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Originally Posted by ApostolicTexas
Perhaps Christ was the Firstfruit..one of a kind..a showcase..a wave offering?
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I long considered that thought, but realized the element called the "firstfruits" was not a contrast of visible versus invisible offerings, but rather one simply occurring before the first. The firstfruits was identical as the rest of the harvest. It cannot be anything like one of a kind. It was actuallY FIRST OF MANY MORE. It was simply taken BEFORE the rest. And the order of TIME is the ONLY point mentioned in the context to exemplify what FIRSTFRUITS means:
Quote:
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1Co 15:20-23 KJV But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. (21) For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. (22) For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (23) But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
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Notice that the terms are "AFTERWARD" and "IN HIS OWN ORDER". It is an
order of time. FIRST and then SECOND. BEFORE and then LATER. Nothing more. It is not
visible and then
invisible. If it was
visible versus
invisible, as though our bodies shall NOT experience what his body did (that is, change from mortal to immortal), then we would instead read:
"But every man in visibility or invisibilty: Christ the firstfruits, and those that are Christ's at His coming." But the all-important word used in the text is AFTERWARD, which qualifies what "IN HIS OWN ORDER" means, and removes any thought for any othe explanation. It is simply a contrast of TIMES when the resurrections would occur -- FIRST Christ, and then AFTERWARD those who are His at His coming. FIRST in FIRSTFRUITS is simply FIRST!!
To say that the wave offering was showcased while the rest was not does not say anything about whether or not our resurrection will be physical or not. In fact it is saying the opposite. The fristfruit harvest was
identical in grain matter as the remainder. The ONLY difference was that the firstfruits was harvested FIRST BEFORE the rest, as a special offering to God.
Christ's resurrection was physical, and so shall our's be, as much as the firstfruits of the grain was identical in composition and nature as the remainder of the harvest.
To say that Christ's firstfruit resurrection IS NOT the same nature and characteristics of the resurrection to occur after His, is to actually destroy the entire purpose of the term FIRSTFRUITS. A harvest cannot be firstfruits unless it is identical to the remainder of the harvest.
Otherwise, there is no relation or connection of the firstfruits to the rest, as though the firstfruits is an entirely different sort of "grain". Something that is the firstfruits of the wheat harvest must be as genuinely true wheat as the rest of the harvest before and after. Otherwise it has no association to the harvest and, therefore, cannot be the "FIRSTFRUITS OF" the harvest.
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John saw this body Jesus had after His ressurection...yet we read in 1 John 3:2..it has not yet been revealed..what we shall be...but John was a witness of that body Jesus had..yet he wrote..It HAS NOT been revealed!!!!
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Such reasoning fails in light of Phil 3:21:
Phi 3:21 KJV 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.
The same thing that happened to Jesus' body shall occur with our own. This is not speaking of the BODY in a spiritual sense as the church is His body.
The church IS NOT VILE. BODY is speaking about the physical body of flesh. The Church already has everything that is Christ, and had it since its inception in
Acts 2.
But our physical bodies have not yet changed as His did, and are stil considered VILE due to the sin that ever indwells our flesh until this change occurs.
1 John 3:2 is speaking of our personal EXPERIENCE when we are changed to become like He has been since resurrection. It is one thing to SEE someone risen from the dead, as they did with Christ 2000 years ago. But the difference is that the NEXT TIME we see Him, PHYSICALLY I MIGHT ADD, WE WILL CHANGE and have an experience that will let us know what it is like.
What Christ is like cannot be fully grapsed by LOOKING AT HIM. It must be experienced in us before we can know what it is like. Since his is firstfruits, that means we shall experience the SAME CHANGE. This has not yet occurred.
The first time they saw Him risen from the dead did not see a change occur
in the onlookers. But this will occur when He returns, for we shall experience it ourselves, and
experiencing something is TRULY learning what He is. We become what He is as well!
We do not know what all it is that we shall experience until it actually happens and we are changed in body as He was.
Quote:
15:44- It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
46- Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual
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The same IT that is sown is the IT that is raised. If you are correct and our physical bodies remain in the ground, and something else rises out, we cannot accept the verses above, because they distinctly say the same IT that is sown is also raised. Something else is not raised. But yet when we read it is sown a natural body and raised a spiritual one, we understand that in the process of rising IT IS
CHANGED IN FORM. There is no CHANGE unless the same body that is sown ALTERS and turns from natural to spiritual.
Jesus had a SPIRITUAL BODY when He raised from the dead. It was no longer natural because it retained wounds that formerly KILLED IT.
It's so simple if we simply read the context of FIRSTFRUITS and note the TIME elements mentioned, that alone reveal the reason for the use of the term "FIRSTFRUITS".
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