THE APOSTLE OF THE RECONCILIATION

The apostle now opens up the next great spiritual fulfilment of Israel's feasts. We have seen how the cross,

Christ crucified, Christ our passover, dominates the opening section with its divisions and its immorality. The next

great type which supplies the theme of this chapter is that of Israel's Feast of the Firstfruits. Let us see its setting:



Now is Christ risen.

 1st Coming.



Type. Firstfruits.



c 15:21-.  By man came death.

d 15:-21.  By man came resurrection. 

 Racial.



c 15:22-.  In Adam all die.



d 15:-22.  In Christ all made alive.



Christ the firstfruits.

 2nd Coming.



They that are Christ's.

The risen Christ is the firstfruits. This fact begins and ends the section. One theme occupies the central portion,

and that is death and life as they are related to the race and the respective heads of the race, Adam or Christ. To

view the title of Christ as firstfruits in the light of Leviticus 23, and ignore the great fact of 1 Corinthians 15:21,22 is

to miss the truth. `The head of every man is Christ', even as the head of every woman is man, without regard to the

question of their salvation. In the opening argument, the apostle limited himself to the vital connection which the

resurrection had with the gospel. From that he shewed that the hope of the believer, the forgiveness of sins, and the

present stay of the suffering saint was also most vitally bound up with the fact that Christ rose from the dead.

He now takes another stride. From gospel and faith he goes further back to the connection which Christ's

resurrection has with the whole race as in Adam, shewing that Christ must be raised from the dead for the

accomplishment of the wider purposes of God. This is indicated by the firstfruits. There are eight occurrences of

the word aparche, `firstfruits' in the New Testament. Eight is the dominical number, the octave, the new start, the

resurrection. The eight references are as follows:

`Because creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption ... ourselves also (groan) which have

the firstfruits of the spirit' (Rom. 8:20-23 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 beloved Epenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ' (Rom. 16:5 Author's translation).

`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 synagogues,

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 key word 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'. This is

implied in 1 Corinthians 15 by the connection which we have noticed between firstfruits, Adam, and reconciliation

in the other passages.