１
On the day of His resurrection, early in the morning the Lord ascended secretly to satisfy the Father, and late in the evening He returned to the disciples (John 20:17, 19).
２
The freshness of His resurrection must be first for the Father's enjoyment, as in the type the firstfruits of the harvest were brought first to God (Lev. 23:14).
Ｃ
The waving of the sheaf of the firstfruits before Jehovah for acceptance signifies that Christ was resurrected that we might be justified before God and accepted by God (v. 11; Rom. 4:25b):
１
The death of Christ has fulfilled and fully satisfied God's righteous requirements; hence, we are justified by God through His death (3:24).
２
Christ's resurrection proves that God's requirements were satisfied by Christ's death for us, that we are justified by God because of His death, and that in Him, the resurrected One, we are accepted by God (4:25b).
３
As the resurrected One, Christ is in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and is always acceptable to God (8:10).
Morning Nourishment
Lev. 23:14 And you shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears until that same day, until you have brought the offering of your God...John 20:17 Jesus said to her, Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.
On the day of His resurrection the Lord ascended to the Father. This was a secret ascension, the ultimate fulfillment of the going predicted in John 16:7. It occurred forty days prior to His public ascension, which took place before the eyes of the disciples (Acts 1:9-11). On the day of resurrection, early in the morning He ascended to satisfy the Father, and late in the evening He returned to the disciples (John 20:19). The freshness of His resurrection must be first for the Father's enjoyment, as in the type the firstfruits of the harvest were brought first to God. (John 20:17, footnote 1)
The waving of the sheaf of firstfruits before Jehovah for acceptance signifies that Christ was resurrected that we might be justified before God and accepted by God. (Lev. 23:11, footnote 1)
Today's Reading
In Romans 4:25 we see that Christ is the factor of our justification: "Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised for our justification."...Christ was delivered up to die on the cross because of our offenses. This means that...Christ was delivered on the cross for us in order to satisfy God's righteous requirements. Since the death of Christ has fulfilled and fully satisfied God's righteous requirements, we are justified by God through His death (3:24).Romans 4:25 goes on to say that God raised Him from the dead for our justification. If God had not been satisfied with Christ's offering for us, how could God have raised Him from the dead? God's raising Christ is a strong proof that God was satisfied with Christ's dying for us and that we are justified by God because of Christ's death. Now God can accept us through Christ.
Suppose that Christ died for us and for our sins and was buried in the tomb but was not resurrected by God. If this were the situation, we could not believe that His death was accepted by God and that it satisfied God's requirements and fulfilled His desires. How- ever, Christ is not in the tomb. God raised Him up from the dead, and He came back in resurrection. This is a strong proof that God has accepted His death for us, that His death satisfied God's requirements and fulfilled whatever God wanted Him to do for us. Therefore, the resurrection of Christ is the proof of our justification by God. In Christ, the resurrected One, we are justified.
This resurrected Christ is not only in the heavens but also within us to impart life that we may have a life of justification. By believing in Him, we have received Christ as our objective righteousness and are objectively justified before God. We have also received Christ as resurrection life that we can live by this life to have Christ lived out of us as our subjective righteousness; hence, we can be subjectively justified by God....This resurrected Christ is living in us to be our life that we may live out a life of righteousness (Col. 1:27b; 3:4a). This is the subjective justification which we obtain through Christ's life. This subjective justification is our living by the resurrected Christ.
The death of Christ gave us a positional justification, and the resurrected Christ in the heavens is a proof of this. Now the resurrected Christ also lives inside us, living out a life of dispositional justification....We have not only an objective justification but a subjective justification as well. We may now live such a subjective, dispositional justification. Thus, as the factor of our justification, Christ was delivered on the cross because of our offenses in order to satisfy God's righteous requirements. He then was raised because of our justification as a proof of God's satisfaction for God to accept us; He was raised also as the resurrected life for us to live a life that can be justified by God and is always acceptable to God. Today Christ in resurrection is our justification. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3031-3033)
Further Reading: Life-study of John, msg. 44