Some wonder: "How can Christ be 'The Firstfruits from the Dead' if other people have been raised from the Dead first?"
One way to answer that is to recall how a tree's first offering of fruit was actually its fourth year of producing fruit as described below:
Lev 19:23-25
23 'And when you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten. 24 'But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. 25 'And in the fifth year you are to eat of its fruit, that its yield may increase for you; I am the Lord your God.
NASB
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23 'And when you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten. 24 'But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. 25 'And in the fifth year you are to eat of its fruit, that its yield may increase for you; I am the Lord your God.
NASB
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Don't worry, Jesus is still "The Firstfruits from the Dead" even though He is not the first person to be raised from the dead.
Even as, Jesus is still "The Firstborn of All Creation" even though He is not created nor the first to be born into Creation.
As "The Firstfruits from the Dead," Jesus is the select representative of those raised from the Dead.
As "The Firstborn of All Creation," Jesus is the select representative of all born into Creation.
Let us remember that "select" = "chosen"
and that the oil of anointing signified that God had chosen the one anointed
and that "The Anointed One"(English) = "Christ" (Greek) = "Messiah" (Hebrew)
When we say, "Jesus Christ" which is the same as saying "Jesus is the Christ"
we are saying all of the above.
*Feel FREE to claim as your own anything I write - while I retain the right to do the same the same with it.*
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