“For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” “Ikaw ay alabok at sa alabok ka babalik.” (Gen. 3:17). Those are just some of the words God told our great ancestor Adam as a punishment for his sin in the garden. That account from Genesis (the book of beginnings) was the foundation of what the Paul is saying in verse 21 that in Adam all die. Elsewhere, the same apostle wrote that "sin came into the world through one man" and "death spread to all men because all sinned" (Rom. 5:12). The sin of Adam brought death upon himself and for all of us who are “in him”. All of humanity descended from one bloodline, the bloodline of Adam. Being in Adam, we all die in our sin.
In our passage, the Apostle Paul talks about the resurrection of Jesus Christ as "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (verse 20). "Fallen asleep" here is a euphemism of those who died. Sooner or later we will also fall asleep euphemistically. We will all die. But here’s the good news: by using the word “firstfruits”, he was implying a sequence. There must be something to follow; similar to the firstfruits. In fact, the implicit turns explicit in verse 23: the order is
First: the resurrection of Jesus more than 2,000 ago; followed by
Second: the resurrection of those who belong to him at his coming.
There is a parallel here. There is symmetry here. On one side, all die in Adam. On the other side, those who are In Christ shall all be made alive.
When it comes to being in Adam, every human being are already in him by virtue of ancestry. But when in comes to being in Christ, not everybody enjoys this gift of life for not everybody trusts in him as the Savior of the world. Come to Christ therefore and have life.
As for you who are already in Christ, rejoice! For the resurrection of Jesus guaranteed that you will be resurrected as well!
As frail, and weak, and sickly our bodies may be right now, they will soon be transformed into glorious bodies. The perishable shall become imperishable. The mortal shall become immortal.
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