Christ is the feast of Firstfruits, for He was resurrected by God and became the Firstfruits from the dead for the Father’s satisfaction; in His resurrection Christ justified us before God and live a life of justification.
The third feast of the Jewish calendar is the feast of Firstfruits, which is a type of Christ Himself. The principle is that there’s a sheaf of firstfruits that is being brought to the priests, and then to God, for God’s satisfaction, and then the people can enjoy the harvest.
The firstfruits are usually sweeter than the rest, and they are the most tender and precious and fresh of the crop.
Christ came as the Passover Lamb and died for us, redeemed us on the cross, and passed through death. Then, on the third day (the first day of the week) He resurrected and became the Firstfruits in resurrection.
He resurrected and ascended to the Father for Him to enjoy the freshness of His resurrection, and then He came back to the disciples to meet them and be with them, to train them to live in His invisible presence.
Christ was crucified at the time of the feast of the Passover, and then on the third day – the day after the Sabbath – He was resurrected. This fulfils the type of the feast of Firstfruits, and Christ Himself became the reality of this feast in His resurrection.
The type of this feast is that a sheaf of the firstfruits was offered to God, and this is fulfilled both in Christ and also in the other saints who were raised from the dead after His resurrection (see Matt. 27:52-53).
Our God is so amazing – He sent Christ to fulfill all the types and figures in the Old Testament, and Christ became the fulfilment and replacement of all the positive types and figures.
And this Christ who both was raised by the Father for our justification and resurrected Himself out of the power of the divine life, this One is the Head of the Body, the church, and whatever He went through, we will also go through.
Since Christ as the Head of the Body was raised and ascended, we also believe that we will be resurrected and ascended to Him. Every part of the Body of Christ will be in resurrection, even as the Head of the Body is also on resurrection. Hallelujah!
Today we want to see more concerning how Christ is the Firstfruits for the Father’s satisfaction, and how His death satisfied God and His resurrection justified us, and even more, how in His resurrection He comes into us to live in us a justified life full of righteousness before God.
The Resurrected Christ Ascended to the Heavens to God as Firstfruits of Resurrection for the Father’s Satisfaction
The type of the feast of Firstfruits in Leviticus 23:14 signifies that the resurrected Christ ascended to the heavens and was offered to God with all the fruit in His resurrection as God’s food for God’s satisfaction; then, He became man’s supply for man’s satisfaction.
The Firstfruits are first for God. On the day of His resurrection, Christ resurrected from the dead and early in the morning He ascended secretly to the Father, then late in the evening He returned to the disciples (see John 20:17, 19).
We know this because Mary the Magdalene, who went to the tomb and saw the grave cloths and the stone rolled away but was not satisfied with just the facts, she lingered in the garden until the Lord came to her.
The Lord Jesus had resurrected already but He didn’t yet ascend to the Father; so He appeared to His loving seeker to comfort her that He has risen. The Lord will secretly appear to His loving seekers in this way many times.
However, the Lord told Mary not to touch Him, for He has not yet ascended to His Father and their Father, His God and their God. The Lord could not let anyone touch Him or enjoy Him in the freshness of His resurrection until He has ascended to the Father for His satisfaction.
The freshness of the Lord’s resurrection must be first for the Father’s enjoyment, as in the type of the firstfruits of the harvest being brought first to God.
The Lord Jesus predicted in John 16:7 that He will secretly ascend to the Father, before He was ascended publicly before the eyes of the disciples (Acts 1:9-11).
In other words, Christ fulfilled the type of the feast of Firstfruits by secretly ascending to the Father in the morning of His resurrection, and then later He ascended before the eyes of the disciples publicly.
God accepted Christ with His work, so He raised Him from the dead; Christ fully satisfied God in His being and with His work, and in resurrection Christ ascended to the Father for Him to enjoy the firstfruits of His resurrection.
How sweet it is to see the Son being for the Father’s satisfaction both in His living, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. He just wanted the Father to be satisfied, and He lived a life for the Father’s satisfaction.
Similarly today the Father is waiting for a portion of Christ that has been wrought into the depths of our being to rise and ascend to Him for His satisfaction, for His enjoyment.
We need to enjoy and appreciate this Christ, allowing Him to work Himself into our being, until a portion of Christ that is wrought into the depths of our being will be offered to the Father for His satisfaction.
Praise You Lord Jesus for not only dying for us on the cross but also being resurrected and ascended. You are fully for the Father’s satisfaction, and everything You did and said and were was for the Father to be pleased and satisfied. We praise You Lord Jesus. Thank You for being such a One in us, in our spirit today. May You be wrought into us more and more until there’s something sweet and deep of Christ to be offered to the Father for His satisfaction. Yes, Father, we are here for Your satisfaction!
In His Resurrection Christ Justified us before God and came to Live in us a Justified Life
The sheaf of Firstfruits was waved before Jehovah for acceptance before Him (Lev. 23:11); this typified that Christ was resurrected so that we may be justified before God and we may be accepted by God (Rom. 4:25).
Christ was delivered for our offenses and was raised for our justification. He was delivered on the cross for us in order to satisfy God’s righteous requirements. Since the death of Christ has fully satisfied God’s righteous requirements, we are justified by God through His death (Rom. 3:24).
God raised Christ from the dead for our justification (Rom. 4:25). Christ’s death on the cross satisfied all the requirements God had on us, and the fact that God raised Christ from the dead is a proof that He has accepted Christ’s death and approved it.
Hallelujah, Christ not only died for us, but He was raised for our justification! God accepted Christ’s death for us, His death satisfied God’s requirements and fulfilled whatever God wanted Him to do for us, and His resurrection is the proof of our justification by God.
Hallelujah, in Christ as the resurrected One, we are justified by God and before God.
Christ paid the full price on the cross – our debt was paid in full, and in His resurrection we have the check, the guarantee, that the Father has accepted Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and approved it!
Christ’s resurrection and His being before God in resurrection is the proof that God accepted His redemptive death on our behalf.
Even more, this resurrected Christ is not only in the heavens sitting on the throne, but He is also in us, in our spirit, to impart life to us that we may have a life of justification.
When we believe into the Lord, we receive Christ as our objective righteousness and we are objectively justified before God. We are justified before God in Christ.
Furthermore, we have received Christ as resurrection life so that we may live by this life to have Christ lived out of us as our subjective righteousness.
The resurrected Christ today lives in us to be our life so that we may live out a life of righteousness (Col. 1:27; 3:4). This is the subjective justification which we obtain through Christ’s life, by which we live.
Through the death of Christ we have positional justification, and in His resurrection we have Christ as the proof of our justification. He is our objective justification before God, and He is our life within to live a dispositional justification in us.
Christ is the factor of our justification: He was delivered on the cross because of our offenses to satisfy God’s righteous requirements, He was raised because of our justification as a proof of God’s satisfaction for God to accept us, and He as the resurrected One – the life-giving Spirit – is in us for us to live a life that can be justified by God and is always acceptable to God.
Praise the Lord, Christ was resurrected by God and His sacrifice on the cross was accepted by Him! We are now justified in Christ, and He Himself is our justification and righteousness covering us and making us acceptable before God. Thank You Lord for coming into us as the resurrected life for us to live a life that can be justified by God – a life that is always acceptable to God. We take You as our life, Lord, and we want to let You live in us a justified life, a life of dispositional righteousness for our acceptance before God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3031-3033 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 9, The Feasts (2) – The Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Yea, justified! O blessed thought! / And sanctified! Salvation wrought! / Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, / And glorified, I too, shall be! (Hymns #328)
# When I am in Adam, though I may not sin, / Unto death, a sinner, sentenced I have been; / When in Christ I need not righteously to act, / I’m already righteous, justified in fact. / In the spirit Christ is life and all to me, / Strengthening and blessing all-inclusively; / Living in the spirit, holiness I prove, / And the triune God within my heart doth move. (Hymns #593)
# I have come to the Fountain of Blood / That for guilt and uncleanness doth flow; / I have washed in its sin-cleansing flood / And my garments are whiter than snow. / I count not my righteousness mine— / ’Tis Jesus that lives in my soul. / I partake of His nature divine, / And in Him I am perfectly whole. (Hymns #523)
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