'Because creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of

corruption ... ourselves also (groan) which have the firstfruits of the

spirit' (Rom. 8:21-23 author's translation).

'What shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?  For if

the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy' (Rom. 11:15,16).

'Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto

Christ' (Rom. 16:5).

'But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of

them that slept ... Christ the firstfruits' (1 Cor. 15:20,23).

'Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia'

(1 Cor. 16:15).

'That we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures' (Jas. 1:18).

'The firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb' (Rev. 14:4).

It will be seen that the reference in Romans 8 links the type to the

deliverance of creation from the bondage into which it was subjected by

Adam's sin.  James too speaks of a firstfruits, not of saved ones, church, or

synagogue, but of 'His creatures'.  Romans 11 uses the word of the remnant of

Israel.  Now what common bond is there that will bring these passages

together?  There is one word, the keyword of the period under review,

reconciliation.  This is implied in Romans 8 and expressed in Romans 11:15.

Immediately following the word 'reconciliation' (A.V. atonement) in Romans 5,

we read, 'Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by

sin' (12).  This is implied in 1 Corinthians 15 by the connection which we

have noticed between firstfruits, Adam, and reconciliation in the other

There is no reference to this type in the epistles of the Mystery.  The

resurrection of Christ in the sphere of the Mystery goes back further still

and places the title, 'Firstborn from the dead' in line with 'Firstborn of

all creation'.  1 Corinthians 15 deals with 'all in Adam'.  Leviticus

23:10,11 must be considered in order to see the type in its original setting:

'Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, 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: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave

There is undoubted prophecy in this type of the resurrection of Christ.

The first day after the passover sabbath was the actual day upon which Christ

rose from the dead.  The apostle does not detail the outworking of this great

type beyond that which immediately applies to the believers of the period,

whose hope was the parousia of the Lord.  The resurrection and the hope of

the One Body as revealed in the Prison Epistles, written after Acts 28, find

no mention here.  Neither is there anything said of 'the rest of the dead'

that 'lived not again until the thousand years were finished'.  Paul is not

teaching the reconciliation or expounding the great purpose of the ages; he

is correcting rather the error of the Corinthians on the one subject of the