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HOW’S THAT?

The concept was within the law we gave them through Moses – in the fine print.  Paul discovered the link.  I can’t emphasize enough the importance of being committed with all of one’s heart.⁹⁷  Paul was a consistent zealot – before, when he had been in error – and after, when he was apprehended and placed on the road to freedom.⁹⁸  He was chosen for his tenacity as much as anything.  No one takes his stewardship of the truth to heart more than that dear man.⁹⁹  We could share previously unfathomable mysteries with him.  Of course, he experienced a great deal of frustration trying to pass on the truths that we had allowed him to discover.

SO WHAT DID HE DISCOVER ABOUT YOUR RESURRECTION PLANS?

Everything.  It’s not that complicated.  We had the concept of  “firstfruits” spelled out in the details of the old agreement.  They were the first to spring from the ground – thus, the first to produce fully ripened heads of grain to be harvested and presented to me as a sacrifice.  In our analogy, my son was the first of the “firstfruits”¹⁰⁰ when we brought him out of the ground.  That was step one.  Full heads of grain – numerous people of ours who had proceeded him in physical death – were harvested along with him from opened tombs, so to speak, in bodily form and came into the city to be seen by many.¹⁰¹  That was step two.  They were the remaining portion of our “firstfruits.”  The best was yet to come.¹⁰²

97 “. . . because you are lukewarm . . . I will spew you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16).

98 “He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm” (Psalm 42:2, New American Standard).

99 “. . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!  For . . . I have been entrusted with a stewardship” (1 Corinthians 9:16b, 17b).  “ . . . consider us . . . stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2).  “ . . . when they saw that the gospel  . . . had been committed to me” (Galatians 2:7a).

100           “. . . He (Christ) would be the first to rise from the dead . . .” (Acts 26:23a).  “And He is . . . the firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18).

101           “. . . graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:52-53).

102           “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life” (John 5:28-29a).