20But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 21For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Leaving the argument by contradiction behind, Paul moves into the positive teaching about the resurrection. Christ has risen from the dead; no proof is given other than the weight and assertion of apostolic testimony (1 Cor. 15:1-8). He presents this as factual, not simply a matter of faith as though the reality of the resurrection depended upon our faith.
Although Paul often uses the names “Jesus” and “Christ” interchangeably and in combination (in either order), when he specifically talks about our Lord’s resurrection, the singular “Christ” seems to be preferred. The focus is not on His humanness, but on His exaltation. The apostle wrote elsewhere that He was “declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4).
Christ’s resurrection is related to our resurrection like the first pickings of a harvest are related to the rest of the harvest. When a farmer enjoys the initial taste of his produce, it signals there is more of the same to follow. Our Lord’s death anticipates our own enjoyment of being part of God’s harvest. We will be part of the same event that Christ was the first to experience.
As he did in another letter (Rom. 5:14), Paul contrasts Christ to Adam, the forebear of our humanity. Adam was the cause of all death. He was the first to experience the first-fruits of death, and we share in the experience. Theologians debate what it means that “by” and “in” Adam we all die. Is he the “federal” head of the human race, representing us all in his fall, and thus we are all guilty of sin and therefore die? Was he our “seminal” head in that somehow genetically his sin and death passed down through the generations to us? Solving that question does not hinder understanding Paul’s point: whatever happened in Adam’s sin and death affected the entire human race. By analogy, whatever happened through Christ’s resurrection affects those who believe in Him.
It is clear from the context that the “all” who died “in Adam” refers unqualified to all his descendants, that is, the entire human race. Their sin and rejection of God simply proves that we inherit and ratify the same sinfulness that began in Adam. The “all” who are made alive in Christ is qualified to include only those descendants of Adam who believe (see 1 Cor. 1:21, 15:2, 11). We who died in Adam have been made alive in Christ. That’s quite the one-liner! Death does not have the final word, but resurrection does!
Lord, thank You for making me alive in Christ. I eagerly await my resurrection.
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