Paul applies this Passover image to Jesus. He is the firstfruits, the first to rise from the dead. But this isn’t an isolated instance. The point of the firstfruits is that there will be many, many more. Jesus’s Passover, that is, Calvary and Easter, which occurred of course at Passover time and was from very early on interpreted in the light of that festival, indicated that the great slavemaster, the great Egypt, sin and death themselves, had been defeated when Jesus came through the Red Sea of death and out the other side.
