Jesus was the First Born from the Dead

Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him: 'I foresaw the Lord always before My face, for He is at My right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore My heart rejoiced, and My tongue was glad; moreover My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave My soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your holy one to see corruption.

(Acts 2:23-27)

Once all the sins of mankind had finally been dealt with, God the Father forced Death to release its hold on Jesus, for Death no longer had any legal right to detain Him in the centre of the earth. In the passage above, the Lord reveals that although it was the Father who had committed Him to Hades to suffer for the sins of the world, He would not allow His Son to remain there longer than was absolutely necessary.

Therefore, after His suffering in the heart of the earth had ended, God delivered His Son from Hades and from Death. It is also important to note that God would not allow Jesus’ body to see corruption. In other words, because the Father would not permit decay to touch His Son’s body, it could not remain in the tomb for more than three days.

He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me, and I did not put away His statutes from me. I was also blameless before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight. With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. For You will save the humble people, But will bring down haughty looks. For You will light my lamp; The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.

(Psalms 18:16-28)

Jesus descended into Hades because of the sin of the world—not because of any sin of His own, for He lived a sinless life before God. Once the sins of mankind had been fully accounted for, God could now deal with His Son according to His own righteousness, as this passage declares. Because Jesus had committed no sin, the Father could reverse the spiritual death He had incurred when He bore the sin of the world. Thus, this passage proclaims that God “lit His lamp,” meaning that God brought Jesus’ spirit back to life. Once this occurred, Death and Hades no longer had power to hold Him in the heart of the earth.

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, 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,

(Revelation 1:4-5)

When the final sin of mankind had been paid for, God made His Son alive in spirit once again. That is why this passage describes the Lord Jesus as “the firstborn from the dead.” In other words, Jesus was the first to be born again.

To be raised from the dead and to be born from the dead are two distinct realities. To be raised from the dead means that one’s physical body is made alive again; to be born from the dead means that one’s spirit is made alive again. For example, when Christ returns, our bodies will not be born from the dead—they will be raised. However, when we believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, our spirits are not raised but born from the dead; we are born again.

Thus, Jesus was not only the first to be raised from the dead, but also the first to be born from the dead. One cannot be born from the dead unless they were first dead. Scripture teaches that every saint was once dead in spirit, and that God made us alive again when we believed in the Lord Jesus (Colossians 2:13). In the same way, Jesus died in spirit when He was made sin, and on the third day God made Him alive in spirit once again.

In other words, Jesus was the first to be born again. Therefore, what Jesus prophesied during His earthly ministry came to pass—He laid down His life and took it up again, just as He had received commandment from His Father (John 10:18).

Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

(Colossians 2:14-15)

After Jesus was born from the dead but before He was raised from the dead, He had one more crucial task to accomplish. Prior to the crucifixion, Satan held the power of death, so that none who passed through its gates could ever return (Isaiah 14:12–17).

To resolve this, Jesus had to destroy the one who held the power of death. Yet while He lived, He had no legal right to enter Satan’s domain to confront him. Therefore, Jesus had to die—so that through death He could destroy the devil (Hebrews 2:14).

When Jesus took upon Himself the sin of the world, He incurred spiritual death. At that moment, Satan and his angels were deceived into believing that Jesus had Himself sinned, thereby falling under their authority. Deceived by this, they “illegally” crucified the Lord and took Him into their domain—Death and Hades—to suffer for what they presumed were His own sins.

We know they were deceived because Scripture teaches that if Satan and his angels had understood God’s plan of salvation, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:6–8). When God the Father raised Jesus back to life, He now had the legal right to destroy Satan and his angels in their own domain. Hence, Scripture declares that Jesus disarmed principalities and powers, made a public spectacle of them, and triumphed over them.

I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

(Revelation 1:18)

After disarming principalities and powers, Jesus took the keys of Hades and Death from Satan. As this passage declares, He now holds those keys. Because He holds them, He was able to release the Old Testament saints from their captivity behind the gates of death and take them with Him into heaven.

For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

(Romans 14:9)

Finally, there is one more dimension to Jesus being the firstborn from the dead. We have seen that God the Father is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Yet once Jesus died and lived again, He became, as this passage declares, Lord of both the dead and the living—having been exalted as Lord over all: in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Philippians 2:10).

Michael E.B. Maher

Resurrection of the Dead

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