Revelation 1:4-5 “John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, (5) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”
And so when the last sin of mankind had been paid for, God made His Son alive in spirit once again, which is why the above passage of scripture describes the Lord Jesus as being the firstborn from the dead. In other words, Jesus was the first one to be born-again. 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. For example, 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. And so what Jesus said when He walked in the flesh came to pass, i.e. He laid down His life and He took it up once again, just as He had received the command from His Father (John 10:18).
Michael E.B. Maher
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