Saturday, March 31, 2018

Firstfruit Offering

1 Corinthians 15:20-28    
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

Christ rose to be the first offering to God of life from death to set the way for we who are called out in Him.  As children of the first man, Adam, we are born with death in spirit and mortality of body.  But in Christ as a second and perfect Man, the second Adam yet also the Son of God, in Him we shall be raised up to life unending before our Maker as intended in Eden.  Christ is the first given to God the Father and we follow in and through His resurrection to our own as new creations.  In the end this Kingdom and its rule by God over all will end enemies and demonstrate His sovereignty over all the universe.  When all are subject to the absolute rule of God seen everywhere, that is heaven for us forever before Him.  This victory in Christ begins with His gospel, His suffering and death that culminated in the resurrection.  This is the triumph over death due by wrath and certainty of the eternal hope of mercy and grace. 

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