Quick Thoughts on "The First Fruits"

"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power." (1 Corinthians 15:20-24)

I was thinking of these verses last night and a simple, yet profound, question came to my mind. "Why did Jesus heal people, feed people and drive out demons?" Why do those types of miracles make up the predominance of the stories we read about Jesus in the Gospels? If Jesus is God, as we believe He is, why these types of miracles? He is God, he can do anything - he could manifest lots of money or he could fly around or whatever - the options are limitless, and yet Jesus chose to display God's power through healing, feeding and deliverance.

And then it hit me - Jesus was giving us a foretaste, or firstfruits, of what he is going to do on a Worldwide scale when He returns on The Last Day. First, Jesus has a resurrected body - and that is SUPER significant because if Christ is not raised, then we have no hope. Paul says this, explicitly, in 1 Corinthians 15:14 "And if Christ is not raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith!" and then in verse 19, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." But it doesn't stop there - Jesus was also the first to receive the Holy Spirit, which came upon him at his Baptism in the Jordan River with John the Baptist. Immediately after that Baptism by the Holy Spirit, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. In other words, Jesus is showing us (firstfruits) that through the Holy Spirit, sin and temptation no longer have any hold on us. He then releases the Holy Spirit upon his people at the Ascension, given to us to help us persevere and run the race set before us, TO THE END (Hebrews 12, 2 Timothy 4:7)

Next, the miracles that Jesus performed (and also his Apostles) are giving us a firstfruits look at what Heaven will be like. No more sickness/death (healing), no more hunger/thirst (food miracles) and no more sin/evil (deliverance from demons and spirits). When Jesus returns on The Day of the Lord, he will wipe away all sickness and death and we will be given new bodies that no longer hunger and thirst and will no longer be subject to decay and death. And maybe best of all, we will no longer have the demonic whispering in our ears, tempting us - no longer will be subject to our bodies of death and our sinful nature (Romans 7:24).

This is what we can put our hope in! Jesus' life itself is a testimony of what is to come for those who walk on the narrow road, for those who run the race set before them until the end.