Each His Own Turn

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.                                                   I Corinthians 15:20-23

 

Human history is not an entity unto itself. It is a compilation of human lives; each person’s individual life plays into the whole.

 

Adam, the first man, was the first to be given life. In that life, he made choices about how he would live. His choice to sin caused the consequences of his choice, death, to be passed to his descendants throughout the generations since. Each one that inherits Adam’s life also inherits his choice to sin and reaps the consequence of death. So it has been throughout all time.

 

But the endless cycle of life and death has been broken. Jesus, a descendant of Adam, did not give in to the choice of sin and lived the perfect life. Then, in an act of the ultimate personal sacrifice, Jesus accepted sin’s consequence, death, though He deserved it not. Yet death could not hold Him since He had not sinned. The miracle of life overcame death and He arose from the grave whole and regenerated.

 

Now we find ourselves faced with a new choice – whose cycle are we on? Do we stay stuck in the same cycle of life, sin and death as all the generations before us? Or do we choose to get on the cycle of the Savior – life, sin, rebirth, death, resurrection, eternal life.

 

Jesus has gathered the first crop of the renewed tree of life. He reaches its fruit out to us and invites us to partake. Sin, as we all are too fully aware, is an easy choice. New life through our spiritual rebirth should be an easier one yet.

 

If we make the choice to belong to Christ, we will each get our turn to follow Him in our own resurrection. The journey of eternal life that Jesus began living when He rose from the dead on Easter morning He will share with all of us who have been made alive through Him.