1 Corinthians 15:20-28
But now Christ has been raised out of the dead – a firstfruit
out of the ones who have been dying. For
because death is through a man, also resurrection out of the dead is through a
man. For just as all things die in Adam,
also in this way all things will be made alive in Christ. Each one is in its
own order. The firstfruit is Christ,
then the ones of Christ in His coming. Then
the end comes, when He should hand over the kingdom to God the Father, when He
should cause every ruler, every authority, and power to cease to exist. For it is necessary for Him to reign until
all enemies should be placed under His feet.
The last enemy to be caused to cease is death. For He subjects all things under His
feet. And when it should say that all
things have been made subject, it is clearly known that it is excluding the one
who subjects all things to Him. But
whenever all things should be made subject to Him, then the Son will also
Himself be made subject to the one who makes all things subject to Him in order
that God should be all in all.
Thoughts for Today
First Thought
When Paul speaks about the firstfruits, Paul is reminding us
of Leviticus 23:9-14. The feast of the
firstfruits was to be a time at the Passover when the coming harvest was to be
remembered. The firstfruits would be
brought before the Lord. This indicated
two things to the people of God. First,
it indicated that the coming harvest actually belonged to God and not the
people. Second, it indicated that God
would not forget the people and He would indeed give them a harvest. In connecting this understanding to Christ,
Paul makes a really cool spiritual analogy.
Christ is the firstfruit, and we understand the promise part pretty
well. As Christ was raised into new
life, so is the time coming when we all shall also be raised into new
life. But what we don’t often get is
what comes before the promise. By raising
Christ from the dead, God is reminding us that everything is His. Sure, we know that’s true. But we don’t often live that way.
How confident are you in the promise that you will live in
new life? How good are you at living in
the world now with the attitude that everything belongs to God?
Second Thought:
Paul compares Adam and Christ. We must be careful about this, though. Paul isn’t blaming Adam, he is simply
comparing the two. In Adam we see
disobedience, sin, and death. In Christ
we see obedience, resurrection, and life.
We are not guilty because of Adam’s sin; we are guilty because each of
us has our own sin. But in Christ we can
see the path to resurrection and life.
That path is obedience to God.
How good are you at obeying God? Is obedience a priority? Is it as much of a priority to you as is eternal
life? Should it be?
Third Thought:
Finally, Paul reminds us that all things are made subject to
Christ. All things have been put under
Christ – even death. This is a tough
concept for us to truly grasp, because often our perception seems to indicate
otherwise. From our perspective, it
doesn’t always feel like Christ wins.
Faithful and godly people aren’t always perceived as the victors. People who sin often get rewarded at the
expense of faithful people. But we aren’t
seeing the perspective of God. In the
end, all things are subject to Christ. In
the end, all power, authority, and ruler will cease. All things will perish – even death – unless it
is found in Christ. That’s how Paul can
say that all things are made subject under Christ.
Why is it so difficult to remember that all things are
subject to Christ? Where in your life
have you seen evidence of the fact that all things are subject to Christ even
though they don’t appear to be at first?
Passage for Tomorrow: 1 Corinthians 15:29-34
No comments:
Post a Comment