The First Fruit of Those Who Are Asleep
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep. 21 For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming. 24 Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27 For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him. 28 When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.
Christ's rising is the first sheaf of one harvest, and the order runs to a final subjection in which death itself is abolished.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep.
After five verses of consequences, the but now turns everything. And the image is a harvest word: the first sheaf, brought to the sanctuary before the crop was gathered Leviticus 23:10–11. A first fruit is not an isolated case but a sample and a pledge — the rest of the field is coming, and at one time. That is why the Corinthian position is impossible: to have the first sheaf without the harvest is a contradiction in terms.
21 For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Two men, each the head of a race. Death entered by one and is undone by the other, and the symmetry is the argument Romans 5:12 Romans 5:17–19. The second all is bounded by the phrase attached to it, in Christ, as the first is bounded by in Adam.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming.
The sequence is dated and it has two stages, not a continuous trickle. Christ has risen; his people rise at his coming — which is where this letter consistently places the change 1 Corinthians 1:7 1 Corinthians 15:52 and where the letters to Thessalonica place it 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Nothing between the two moments is described, because the sleep of the dead requires no description.
24 Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The reign has a purpose and therefore a completion. The language is from the psalm about the enemies made a footstool Psalms 110:1, quoted throughout the New Testament Hebrews 1:13 Acts 2:34–35.
The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
The verse the whole chapter turns on. Death is an enemy — not a natural boundary, not a friend, not a doorway; a hostile power to be destroyed. And it is last, which fixes the order: death is not abolished at a believer's funeral but at the end, when the harvest is gathered. Scripture's final vision shows the same thing, death itself thrown into the lake of fire Revelation 20:14 Revelation 21:4.
When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.
The end of the sequence, and the letter is careful about it. This is the sense in which God is the head of Christ 1 Corinthians 11:3 — a subjection of role at the completion of a mission, spoken of the same one through whom all things were made 1 Corinthians 8:6. And the last phrase is the goal of the entire chapter: not the survival of individuals but that God may be all in all.
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