He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of all he created.
In the beginning God created man in His own image, but man rebelled and all his progeny were imputed with sin. They became sinners by nature, estranged from God and without hope in the world. In these end times in which we live, God in His grace sent His Son to be the redemption for our sin…so that all who believe in Him might be made New creatures in Christ and become part of a New creation, whereby we are declared righteousness in Him. And with each passing day we are being conformed into His image and likeness, until that wonderful day when we see Him as He is, and we shall be like Him. In the beginning God spoke the first creation into being and God saw that it was very good…until sin entered therein. God cannot look upon sin but in these last days God chose to bring forth a new creation and breathed the breath of life into that new Man. And so God sent His Son into the world to be the Head of that new Man. As believers we are all part of that one new Man in Christ. God was not required to save us. He was not forced to save us. God did not need to save us nor was he obligated to save us. God in His grace saved us by His own free will. We did not have to be saved nor were we saved because of our own merit or because we deserved to be saved. God voluntarily saved us of His own volition. God gave us the Word of truth through prophets of old, without which none of us would know the way of salvation…nor the means to be saved. God set out His plan of redemption within the pages of Scripture and faith comes by hearing the Word of God. All believers from Adam onwards are saved by grace through faith in God’s Word and all believers in this Church dispensation are considered to be a kind of firstfruit in God’s eyes. The literal meaning of firstfruit is the first portion of the harvest that is given freely to the Lord, and we are to be cheerful givers unto the Lord. Here in James we discover that the spiritual meaning of firstfruit is to give Christ first place in our lives. And there is a further meaning, which is connected with the resurrection of the dead, whereby all who have believed by grace through faith are considered to be the ‘firstfruit,’ for we all belong to the Lord and will all one day be resurrected from the dead…but as Scripture states, this will happen to each person in the proper order. Jesus was the first of the ‘firstfruit’ from the dead. This means that Christ was the first man to ever rise from the dead with an immortal body and all who trust in Him for salvation will also be a kind of firstfruit from the dead…with an immortal body. We who are the Body of Christ are God’s ‘firstfruit’ for we have trusted the Lord…and at the resurrection and rapture we will be the next ‘firstfruit’ from the dead, for we will all be changed into immortal beings in a moment. How we praise God that by the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth…so that we would be a kind of ‘firstfruit’ among His creatures.
Spiritual Steve 