We turn in scripture to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we read the first 28 verses. 1 Corinthians 15, the great chapter on the resurrection, and we read just the first half of it. We read it in connection with Lord's Day 17, which treats that article in the Apostles' Creed, I believe, no, no, he arose from the dead. On the third day he rose again from the dead." Notice especially verses 20 through 23, that will be the focus really as well as the catechism in the preaching this morning. Verses 20 through 23. 1 Corinthians 15. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, the good news, which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, Peter, then of the 12. After that, he was seen of above 500 brethren at once. of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep." So of that 500 who saw Jesus at one time, about 25 years later, many of them are still alive. After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. Now, if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain? Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God. Because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. Ye are yet in your sins. then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." Now pay attention, especially these verses. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits. Afterward, they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. So far we read God's holy and infallible Word. It's on the basis of this passage of Scripture and on the basis of many passages that we have the instruction of Lord's Day 17 of the Heidelberg Catechism found on page 10 in the back of the Psalter. Lord's Day 17. The third day He rose again from the dead. What doth the resurrection of Christ profit us? First, by His resurrection He has overcome death, that He might make us partakers of that righteousness which He had purchased for us by His death. Secondly, we are also by His power raised up to a new life. And lastly, The resurrection of Christ is a sure pledge of our blessed resurrection. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ stands at the very heart and center of the gospel and of the Christian faith. The resurrection of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago is the infallible proof and witness that God is the God of our salvation. That He is able and willing to save us and that He surely shall save us from our deepest woes in order to bring us to the highest heights of glory in Christ. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is of such significance that in it we find all our hope. We can even say that it is the proof of heaven, that there is a heaven, and that heaven is ours. Apart from Jesus' resurrection, there is no hope. Apart from Jesus' resurrection, there is only darkness and despair, death and misery. Apart from Jesus' resurrection, we are still dead in our sins. but the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the infallible declaration that our salvation has been secured and it will be fully realized. Whenever you need comfort, beloved, whenever you need encouragement, simply look to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and consider its implications and you will find comfort and encouragement. Well, as the Catechism teaches, there are three main implications of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. And we could summarize those three main implications with three words. Justification, sanctification, and glorification. First of all, justification. As the catechism says, first, by his resurrection, he has overcome death, that he might make us partakers of the righteousness that he secured for us, or purchased for us, by his death. That's talking about our justification. In Jesus's resurrection, we have the witness that all our sins have been paid for. God's justice was completely satisfied by our head and representative, and Jesus, our Savior, has secured for us a perfectly righteous standing before God. In a word, Jesus' resurrection is the proof of our justification. Second of all, sanctification. As the Catechism goes on to say, we also are by His power raised unto a new life. The very life that Jesus took to Himself when He arose from the dead is the life that He imparts to us by His Spirit at the moment of regeneration. The source of our new life in Christ is found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In a word, Jesus' resurrection is the source and the power of our sanctification. And then third of all, glorification. As the Catechism says, the resurrection of Christ is a sure pledge of our blessed resurrection. In a word, Jesus's resurrection is the guarantee, it is the pledge of the glorification of our own bodies in the future. Justification, sanctification, glorification. These glorious truths are all rooted in the wonder Jesus's resurrection from the dead. What we want to do in the sermon this morning is focus on that third, that third truth that's mentioned in the Catechism, the truth of glorification. I think in recent sermons we focused on the first two. Remember two times ago in the Catechism we looked at Jesus' honorable burial, and we considered how that was really the proof of our justification that the fact that He received the burial of a king And then last time, in Lord's Day 16, we looked at how our old man of sin has been crucified, dead, and buried with Christ. We looked at what that meant, and that was really dealing with our sanctification. And so this morning, it seems fitting to focus especially on that third implication, glorification. Jesus' resurrection is the guarantee or pledge of our own glorification in our bodies. And we're going to heavily engage with what the Apostle writes in 1 Corinthians 15. So that's our focus this morning. Our theme is Christ the firstfruits. This is also interacting well, I think, with what we considered last week Sunday when we looked at the Feast of Pentecost, and this morning we're going to look a little bit at the Feast of Firstfruits. The theme is Christ the firstfruits, and we'll look at that theme under three points. First, we look at the meaning. Second, the explanation. And then third, the comfort. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 20 says, In order to understand that language and the significance, let's make sure we're understanding, first of all, the context in which the apostle speaks these words. In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle is attacking a false doctrine that was being taught by some in the church at Corinth. In the church at Corinth, there was a faction that was openly denying the reality of a future bodily resurrection from the dead. You see that, for example, in verse 12. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" There were people in the church who were saying, we don't believe there is such a thing as a resurrection of the body. Now that might seem strange to us, astonishing. We can't even conceive of Christianity without holding to the resurrection of the body. But nevertheless, that's what a group in the church at Corinth was teaching. Now, if we had to guess, we could figure that some people were holding to this position because of the Greek philosophy that permeated the Greek culture. the culture in Corinth. Greek philosophy, at least one segment of Greek philosophy, taught that while a person was still living, his soul was basically trapped in his body. Some of them had this view that what was spiritual, what was immaterial, is good, inherently good, and what is physical and what is material is inherently sinful. So that the spiritual is, by default, better than what is material and physical. And so, to them, the body was like a prison house, a jail cell for the soul. When a person died, for them, that was like their soul being released from the body. And so, for a Greek philosophy, it would have been foolish to even want the body raised again from the dead. The soul is better off without the body. You don't really want there to be a resurrection of the body. And so some members in the church at Corinth, in their pride, influenced by the culture and philosophy, denied the resurrection of the body. Now what they would have probably said was this. Oh, we believe that Jesus rose again from the dead. After all, you can't really deny Jesus' resurrection from the dead and still consider yourself a Christian. So yes, while we acknowledge that Jesus himself rose from the dead, but Christians won't rise from the dead. That was their position. Now, here in the first part of chapter 15, the Apostle Paul goes to work refuting this way of thinking and showing that it just doesn't even make any sense. And the way that Paul argues is like this. If there is no resurrection of the body, as you say, then Jesus of Nazareth is not risen either. That's what he says in verse 14. If there be no resurrection from the dead, then is Christ not risen? And the point Paul is making is this, your denial of the resurrection of the body proves too much. Because the fact is, Jesus rose from the dead, and here's the key, Jesus is a man. Yes, Jesus is also fully God, but Jesus is also fully man. And if Jesus rose from the dead, then there is a resurrection from the dead. But if as you say, there's no resurrection from the dead, then that needs to apply to Jesus, the man too. But as we all know, Jesus did rise from the dead. Now in the verses that follow, the apostle goes on to show the implications of denying the resurrection of the dead. He spells it out. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Jesus did not rise from the dead. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then, Paul writes in verse 14, our preaching is vain. Our preaching is useless. What we preached unto you, the preaching that you enjoyed and that you believed, it's vain. Because if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then the whole gospel is gone, destroyed, and subverted. You see, if Jesus did rise from the dead, then He truly is the Son of God and the Savior of the world, then His sacrifice has been accepted and God's wrath has been appeased. But, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then none of those things are true. Jesus was not what he claimed to be, and his blood is not a ransom for sinners. And if that is the case, Paul writes, our preaching is vain. That is to say, our preaching is empty, it's devoid of truth and reality and power. And then he says, so is your faith. If there is no resurrection from the dead, then Jesus did not rise from the dead, and what you believe is a lie. In verse 15, Paul writes, not only is our preaching vain and empty, but we are liars. We're false witnesses. The 12 apostles are liars. That crowd above 500 people who all saw Jesus at one time, they're all liars. Cephas is a liar. Paul is a liar. Mary Magdalene, she's a liar. And Jesus ultimately is a liar too. Then verse 17, Paul writes, if Jesus has not been raised, you are still in your sins. You're still under the condemnation of sin. And then in verse 18, he goes even further and says, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then our loved ones who have died are also lost. Because they believed a lie. And because in the end, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then there is no salvation for anyone. If there is no resurrection from the dead, then Jesus did not rise from the dead. And if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then we are suffering persecution for nothing. And we are of all men most miserable. We might as well just eat and drink and be merry and die, because if there is no resurrection from the dead, then Jesus did not rise from the dead. And if Jesus did not rise from the dead, there's no hope, there's no salvation to talk about. But now what does Paul go on to say in verse 20? That's the transition. Verse 20, Paul writes, Is Christ risen from the dead? Paul writes, Jesus is risen. There's indisputable evidence of it. There's many infallible proofs of it. How many times by how many people did not Jesus show himself to after his resurrection? There's all kinds of proof that Jesus rose from the dead. We all know that Jesus rose from the dead. In a sense, it's obvious to the whole world. And the whole gospel of salvation rests on it, on this fact. Jesus is risen from the dead. There's no debate about that. Even you believe that, he says to that faction in the church. And now notice what Paul writes, Jesus is risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. And that's significant. What Paul is saying is this, not only did Jesus rise from the dead, but we know, we know there is a future resurrection of the body from the dead at Christ's second coming because the resurrection of the man Jesus from the dead was a firstfruits. Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection of God's people. So I hope you see what Paul is doing. He's proving that there is a resurrection from the dead. He points to Jesus and says, not only did Jesus himself rise from the dead, which is demonstrated by many infallible proofs. You can talk to people still who saw him after his resurrection. But now he says this, in his resurrection from the dead, Jesus was only the first fruits. Question this morning is this, what does that mean? Now to really appreciate what Paul is writing there, we need to understand that Paul is using Hebrew language. He's making reference to Old Testament language and specifically to the Old Testament feast of firstfruits. So to help us now understand what Paul is saying here, let's take a little bit of time looking at the Old Testament feast of firstfruits. The Feast of Firstfruits was closely connected to the Feast of Passover. The Feast of Passover took place on the 14th day of the first month of the year. The Feast of Firstfruits took place two days later on the 16th day of the first month of the year. The Feast of Firstfruits marked the very beginning of the spring harvest season. Remember last week we talked about the Feast of Pentecost? The Feast of Pentecost marked the end of the spring harvest season? Well, we're going back 50 days to the very beginning of the spring harvest season, the Feast of Firstfruits. Now, children, I want to make sure you understand this. When we hear the pastor say that the Feast of Firstfruits was on the first month of the year, maybe we're thinking of January. Maybe we're thinking of the middle of winter, three feet of snow. But for the Israelites, in their climate, that's not what it was like. For them, the first month of the year was when springtime was happening. We could even say it was like April or May or June. It's when the spring harvest season began. The harvest would run for about seven weeks, and it would begin with the barley. They would go in their fields and harvest the barley, and then after the barley, they would start harvesting the wheat. But now one of the laws that God gave His people was that before they go out into the fields to harvest their spring crops, before they started harvesting the wheat or the barley, they would have to do something. They would have to harvest one sheaf of barley and bring it to the temple. A sheaf is a bundle of barley cut right from the field with the grain head right on it. So the Israelite would take his sickle, he would go to the field, pick out the best barley that was ripe, the first that had ripened, and he would cut down the barley and bring it to the temple. And he would give it to the priest, and the priest would wave it before the Lord as a wave offering, or as a heave offering. We talked about that last week as well, right? The wave offering. And then the priest would keep it for his own use. That first sheaf of barley that was brought to the temple was called the firstfruits. It was the first bundle of the harvested grain. And as the firstfruits, it was symbolic. That first sheaf of grain represented every other sheaf of grain that was still in the field that had to be harvested. That first sheaf of grain, as the firstfruits, represented the whole harvest that was still ripening in the fields. Now, the whole point of doing this act, of carrying out this ceremony of keeping the firstfruits, was twofold. by bringing the firstfruits to the Lord at the temple, you would be communicating that all the crops that were in the field, that were ready to be received and ready to be harvested, came from God. God is the one who is providing you with the sheaf. God was the one providing you with the harvest. And then second, as part of the wave offering, by bringing the first fruits, by bringing that sheaf to the temple to the Lord, you were also communicating at the same time that you were going to take what the Lord was giving you and devote it right back into the service of the Lord. You received it from the Lord's hands, and now you're going to use it in the Lord's service. That's the wave offering. And when the priest waved that sheaf in the temple before the Lord, what that also meant was this, that the sheaf and everything that the sheaf represented became holy, in a sense. It was being devoted to the Lord. It was holy. It became, in a sense, heavenly. So that the whole harvest, in a sense, became holy, wholly devoted to the Lord, dedicated to the Lord. So to be clear, if we need to be clear, the idea is not that the sheaf was a substitute for the Israelite. That was kind of the feast of Passover, right? The lamb being killed. But the idea now is that in the sheaf, the Israelite is dedicating his whole harvest and the whole life that was going to be lived out of that harvest to the Lord. That's how the Lord wanted his people to begin harvesting their crops. That's the mentality he wanted them to have as they went into the field and enjoyed the richness and the abundance that God was giving them. One more thing we should emphasize is this. The firstfruits of the harvest not only represented the whole harvest, the firstfruits not only represented the whole field, but in a sense the firstfruits also spoke of the certainty that the rest would surely follow. The rest would be harvested. That was the underlying assumption. God has brought his people this far, he's brought the harvest this far, and if the first sheaf was harvested, that was God telling the people the rest of the field was surely going to follow. The rest of the harvest was guaranteed. Now, as I said, the Feast of Firstfruits was connected to the Feast of Passover. The Feast of Passover took place on the 14th day, the Feast of Firstfruits on the 16th day. And the two feasts were connected. Of course, the Feast of Passover, we know, commemorated the people's deliverance from Egyptian bondage on the basis of the blood of the lamb. Remember, they took the blood, they sprinkled it on the doorposts, on the lintel, and then in the night, as they were hiding under that blood in their homes, the angel passed over them and they were spared death. On the basis of that blood, not only were they spared the punishment because the lamb was their substitute, but also it It also was because of the blood, on the basis of the blood, that they were going to be set free. They were going to be entering into the land of Canaan, and they were going to be given a portion in that land flowing with milk and honey. On the basis of the blood of the Lamb, they were given the right. to go out into the fields and harvest the grain and the fruit that was prepared for them by God in the promised land. And so on Friday, think about it at the day when Jesus was crucified, on the Friday or the Thursday night, the people would celebrate the Passover feast, right? Jesus was in the upper room the night before his crucifixion celebrating the Passover feast, the last Passover. And then on the Sunday, two days later, the people would celebrate the feast of firstfruits. Each Israelite would have to bring that first sheaf of barley into the temple. And during the days of Jesus, it's kind of interesting to think about it, how did this actually work out in the days of Jesus? Well, this is how you read the people would keep the feast. And as I describe this for you, remember that according to the Jews, the day began at six o'clock at night, it began in the evening after sundown, and went through the next day to sundown. So on the Friday afternoon, after the Passover feast was basically over, but before the Sabbath day started, what would the people do? Well, they would go into their fields and they would mark out the place in the field where they were going to glean the first fruits of the harvest. That's what they did Friday afternoon. On Saturday evening, presumably after the Sabbath day was over, the people would actually go into their fields and cut down that sheaf of barley. And then on Sunday morning, on the day of the Feast of Firstfruits, they would present that sheaf in the temple. So now before we go back to 1 Corinthians 15, just consider what was happening at the time Jesus was crucified and the time when He rose again from the dead. Of course, on the 14th day of the first month, Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Passover. He himself was the Passover lamb. His blood was shed in order that God's people might be delivered from the house of spiritual bondage, and in order that God's people might be set free and they might inherit that land that is flowing with milk and honey, flowing with an abundant harvest. Jesus was fulfilling all of these types. But now consider, what was happening that Friday afternoon? When Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were taking down Jesus' body from the cross and preparing it for burial, what do you think the rest of the Jews were doing in Jerusalem? It was a feast day. And we learned from extra-biblical sources that the custom of the Jews in that day was to follow the delegates of the Sanhedrin outside of the city of Jerusalem and watch them as they picked that part of the field where the first fruits of the barley harvest were going to be gleaned. That's what they were doing Friday afternoon. Then Saturday night, the Jewish leaders would actually harvest that grain, the firstfruits. And then on Sunday morning, on the day of firstfruits, the Jewish leaders with the people as a special ceremony would present that sheaf to the Lord at the temple. And that sheaf was the firstfruits of the rest of the harvest. Now I ask you, what was that day? Two days later, of course. It was Easter Sunday, the day of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. On the exact same day that the Feast of Firstfruits was being held, the Firstfruits was being dedicated to the Lord, Jesus was rising from the dead. And so you see that Jesus is not only the fulfillment of the Passover feast, and as we considered last week, He's not only the fulfillment of the feast of Pentecost, but now we see this morning, He's also the fulfillment of the feast of firstfruits. That's what Paul is writing. Now we understand the language. Jesus is the firstfruits of them that slept. So we understand verse 20. Paul's using that Old Testament idea. Jesus, we could say, is that first sheaf of grain. He's that first sheaf of grain in this sense. He's the first of the harvest. We could even say he's the best of the harvest. And also, he represents the rest of the harvest. And in the New Testament, God's people are likened unto a harvest, aren't they? Matthew 9 verse 37, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. God's people are like wheat that are growing up in a field, and Jesus is the first fruits. And now specifically, in his resurrection from the dead, Jesus is the first fruits. And what happens to the first fruits? representative of what's going to happen to the rest of the sheaves that are still in the field. When God raised Jesus from the dead, God was raising the firstfruits. Christ was the firstfruits as the head and representative of an entire harvest that was to follow. Just as Jesus in his resurrection from the dead was now dedicated to God in his glorified body, so as the firstfruits, Jesus' resurrection is also the guarantee that we too will one day be raised from the dead, and we too, just like Jesus, will be perfectly devoted to God in a glorified body. And the point is this. When the Scriptures refer to Jesus' resurrection as the firstfruits, When Paul writes that, he's emphasizing that Jesus' resurrection is not just the resurrection of a single man. It's the resurrection of a man who represents and stands at the head of an entire harvest of saints. That's the argument in 1 Corinthians 15. There are heretics who are teaching that there is no resurrection of the body. Oh yes, maybe Jesus rose from the dead, but there's no resurrection for us. And Peter answers by saying, yes, there is a resurrection from the body because Jesus rose from the dead, and there's no denying that. And Jesus is the firstfruits of them that slept. Therefore, we know on the basis of the fact that Jesus is the firstfruits, that there is a resurrection from the dead for all God's people. That's the meaning of this language. And now let's step back a bit like we did last week, and let's stand in awe for a moment. of how God does everything so marvelously. Is this not a wonder? In eternity, God decreed our resurrections from the dead. He purposed it, he planned it all out. And then in the Old Testament, when he was giving the laws to Israel and the ceremonies to Moses and to Israel, when they were in the wilderness, and he gives them the Feast of Firstfruits, God's already thinking of Jesus. And he's fashioning this Feast of Firstfruits so that it's going to line up perfectly with what he's purposed for them in Jesus Christ. God's work of salvation is amazing in every single detail. So this is an opportunity for us to bow down and worship. It's not just a logical argument, which is powerful, but it's an amazing look into the grace of God. Well, that's the meaning. Secondly, and briefly, we're going to give the explanation for all of this. The question is, why is Jesus the firstfruits? Well, Christ is the firstfruits not simply because He's the first man who came from the grave with a glorified body. No, but He's the firstfruits because He's the actual spiritual head of His people. That's what the Apostle proceeds to emphasize in verses 22 and 23. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." The point is, Christ is not just an individual man. He is the second Adam. He is the Christ, the anointed office bearer of God. He represents all who have fallen asleep in Him. And therefore, when He rises, that has ramifications for everyone who belongs to Him. This was the case with the first Adam as well. When Adam sinned, death fell upon all who were in Adam. A single human brought death onto the entire human race. We all know death is not natural. The world was not formed by death as others would say, but before Adam sinned, there was no death. But death came into the world and we're all touched by death because of the sin of our head, our representative, Adam. And as a result of that, all men are born dead in trespasses and sins. By nature, we're spiritually dead, totally depraved. So that by nature, man hates God, cannot choose the good, do not desire the good. And all of this is true because Adam represented them and us. Adam was our legal head. Whatever Adam did was imputed to the rest who were under him. And of course, Adam is also the organic fountain of the entire human race. All who come from Adam then take on that same spiritual death that Adam had. The corruption of his human nature was passed on to his posterity as part of God's judgment upon us in Adam. So all men in Adam died. And Paul writes, just as in Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And again, the idea is, just as by the activity of a single man, all who he represented died, even so by the activity of a single man, all whom he represented shall be made alive. We need to understand that when Paul writes, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, it doesn't mean that that all men, head for head, will be raised to everlasting life. But his point is simply, just as all whom Adam represented died, so all who Christ represents shall be made alive. In Christ, all who are in Christ shall be made alive. And why is that the case? Because, just as Adam represented us as the first Adam, Christ represents us as the second Adam. Jesus is our legal representative. And when he arose from the dead, and God was speaking as judge when Jesus arose from the dead, he arose as the head of the body. He's the first fruits. And so he's the guarantee that the rest of the resurrection of all who are in him will happen. And so Paul's argument stands. If there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ did not rise either. But now is Christ risen from the dead. And what's the comfort? Well, the comfort is, as we said in the introduction, threefold. First, let's emphasize what we've been emphasizing all along. The comfort is that we have the blessed assurance that our bodies will one day be raised from the dead. There's no doubting this, beloved. There's no doubting this. Christ is the firstfruits. The firstfruits guarantee that the rest of the harvest will be gathered into the treasure house. We who believe in Jesus are part of that harvest. We are in Christ. God will not, He cannot leave our bodies in the grave. On the last day, God will gather our bodies out of the grave by a wonder of grace, and our bodies will be reunited with our souls. And not only that, but our bodies, because Christ is the firstfruits. What happened to him also will happen to us, so that our bodies will be transformed, they will be glorified, and they will be made like unto the glorious body of our head. So that just as Jesus is devoted to God in strength and beauty and in the power of a glorified body, so we too have that hope that we will be raised from the dead in strength and beauty and in the power of a glorified body. Second, the comfort is that we know that we are not in our sins. We know our justification. First point, glorification. We also know our justification. Since Jesus rose, we know that Christ has paid for all the sins of all who are in Him. And then third, the comfort and joy is that already now we experience the power, the reality of Jesus' resurrection. As the Catechism emphasizes, and grafted into Jesus Christ through the bond of faith, we are by the power of Christ raised unto a new life. We have the new man sitting on the throne in our hearts. And out of the new man, we have hope. Not hope for this life only, but hope for the life to come. As he ends the chapter, we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. We're not being persecuted for nothing. We're not living an antithetical life for nothing. We're not making those daily sacrifices for nothing. We don't walk in love with our neighbor for nothing. We don't fight against the lust of the flesh for nothing. No, we know, we have the assurance that our present affliction and our present circumstances are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Because we're not seeking an earthly city. We're seeking for that heavenly land of Canaan. We're looking for that harvest and that abundance and the riches, not of an earthly land flowing with milk and honey, but the heavenly land of Canaan where there are blessings and pleasures forevermore. Our inheritance in that land is sure because the Passover lamb has been slain. And He rose again as the firstfruits of them that slept. That's comfort. Praise be to God for the victory He has given us, the comfort and joy we have as His people in Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, it is good to be instructed in Thy Word and to dwell on the marvels of Thy works. Interesting things, deep things from the Old and New Testament, but not just interesting things, but things that stir the soul and that comfort the heart, because we know that this is Thy message to us of the certainty, of the guarantee, of our salvation and of our future glory in heaven. Lord, may Thy Word comfort us, may it be a guide for our thoughts, and may we live out of the joy that is ours in the crucified and risen Savior. In His name we pray, amen.