tenderness were revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, therefore, is the first-fruits of the new creation.
8. S. James writes: "Of His own will hath He begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of His creatures;"[1] that is to say, those who are born again of water and the Holy Ghost are the first-fruits among the nations. The word ἀπαρχή is as the beginning of the harvest, when the first sheaf, reaped and bound, was lifted up before the Lord as the first-fruits of the field.[2] So among the nations is the Body of Christ the fellowship of the regenerate, who, by a new birth, have risen from spiritual death to spiritual life, and are thereby partakers of immortality. They are members of a Divine Head, who is "the first-fruits of them that slept;"[3] and in Him also they are risen, and have become partakers of the powers of the world to come.[4] S. Paul says that we have "the first-fruits of the spirit."[5] S. Peter describes the Christian people as "a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people," whose office in the world is "to declare His virtues who hath called us out of
