Part 11
If Christ is the first of the Woman’s spiritual offspring, the New Testament’s repeated description of Him as Firstborn becomes significant. Scripture does not present Jesus as an isolated Son with no family to follow. He is the Firstborn among others who are being brought into the same spiritual household.
Paul writes:
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Romans 8:29, KJV
The title establishes both Christ’s uniqueness and a larger family. He is the Firstborn, while those conformed to His image become His brethren.
Firstborn Does Not Mean the Word Was Created
Calling Jesus Firstborn does not require concluding that the eternal Word came into existence as a created being. John places the Word before creation:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1, KJV
John then says that “all things were made by him” (John 1:3). The Word therefore exists before the created order.
Paul’s use of “Firstborn” in Colossians likewise emphasizes Christ’s supremacy:
“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.”
Colossians 1:15, KJV
The verses that follow explain that all things were created by Him and for Him, and that He is before all things (Colossians 1:16–17). Firstborn therefore carries the biblical ideas of priority, authority, and inheritance rather than simply describing the first being created.
Firstborn From the Dead
Paul then applies the title specifically to resurrection:
“Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
Colossians 1:18, KJV
Jesus was not the first person Scripture records being restored to mortal life. His resurrection is different. He enters resurrected life beyond death, becoming the beginning of the new creation.
Revelation uses the same title:
“Jesus Christ… the first begotten of the dead…”
Revelation 1:5, KJV
His resurrection therefore functions as a birth into a new order of existence. He goes first, opening the way for others to follow.
Christ Is the Firstfruits
Paul explains the same idea through agricultural imagery:
“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”
1 Corinthians 15:20, KJV
Firstfruits are the beginning of a harvest, not the entire harvest. Their appearance announces that more of the same kind is coming.
Paul develops this directly:
“But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
1 Corinthians 15:23, KJV
Christ’s resurrection is therefore both an individual victory and the beginning of a larger harvest. What happens first in Him establishes the pattern for those who belong to Him.
The Firstborn Begins a Family
The titles Firstborn and Firstfruits converge around the same idea. Christ possesses preeminence, yet His victory is designed to reproduce. The Firstborn has brethren. The Firstfruits anticipate a harvest. The resurrected Christ becomes the beginning of a renewed humanity.
This fits the spiritual-family pattern already developing throughout the thesis:
Christ → Firstborn
believers → many brethren
Christ → Firstfruits
believers → coming harvest
Christ → risen Son
believers → children being conformed to His image
Jesus is therefore not “firstborn” because the eternal Word was the first thing God created. He is Firstborn as the preeminent Son and, through resurrection, the first to enter fully into the new creation that God’s other children will inherit.
This also begins to explain why creation itself is later described as laboring toward birth. Before that birth reaches completion, Scripture repeatedly places God’s people through a pattern of water, Spirit, wilderness, and formation, the same sequence that appears in creation, Israel, Christ, and the life of those who follow Him.