Why the Resurrection? Day Five/Reason Five

To Reverse the Curse (so Christ would be the firstborn)

Jesus is to have the supremacy in all things. Because He is the creator of all, He is given the birth-rite over all creation. “He is… the firstborn of all creation…. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Colossians 1:15, 18). This is a particularly interesting phrase. He is the heir of God, receiving all the blessings of the firstborn son, and He also receives the reward because “He is… the firstborn from the dead.” As the writer of Hebrews says, Jesus has been “appointed heir of all things” (Hebrew 1:2).

Both Paul and the writer of the Hebrews make clear that Jesus, because He is the creator of all things (Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2), is supreme over all of creation, as God rightfully is. Yet on account of the resurrection, Jesus is “declared the Son of God with power” (Romans 1:4), to be God’s beloved Son (cf. Hebrews 1:5). Through His work upon the cross Christ has redeemed His creation and has become the heir twice over. He has every right over His creation now both because He created it and because He redeemed it for His own possession.

Through the resurrection, Christ has taken over the role of Adam. As humanity fills the earth in the image of Adam and under his rule as the son of God, so those who are in Christ are to fill the earth in the image of Christ (the redeemed and sanctified image of Adam, who was the image of God) and to subject all to His rule. Through the resurrection, Jesus takes Adam’s role as the lord over creation.

Christ can only do this, however, because Adam fell. There had to be a second human, a second father of all creation to rule. Through Adam came sin and death (Romans 5:12-14). Man was made the enemy of God through Adam—both through being credited with his sinfulness and through receiving it as his children. As all those who receive the blood of Adam receive the condemnation for his sin, so all those who receive the atonement in Christ’s blood receive His righteousness and His reward—eternal life (Romans 5:12-17). Jesus has reversed the curse of Adam. Adam brought death through his disobedience; Christ brought life through His obedience (Romans 5:18-19).

By being the firstborn from the dead, Jesus has become the heir of the promises of God, His Father, and has been given everything that was Adam’s before the fall. All who are in Adam receive the condemnation of Adam. Likewise, all who are in Christ receive the same perfected life that is His. “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).

It had to be this way. God the Son had to empty Himself of His eternal glory with the Father (cf. John 17:5, Philippians 2:7-8) in order that He might become a human. The curse came through a human and so it had to be extinguished through a human. Jesus had to be obedient in the place of Adam and He had to make atonement for Adam’s transgression (and the transgressions of those who are to be redeemed). Only by doing this could the sin that was credited and infused through Adam be made obsolete and the righteousness of obedience be credited and infused. Since the offspring are His, Jesus is now the firstborn and the “Head” of the church (Colossians 1:18).