91. So, then, man rose because man died; man was
raised again, but God raised him.
Then it was man according to the Flesh,
now God is all in all. 1 Cor. xv. 28. For now
we know not Christ according to the flesh, 2 Cor. v. 16.
but we possess the grace of that Flesh, so that we know Him the
firstfruits of them that rest, 1 Cor. xv. 23. the firstborn of
the dead. Col. i. 18. Now the
first-fruits are undoubtedly of the same nature and kind as the
remaining fruits, the first of which are offered to God as a petition
for a richer increase, as a holy thank-offering for all gifts, and as a
kind of libation of that nature which has been restored. Christ,
then, is the firstfruits of them that rest. But is this of His
own who are at rest, who, as it were, freed from death, are holden by a
kind of sweet slumber, or of all those who are dead? “As in
Christ all die, so too in Christ shall all be made
alive.” 1 Cor. xv. 22. So, then,
as the firstfruits of death were in Adam, so also the firstfruits of
the resurrection are in Christ.