1 Corinthians 15:23 – The Firstfruit, Christ.

For even as, in Adam all are dying, thus also, in Christ, shall all be vivified. Yet each in his own class: The Firstfruit, Christ.

All people are vivified, with the same inevitability as with which all people die. The firstfruits is Christ. To understand what vivification is, this is an extremely important statement! What this shows is that vivification is not the same as resurrection without a doubt. After all, there are many Biblical examples of the dead who rose before Christ’s resurrection. But the difference is this: their resurrection was a return to mortal existence. They died again later. But Christ is the first to be made alive to leave death behind forever.

When Paul speaks here of all the people who will be made alive, he ignores the resurrection in which people die again. The “resurrection of judging” (John 5:29) after “the thousand years”, at the “great white throne” (Rev. 20) therefore does not count. Because many of those judged there will die again, “that’s the second death.”

The vivification referred to here is the resurrection in immortality, glory and power (: 42.43). Christ is the first of this vivification. And all will follow!

Delen: