1 Corinthians 15:20

1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 15

Of the Resurrection of the Dead. 1 Corinthians 15, 1–58.

A victorious line of argument: V. 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the First-fruits of them that slept.

In contrast with the deplorable results which would follow from the supposition as held by the ignorant deniers of the resurrection of the body, Paul now triumphantly sets before his readers the fact of the resurrection and its glorious consequences. If Christ had not risen, all the disastrous events must have followed as a matter of course.

But as matters now stand, if we look at the situation as it really exists: Christ has been raised from the dead as a First-fruit of them that sleep. The fact of His resurrection is beyond doubt and dispute, is, in fact, not called into question even by those Corinthian Christians that hold a wrong view with regard to this doctrine.

And thereby Christ is set forth before us as the First-fruits, the first offering, of the new harvest, Leviticus 23, 10, a sign and token that the entire harvest is sanctified to the Lord. He was the first dead person to lay aside all mortality and to assume a spiritual body which would not be subject to death in all eternity.

And so they that fell asleep in Christ in the hope of eternal life will also arise from the dead; the first harvest-sheaf will be followed by all the other sheaves; the bodies of all the believers will lay aside mortality; consecrated to God as they are, they will become partakers of that same spirituality, Colossians 1, 18; Revelation1, 5.