The Lead Climber's Rope

In 2013, mountaineer Conrad Anker led a team up the treacherous southwest face of Lunag Ri in the Himalayas. The route had never been completed. Anker went first, driving anchors into the rock, fixing ropes, testing every handhold against the mountain's indifference. When he reached a stable ledge, he radioed down one word: "Safe." That single word changed everything for the climbers below. The route was no longer theoretical. Someone had gone ahead and proven it could be done. Each climber who followed used the same anchors, the same fixed lines, ascending a path that had been secured by the one who went first.

Paul tells the Corinthians that Christ has been raised as the "firstfruits" of those who have fallen asleep. This was language every Jewish listener understood — the firstfruits were the initial sheaf of grain brought to the temple, a guarantee that the full harvest was coming. Jesus did not simply rise from the dead as a one-time miracle. He went ahead of us, like a lead climber driving anchors into eternity itself. His resurrection is the fixed rope on which every believer's hope holds fast.

And Paul presses further — there is an order to this. Christ first, then those who belong to Him at His coming. Death, that final enemy, will be placed under His feet. The summit is secured. The Almighty has seen to it. We climb because He climbed first, and the rope He set will hold.