The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

V. Christ, Prophesied First Fruits, Rose on Precise Day

According to Old Testament type and New Testament fulfillment, Christ was the prophesied first fruits of Old Testament resurrection assurance and provision. Paul declares: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man [Adam] came death, by man [Christ] 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” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). CFF1 101.4

Speaking before Agrippa, Paul declared what Moses and the prophets predicted—“that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people” (Acts 26:23). Now, this precisely stipulated ceremony of the “firstfruits” was given as a type to Israel, with this clear instruction: CFF1 102.1

“When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you” (Leviticus 23:10, 11). CFF1 102.2

1. FIRST FRUITS A FIXED PART OF ANNUAL SERVICE

This ceremony of the first fruits became a fixed part of the annual typical service, prefiguring the antitypical actualities of redemption through Christ, that were to come. Each year the sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest was gathered and waved before the Lord, and was accepted for Israel. They might then freely partake of the grain of the harvest. Now note the unique application of the first fruits to the resurrection. CFF1 102.3

2. “EVERY MAN IN HIS OWN ORDER.”

There are actually three resurrections involved, with “every man in his own order” (1 Corinthians 15:23). Observe the distinctions: CFF1 102.4

(1) The basic first resurrection was that of the Man Christ Jesus, the first fruits (1 Corinthians 15:23; Acts 26:23), at His resurrection. This was the essence and certification of those to follow. CFF1 102.5

(2) Next, “they that are Christ’s [the righteous] at his [Christ’s second] coming” (1 Corinthians 15:23). This is commonly designated the resurrection of the righteous—out from, or from among, all the dead. It is called “the first resurrection,” and comprises the “blessed and holy” (Revelation 20:5, 6). It is the “better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35); the resurrection unto life (John 5:29; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53; Philippians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17); or resurrection of the just (Luke 14:14; Acts 24:15). Those who partake of it are called “children of God, being the children of the [first] resurrection” (Luke 20:35, 36). This takes place at the Second Advent. CFF1 102.6

(3) And finally the “rest of the dead” (Revelation 20:5) come forth—the remainder, or wicked. This is called the resurrection of the unjust (Acts 24:15); the “resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29), and “to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). This occurs at the close of the millennium, whereas that of the righteous comes at the beginning of the thousand years (Revelation 20:5, 6). The two are thus in vivid contrast. But they comprise the whole of humanity. CFF1 103.1

3. FIRST-FRUITS RESURRECTION FULFILLED ON VERY DAY OF TYPE

Now, it is tremendously impressive to note the exactness of the time of prophesied fulfillment. In the type, the Passover lamb was always slain on the fourteenth day of the first month (Abib; Numbers 9:2, 3, 5). It was eaten on the fifteenth, which was the first day of unleavened bread. And on the sixteenth day, the “morrow” after this annual “sabbath” (Leviticus 23:11), the first fruits (which had previously been cut) were presented before the Lord. So it was that in the antitypical reality, Christ, “our passover” (1 Corinthians 5:7), died on Friday afternoon, the fourteenth of Abib, in the year of the crucifixion. ⁴ He rested in the grave over the Sabbath, the fifteenth. And on the “morrow after the sabbath,” that is, on the sixteenth, Christ, the first fruits, arose triumphantly from the tomb and presented Himself before the Father for acceptance—exactly according to prophetic stipulation. (In this particular year the annual typical sabbath coincided with the weekly seventh-day Sabbath. As such it was a “high day.”) CFF1 103.2

Thus it was that the resurrection of Christ, the antitypical Wave Sheaf, or First Fruits, took place on the precise day stipulated in the prophetic type. He was the grand fulfillment. For more than a thousand years after its establishment, that typical ceremony took place annually in Israel. From the newly ripened harvest the first heads of ripened grain were gathered, and waved as a thank offering before the Lord. And not until the wave sheaf was presented could the sickle be put to the grain for the use of the people. CFF1 103.3

In the great antitypical reality Christ, as the divine First Fruits of the resurrection, was the great pathfinder, as it were, of the spiritual harvest of the redeemed to be gathered at His second advent by means of the first resurrection. Thus Christ’s own resurrection, after the cross, became the inviolable pledge of assured resurrection of the righteous dead at His return. That is its broader significance. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (1 Thessalonians 4:14) ⁵ CFF1 104.1

Such is the remarkable assurance of our resurrection based upon the Mosaic type. CFF1 104.2