Colossians 1:18 “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”
So what consequence did our Lord Jesus incur by becoming sin with our sin? In order for us to more clearly understand that concept we need to go back to the original sin committed by Adam, for God created Adam as a type of Jesus (Romans 5:14). And so that which happened to Adam can help us to understand what happened to Jesus. Adam was created (born) under law, for God commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and so even though Adam had received only one commandment from God, that still meant that he was under law. As one who was born under law the penalty for transgressing the commandment of God was death, for God told Adam that in the day he transgressed the commandment of God he would surely die (Genesis 2:17). The Holy Spirit confirms this truth to us when He teaches us that death enters through sin (Romans 5:12). And so on the day that Adam transgressed God’s commandment, what God had said would happen came to pass, i.e. Adam died. We know however, that Adam’s body only expired nine hundred years after this event, so why did God say that Adam died on this day? God said that because the moment Adam sinned, death gained dominion over Adam and he became subject to death and separated from the life of God. The death that Adam experienced on the day he sinned was twofold. Firstly Adam died in spirit, for he became separated from the life of God, which is why scripture teaches us that all of mankind are dead in trespasses and sins and thus need to be made alive once again (Ephesians 2:1). But secondly Adam also died in body, for the sin and death that had entered his inward man also entered into his outward man. In other words, Adams body became contaminated with sin and death, which is why the apostle Paul teaches us that the bodies of all mankind are contaminated with sin and death (Romans 7:23-24). The reason why the bodies of all mankind are contaminated with sin and death is because the blood of Adam flows through the veins of each one of us, for God has made all of us from one blood, i.e. the blood of Adam (Act 17:26). The scripture confirms this truth to us when it states that the bodies of all men are dead because of sin (Romans 8:10). In other words the bodies of all men are subject to death and are thus separated from the life of God.
And so having looked at what transpired in Adam when he sinned, we can now better understand what transpired in Jesus when He was made to be sin. Jesus was also born under the law (Galatians 4:4) and because He was born under law, when God made Jesus to become sin He incurred the same penalty that Adam did, i.e. He incurred the penalty of death. The death that Jesus incurred when He was made to be sin was the same death that Adam incurred, in that it was twofold. Firstly Jesus died in spirit and He was separated from the life of God, which is why Jesus cried on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34). The above quoted passage of scripture confirms this truth to us, for the Holy Spirit tells us that Jesus was the firstborn from the dead. To be raised from the dead and to be born from the dead are two entirely different concepts, for when one is raised from the dead it means that one’s physical body is made alive once again, but to be born from the dead means that one’s spirit is made alive once again. Let me elaborate on this point. As believers, when Christ returns, our bodies will not be born from the dead, they will be raised from the dead. However, when we believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour our spirits are not raised from the dead, they are born from the dead, i.e. we are born-again. And so we see that Jesus was not only the first one to be raised from the dead, but He was also the first one to be born from the dead. One cannot be born from the dead unless they were dead. The scriptures teach us clearly that every saint was initially dead in spirit, which is why God made us alive once again when we believed in the Lord Jesus, i.e. every saint was born-again (Colossians 2:13). In the same manner, Jesus died in spirit when He was made sin, and on the third day God made Jesus alive in spirit once again. In other words Jesus was the first to be born-again. When Jesus died in spirit, at the same time sin and death entered His body and thus Jesus’ body died. And so for the first time Jesus became subject to death, which is why Satan was able to have Him killed on the cross (John 19:11). Many times before that, Satan had tried to kill the Lord Jesus but he could not because Jesus’ time had not yet come, and as the sinless Son of God He was not subject to the one who had the power of death, which is Satan (Hebrews 2:14).
Michael E.B. Maher