according to his plan, he brought us forth from the word of truth, so that we exist kind of first fruits of that he created (James 1:18)
Every good gift that comes down from above has the purpose of maturing or conforming us to the image of Christ, so we exist a kind of first fruit of all he created (James 1:17). I used to think that first-fruit only referred to a new creation, Jesus the Son of Man being the first then the apostles, early church, and so on. But it occurred to me, that Paul a Pharisee, a teacher of the Law, also speaks of the first fruit offering in the Old Testament. And we know in some way the old was a shadow of what was to come, not the real thing. The Hebrew word for first fruit is bikkurim which speaks of the first of the crops but also to make first born and relates to the promise to come.
blessed be the God of our Father, the one blessing us in all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3)
The purpose of the offering or first crops in the Old Testament was so that God's people would understand the value of his blessings. Tradition, heavily entrenched within the church, has turned these blessings into earthly things like money, so many do not fully understand their true meaning. Jesus was God's first fruit offering, the promise, and through whom the blessings were to come. Before men made sacrifices and offerings for sin. Before men made sacrifices and offering to appease God's wrath toward sin. In the new, the blood of Jesus atones and is a propitiation for sin once and for all.
Now, at this time, Christ arose from the dead, the first fruit of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20)
The old gives light to what was to come in the new covenant. Christ is the first fruit offering. Just like he is the sin and guilt offering that atones for sin. Just like he is the propitiation for sin, the food and incense offering that went up to God as a sweet-smelling aroma that appeased God's wrath and anger toward sinful man. And just like he is our tithe offering (in the old the tithe which was placed on the altar became holy, so the priests could share in its holiness to do priestly service in the temple) we all as priests partake of Christ's holiness.*
The apostles as new creations were first fruit offerings to God, as are all who are new creations in Christ. We do not make sacrifices of blood for the atoning of sin, nor give food and incense offerings to appease God's wrath and anger, nor do we in priestly service place tithes on the altar and eat of it to share in its holiness... And we do not give first-fruit offerings in the new covenant, we are a first-fruit offering to God, the purpose being that God has a people of his own. A fruit of being a new creation, of his divine nature. God had purposed this in Christ before the world was created. In Christ and through him are all things.
all comes into existence through him and apart from him nothing exists, that created (John 1:3)
The first fruit offering has a spiritual meaning. Just like the sowing and reaping in the new covenant has a spiritual one, and the seed sown is the word of God. We can sow or reap into the flesh or Spirit (Galatians 6:7-9). We reap a harvest through evangelism as people become new creations, spiritually, in Christ, so they are the fruit of a new creation, Christ being the first (John 4:32-35). We reap a harvest within the church as the word of God is sown, truth in love, causing children to grow into the fullness of Christ, bearing the fruit of being a new creation, conformed to his image.
... the one blessing us in all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ... (Ephesians 1:3)
In the new covenant, we receive all the promises of God in Christ. Paul writes of Christ as the first fruit so we may understand the value of God's spiritual blessings we have received in Christ. We exist as a new creation in Christ, as “firstfruits” to God which signifies we are a special people, redeemed by Christ’s blood, and adopted as his own, spiritually. The idea is not of a physical offering like that in the old but represents the fruit of a new creation, that of life and transformation in Christ. Christ is the first fruit, who made a Way for others to be fruits of a new creation unto God.