As Christians, our natural affinities must yield to our paramount affinity with Jesus Christ, our Savior and Elder Brother. We are called to have a bond with Him that surpasses any connection to other persons, activities, or things. This affinity begins with our likeness to God, as seen in the creation of mankind in His image and likeness, reflecting both physical form and spiritual qualities such as mind, personality, and character. Our goal is to grow in the image of Jesus Christ, focusing on spiritual attributes rather than mere physical resemblance, striving to think, act, and speak as He does. This process of transformation is a journey from physical to spiritual, a sanctification where we become holy as He is holy. God has chosen a few to conform to the image of His Son, predestining them for justification, sanctification, and glorification. Once called, an immediate affinity with Christ emerges, binding us as His younger brothers and sisters, with the promise that we will resemble Him so closely in glorification that our kinship will be unmistakable. We are commanded to imitate Him, to be intimately entwined with Him, so that our lives are enveloped and contained within Christ in God. From the moment of baptism, our lives are to be wrapped up with Christ, inseparable, as He becomes our life itself. When He appears, we will appear with Him in glory, having walked step-by-step through sanctification to achieve the same goal. Christ is the New Man, the image we are to conform to, and we must hold the attitude that He is everything to us, with no one else coming close. As firstfruits, symbolized by the wavesheaf and Pentecost offerings, we share an affinity with Christ, the First of the firstfruits. He was cut off, resurrected, and accepted before God, opening the way for others to follow in resurrection at His return. We, as a kind of firstfruits, undergo a similar process, though as humans we face sin and trials, striving to be like Him through overcoming and growth. This affinity endures into eternity, as we stand with Him, identified as His, following wherever He goes. Our connection with Christ means we inherit alongside Him, sharing the same rewards as firstborns. Through faith, loyalty, endurance, and growth in our calling, we are hip-to-hip with Him, receiving the same inheritance. Christ suffered as a man, facing temptations and persecution, to bring us to His level as brothers and sisters. We, too, suffer and strive as He did, following the same path with the same loyalty and endurance to achieve our place with Him. The greater our affinity with Christ now, the greater our reward. We are not alone in this pursuit, as countless others have sought the same closeness to Him, yearning for the first resurrection and the glory it promises. God ensures we reflect on our position as firstfruits annually through Pentecost, putting us through the same process as Christ to produce the same character. We must continually ask ourselves how much like Christ we are and how much further we must go to be fully conformed to His image.