accents of His speech, were all familiar to His followers. In like manner
will those who sleep in Jesus rise again. We shall know our friends even
as the disciples knew Jesus. Though they may have been deformed,
diseased, or disfigured in this mortal life, yet in their resurrected and
glorified body their individual identity will be perfectly preserved, and
we shall recognize, in the face radiant with the light shining from the
face of Jesus, the lineaments of those we love.
At His second coming all the precious dead shall hear His voice,
and shall come forth to glorious, immortal life. The same power that
raised Christ from the dead will raise His church, and glorify it with
Him, above all principalities, above all powers, above every name that
is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come.
He will receive us with honor. To us will be given a crown of glory
that fadeth not away.
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