If you were to ask many Christians what constitutes the hope of our calling, what the end is for which we were created, you might get some version of “to make it to Heaven” or “to get saved.” Neither of those answers would be wrong, of course. But what do we mean by them?
Christians claim the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead wasn’t just an historical event limited to one man; rather, as “the first-fruits of them that slept” (1 Cor. 15:20), His resurrection points toward and reveals what our end, our destiny, is. In the Old Testament, the Israelites were commanded to bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of the harvest to the priest, who would offer it to the Lord (Lev. 23:10-11). This act served as a means of consecrating and pledging the entire harvest that was to come.
The first-fruits stand as a representative of the whole harvest. Christ in His resurrection becomes the “first-fruits” of the spiritual harvest, the pledge and promise of our own glorious resurrection to come. He is the first blade of wheat springing forth from the dry ground of sin and death, revealing to us the ultimate triumph of life.
In chapter eight of his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul speaks of this resurrection hope: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (v. 18). The chaos, sin, violence, suffering, corruption, and discord of this present life trouble us mightily. It is often hard to discern the light amidst our darkness. Yet, St. Paul reminds us, we await the coming manifestation of an unfathomable glory to be revealed “in us.”
Why “in us”? Because we comprise the harvest of which Christ is the first-fruits. Preeminent in honor and glory, He has led the way where we shall follow. His glory shall be our glory, for we have received “the first-fruits [i.e., the pledge] of the Spirit” (v. 23). Like the seed buried unseen in the earth that will burst into new life, that glory dwells within us by the Spirit, finally to be made manifest. And not just in us, but in the whole Creation, which is “groaning in travail together until now” (v. 22) in anticipation of the final word of Christ: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5).
Our Easter hope isn’t merely “to make it to Heaven” or “to get saved” as a nicer and better continuation of our present state—our current life but without all the bad things (and with more clouds and harp music!). Those whom Christ has called are “predestined to be conformed to the image of [the] Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). That is, Christ is not only the first-fruits of the resurrection harvest but also the first-born of the new family of God the Father and our elder Brother in the household of God (Heb. 2:11; cf. Rom. 8:17).
We are to be “conformed” to His image. Or, as St. John writes, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn. 3:2). This is the promise of the resurrection: We shall be like Him! All that He has of glory and holiness. All that He knows and experiences of the Father’s love. All that He is from all eternity shall be ours as “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). This is the glory that shall be revealed in us as His brothers and sisters. This is our Easter hope.
