◄ What Does James 1:18 Mean? ►

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 propitiation for our sin so that all who believe in Him might be made new creatures in Christ and become part of a new creation. 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 and so God sent His Son to pay the price for our sin. Jesus came into the world to be the Head of that new Man, and as believers we are all part of that one new Man in Christ, and members of His Body

God was not required to save us. He was not forced to save us. God did not need to save us nor was he obliged 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: "For by the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the Word of truth," which is by means of the Holy Scriptures.

God gave us the Word of truth through prophets of old, without which none of us would know the way of salvation or the means to be saved. God set out His plan of redemption within the pages of Scripture: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." How we praise and thank Him that by the exercise of His will God brought us forth by the Word of truth: "So that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures."

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 first-fruit in God's eyes. The literal meaning of first-fruit 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 first-fruit 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 first-fruit (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.

Christ was the first of the 'first-fruit 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 'first-fruit from the dead' with an immortal body. Christ was the first-fruit from the dead and those that came out of their grave on that same Resurrection morning are also called 'first-fruit from the dead'. 

We who are the Body of Christ are God's first-fruit for we have trusted the Lord, and at the Rapture, we will be the next 'first-fruit from the dead' for we will all be changed into immortal beings in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. And at the end of the Tribulation, the Old Testament saints will also rise from the dead, and they too will be God's first-fruit.

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 first fruit among His creatures.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Jesus, the living Word of God. Thank You for the Bible, the Word of truth. Thank You for choosing to send the Lord Jesus to be my Redeemer and that by trusting in Him I have been saved. Thank You for all the generations of believers who, by faith alone in Christ alone, are saved for eternity. In Jesus' name, AMEN