Firstfruits
SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 
Read the passage
BIO: I’m Lori Needham and I have the privilege of serving on the staff at FPCO. I’ve been using my gifts and serving our Lord for the last thirteen years in this place and I am grateful to now share daily devotions with you! I partner with Rev. Donna McClellan in the Prayer and Spiritual Formation Ministry. Away from this place, my husband Dan and I enjoy traveling, outdoor activities, art, the beach, and spending time with family and friends.
KEY VERSE: 1 Corinthians 22 “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
CENTRAL TRUTH: God came to earth in the form of a human, through the person of Jesus Christ, for the sole purpose of redeeming us, sinners, so those who belong to him will conquer death and will live eternally with God. Jesus conquers all enemies and death.
DEVOTIONAL: “So in Christ all will be made alive”. What glorious, comforting words! I have to say, they are tucked among many words and statements that can be confusing. So…in my research, let me clear some of that confusion.
Paul knew his audience in Corinth and communicated in a way that would paint a picture of what they knew. The Feast of the Passover has more than one significance. It also was a great harvest festival or the Feast of Firstfruits, a time when the first crops harvested would be offered to God. The harvest, usually barley, was taken from a typical field and delivered to the Temple. It was threshed with soft canes so as not to bruise it. It was parched in a perforated pan over a fire so that every grain was touched by the fire. It was then exposed to the wind so the chaff was blown away, leaving behind barley that would be ground and that flour would be offered to God. This was the first-fruits. It was also a sign of the harvest to come; and the resurrection of Jesus was a sign of the resurrection of all believers which was to come.
But Paul didn’t stop there. He used another Jewish idea according to an old story in Genesis. Through Adam’s sin, death came into the world. Death was the direct consequence and penalty for sin and the Jews believed that all men literally sinned in Adam. He, to them, was the father of the race and when he sinned, all sinned. That was the Jewish belief – all sinned in Adam, therefore all were under the penalty of death.
However, with the coming of Christ, that belief is broken! Christ conquered death so “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Paul is now saying that all men sinned in Adam, all men now escape sin in Christ and just as all men died in Adam, all men conquer death in Christ.
Paul further explains in this scripture that God gave Jesus a task to do and that task was to defeat sin, vanquish death and to redeem men. God sent His son, Jesus, to redeem the world so in the end God will receive back a world redeemed and then there will be nothing in heaven or in earth outside the love and the power of God.
May you be blessed by these scriptures!
QUESTION 1: Do you practice giving God your ‘firstfruits’?
QUESTION 2: How will you today thank God for his Son?
QUESTION 3: N/A
Share
