Chapter 3 | Completing the New Creation for the Firstfruits

For those of us living in the time of God’s favor,[1] it began with Christ himself who is the firstfruit of salvation, having died and was resurrected to glory as an example for us to follow. God’s desire is that we become the righteousness in Christ, the new creation.[2] This requires a new heart, given through the Holy Spirit. For those who want to do works to show themselves acceptable before God, they are called to grow in the character and likeness of our Lord and Christ.[3] It is the transforming power of God’s Holy Spirit which aids us in that character-building process, growing into the image and likeness of Christ.[4]

 

The first to follow Christ include the called, chosen, and faithful firstfruits harvested from the descendants of Israel along with Gentiles from many nations.[5] These are unified in the faith by the promise of faith given to Abraham, a Gentile called out of the world and into the light of life. It’s vital that we do not lose sight of the fact that those who are called the first are not the only.

 

Prior to their glorification, these firstfruits were preparing for this everlasting kingdom, their inheritance, by the grace of God, the gift of faith, and the working of the Holy Spirit. As they surrendered their lives to God and his Christ, they were already experiencing the kingdom’s rule daily, though not yet in its fullness. By conforming to the word and will of our Lord, they grew as image-bearers of the Godhead, became partakers of the life, suffering, and death of the man from heaven, full of the assurance that they too would participate in his resurrection.[6] In this way, both Jew and Gentile were being made into a spiritual habitation of God.[7] The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, outlines well what has transpired to bring the firstfruits of salvation to this glorious point in their lives.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:3-10)

 

In this revelation to Paul we see that our calling, and Christ’s role in it, was established before the foundations of the world were set in place. Yeshua was predestined for this role. He is the gift of God’s grace for those called to be the recipients of his righteousness which leads to eternal life.[8] As the firstfruits of salvation, we were predestined for sonship according to the abundant grace to be poured out on all humanity in the Beloved. Though our calling was predestined, our acceptance and commitment to the gift in Christ was left to free will.

This wondrous grace which God has lavished upon all through Christ was not his response to an unanticipated rebellion of our first parents. Instead, we see that redemption through blood and the forgiveness of sin were established in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, our time, humanity’s time; to unite all things in heaven and on earth to him. That reality is what we’re experiencing in this moment as we delight in the glory of our Lord and stand before God’s throne in praise and thanksgiving.

 

Paul declares that up until the time Christ was first revealed to the world God’s work and purpose in him was a mystery, hidden from ages past. Yet ultimately, it was for our benefit as children of God and co-heirs with Christ.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11-14)

 

He declares that we, who are the first to hope in Christ for our salvation and the new creation to be completed in us, comes by the will and purpose of God. It was not accidental. God is proactive. He does not leave the development of his eternal family to chance. Though God subjected his children and his creation to futility, it was always in the hope and assurance of the Son of Man; the assurance that Christ would fulfill his work to lead many sons and daughters to glory, and in the process, the vast majority of those children would respond to the gift of grace in Christ and choose to trust in him. Paul even outlines the process God uses to reconcile his children from the futility to which he subjected them in hope:

• God reveals the Logos of truth and the gospel of our salvation
• He gives us ears to hear and eyes to see
• When we change directions and actively believe and trust in him, he seals our hearts and minds by the power of his Holy Spirit
• The Holy Spirit is the guarantor of our inheritance as the children of God in the likeness and image of Yeshua the Christ

 

It’s the completed likeness and image that we now enjoy in its fullness. Now in the presence of Christ, we see all that Paul declared is fulfilled as promised.

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:47-54)

 

Through resurrection, those who either died in Christ or were alive at his appearance experienced the transformation Paul describes:

• Those who bore the image of the man of dust, the first Adam, now bear the image of the man of heaven, the last Adam
• To dwell in the fullness of the kingdom of God, we must likewise be transformed into the fullness of the Spirit
• The perishable must be changed to the imperishable
• The mortal changed to immortal
• The natural life given eternal life
• Death is overcome in victory
• Not by our own hand, but by the work of our Lord and Savior

 

We are standing here in the presence of our Lord because God’s grace was sufficient in Christ to overcome our weakness and disobedience. This same grace which led us, the firstfruits of salvation, to eternal life, can likewise lead the world out of darkness and into the light of life. Though we might have been the firstfruits of salvation, we certainly aren’t the only ones to receive it.