Easter: the Firstfuits of the Resurrection

Do you realize the far-reaching continuing importance of Easter and why we celebrate it so joyfully every year? Think of the tremendous sudden change brought about by this most important historical event!

Remember the crucifixion: Jesus is dead! And then buried at the command of the greatest political power in the world at the time. He suffered great shame and agony. His closest followers are nowhere to be seen; they’re in hiding. Only a few are there at the cross with the women. They huddle together in mourning, frustration, wonderment, confusion, and despair. They had staked their entire lives on the truth that Jesus was the Messiah. What could life hold for them now?

Suddenly life is transformed because Jesus rose from the dead! He is no longer captive or under the power of Rome. He is alive and well–and in His glorified body that can come and go from this world at will. He appears to his followers and eats with them and shows them his scars. The same man who died is now alive! He has fulfilled the scriptures and did just exactly what God had said he would do long ago.

Then we see the complete transformation of the apostles–part of this whole miracle. Particularly in the early chapters of the book of Acts where these scared and demoralized followers, hiding in a locked upper room in Jerusalem suddenly became witnesses of the Resurrection and turned the world upside down as Jesus' servants in the power of the Holy Spirit.

         The death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the tomb on the 3^rd Day is the most important event in all human history. Nothing else comes close to its overwhelming importance.

We have empirical evidence, eyewitness evidence proving that Jesus Christ did in fact rise from the dead and has power over sin, death, and the grave. He did this visibly, physically, in time and space and history. This is historical reality–just as tangible and visible as your presence this morning is historical reality.

Colossians 1:18 tells us that Jesus is “the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;” the first person to be resurrected from the dead. Elsewhere scripture tells us that Jesus is the “firstfruits” of the Resurrection. 1 Cor. 15:20-26 “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. [For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

Christ is the firstfruits and all of us who believe in Him will be the full harvest. Do you realize that Jesus is in fact the ONLY one who has ever actually been resurrected from the dead? A number of others have been brought back to life–as when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. But Lazarus died a second time. And so did the several other people raised in scripture.

But Jesus is the firstfruits, the only one with a glorified body after the resurrection–and this is proof to us that we, too, will receive our glorified body in the Resurrection. “It will be like unto His glorious body” and we will have some of the same abilities that Jesus demonstrated during the 40 days after His resurrection. “. . . we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” Phil. 3.20-21

Just as the firstfruits tell what kind of fruit or grain the rest of the harvest will be, so Christ’s resurrection body indicates what our glorified bodies will be like. 1 Cor. 15:42-44 “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”

      Jesus promised His followers at least twice in scripture, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” John 11:25-26 ESV

         What an amazing promise! My wife's body died three years ago—but she didn't! She is still alive and with the Lord at this very moment. “Absent from the body, present with the Lord,” 2 Cor. 5:8 AND when Christ returns, her body which is buried in Tahoma National Cemetery near Kent, Washington, will be transformed and raised as her glorified body in which she will live throughout all eternity.

        Jesus' resurrection from the dead in His glorified body is observable evidence, the firstfruits of what our resurrected bodies will be like. On the cross and in His resurrection, Jesus won the victory over death, hell, and the grave. We should marvel at this constantly and be ever deeply grateful to our Lord.

       Jesus has already won the victory, but our bodies in this fallen world are still under the curse and still subject to death. But now we have “the Blessed Hope,” the evidence in front of our eyes, the absolute certainty that death itself will be destroyed. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” 1 Cor. 15:26 The death and resurrection of Christ brought about the death of death! As John Owen wrote so many years ago in “The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.” And John Donne's poem tells us triumphantly, “Death, thou shalt die!” Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

        “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Cor. 15:58