It is a case of "dead reckoning." If we will regard our crucifixion with Christ as our previously determined position, and then set our course according to the commandments given by Christ and His Apostles, we certainly will arrive at our destination, which is transformation into the moral image of Christ and untroubled rest in the Father through Christ.

The Christian will avoid much trouble in his pilgrimage through the wilderness of this world if he truly will repent, reckoning himself to be crucified to the world and the world to him, at the time of his baptism in water.

The Feast of Firstfruits

The feast of Firstfruits marked the beginning of the barley harvest. One of the first sheaves to be harvested was brought to the priest who waved it before the Lord.

The principle of the firstfruits is this: if the firstfruits of the crop is set aside as holy to the Lord, the balance of the crop also is considered to be holy to the Lord.

So it is that when we are born again a "firstfruits" of our personality, our new spiritual life in Christ, is raised to the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1-4). Because God has accepted what has been born within us as holy to Himself, our entire personality is accepted as holy to the Lord (Romans 8:1; I Corinthians 7:14; Hebrews 10:14).

It is important for Christians to understand the future aspects of their redemption. What we enjoy now actually is a firstfruits of the salvation that is to come during the days attending the return of the Lord from Heaven.

Notice that the Apostle Paul, when addressing the saints in Rome, associated salvation with the coming of the Day of Christ:

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Romans 13:11)

"Now is our salvation nearer."

Our salvation begins instantaneously, is a process throughout our lifetime, and is to come in much greater glory at the appearing of the Lord.

Our faith is based on the cross and looks toward the salvation that is to come when the Lord Jesus returns.

Compare:

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)

"Your redemption draws near."

Again:

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28)

The tumults and catastrophes that will come upon mankind in the closing days of this age will cause much fear. God's elect are to lift up their heads for their redemption will come from Heaven at that time.

Peter informs us that the power of God working through our faith is guarding us until the salvation that is to be revealed in the spiritual fulfillments of the last three feasts takes place in us:

Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (I Peter 1:5)

To be continued.