"In triumph over death, which resulted from our first parent’s sin, Christ was the first of all men to rise to immortal life. Thus, as life first became mortal through Adam’s sin, immortal life made its first appearance in Christ through the atonement for sin He offered. Others, it is true, raised up either by Christ or by the prophets, had returned to life before Him; yet they had to die a second time. But “Christ rising again from the dead, dies now no more” (Rom. 6:9). As He was the first to escape the necessity of dying, He is called “the first begotten of the dead” (Apoc. 1:5) and “the first fruits of those who sleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). Having thrown off the yoke of death, He was the first to rise from the sleep of death."