The Firstfruits

“Firstfruits” refers to the first part of a harvest to ripen. These firstfruits are the best of the harvest—they mature earliest and the fruit is large. The Old Testament records that the firstfruits were a gift to God, something that He delighted in. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is the firstfruits offered to God because He was the first to be resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). In a spiritual sense, anyone who receives the gospel and faithfully endures to the end is a firstfruit because they belong to God.

The Bible records:

[Jeremiah 2:3] “Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it became guilty; disaster came upon them,” declares the Lord.

[Nehemiah 10:35] We obligate ourselves to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord.

[1 Corinthians 15:20, 23] But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

[James 1:18] Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

[Revelation 14:4] It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.