We last saw “Firstfruits” as a picture of Jesus’ Resurrection. Thus a symbol of our resurrection as well! (John 14:19 … Jesus teaching about His coming Death and Resurrection: “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: BECAUSE I LIVE, YE SHALL LIVE ALSO.”)
Maybe the following verse here is even better at revealing this truth: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” 1 Corinthians 15:20
Now today … I’d like to share another Facet of Christian life portrayed in Firsfruits. And that would be the Ministry of the Holy Spirit!
In Romans 8:23 Paul clearly calls the Holy Spirit “the Firstfruits.” Here it is, King James Version: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the FIRSTFRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
Wow!
And this sweet Holy Spirit, Who is the “Firstfruits” of (good) things to come in our hearts … is the Guarantor of the “redemption of our bodies!” He is the very Forerunner of the glory we shall enjoy in Heaven forever!
This is even further assurance that Jesus is coming again … “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” Philippians 3:21 … where it is promised that my “vile” body will become a “glorious” body!
In my country way of describing this Blessing … the “joy” of the Holy Spirit you are experiencing right now is a foretaste (a pledge) of the coming joy of Heaven! (Paul in 1 Thessalonians 1:6 speaks directly of “the joy of the Holy Ghost!”)
And his divinely inspired “Holy Spirit as Firstfruits” list is even longer in Romans 14:17 … “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but RIGHTEOUSNESS, and PEACE, and JOY in the HOLY GHOST.”
Wow!
Spend the day, dear readers, communing with the Holy Spirit. He is the very Essence of God, anyway. In fact, He is God!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Paul used the idea of “Firstfruits” in one other New Testament way. “I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of STEPHANAS, that it is the FIRSTFRUITS of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) that ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth.” 1 Corinthians 16:15-16
Here Paul the “soul winner” believes Stephanas to be merely the “first” of many people (in Corinth) who would become Christians (or maybe by then had already become Christian) through his preaching of the Word of God, of the Gospel!
Tell others about Jesus!
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