Today, acknowledging the miraculous birth of Jesus, reply is on Christ as the head of the church and the first to provide demonstration of death and burial without corruption. Jesus is the stand-in and substitute provided from GOD to fulfill the obligation proclaimed by sacred law to sacrifice and surrender the first born of all created beings and living creatures. Prophetic demonstration of life being restored to the dead is first reported in the Old Testament (e.g., see the prophet Elisha in 2nd Kings 8: 4-6 and 2nd Kings 13: 20-21, King James Version, KJV). This is not the same as the first and second resurrection that both pertain to the eternal purpose of judgment. The language of the holy writings permit the use of the earth and the grave as a figure of the womb; and we may comprehend Christ as the divine seed planted and “born again” following his crucifixion. The disciples of Christ enter into his death, his resurrection, and the judgment against him for sins as well. A fighter in the “Yahoo! Answers” forum using the ID “fixerken” (Level 7 with 30,210 points, a member since August 30, 2006) posted the following:
At Col 1:18 (AS) we read: And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;?
that in all things he might have the preeminence. Firstborn (prō-to'-to-kos) is explained in the Bible concordance as being: the first born of all that is to follow. The dead (nekros) is explained in the Bible concordance as meaning: one that has breathed his last, lifeless, destitute of life, without life, inanimate. Christendom’s clergy says we have a soul/spirit that leaves our body wouldn’t Col 1:18 show that teaching to be false? If Christ was the first, what of all those before him that died in good standing before God?
THE GOLDEN ARROW: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3: 11-21, King James Version, KJV)
THE DOUBLE DAGGER: The Wages of Disobedience (08/04/2017); The Peace of Christmas? (12/25/2016); The Divine Christmas Gifts (12/26/2016); The Meaning of Christmas? (12/22/2016); Blessing and Inheritance from Abraham? (06/05/2014); On Christians Executing Judgment (06/06/2014); The Firstborn, Higher than Kings? (12/18/2012); The Ascension of Christ? (12/19/2012)
“fixerken”, just as Christian believers, today, are acknowledging the birth of Jesus Christ as a sacred event (i.e., miracle) in fulfillment of divine promises and prophecies, Christians acknowledge Jesus Christ as the “firstborn” (i.e., foremost; primary heir; lawful successor of GOD, the ruler over existence and life) through the sacred event of resurrection from the dead. In agreement with The Most High (we also say, the Father), the church is a new creation established on the earth through the ministry of the Son of GOD, and the operations of the same Holy Spirit that worked to found heaven and earth.
Jesus is known as “the faithful witness” for he has testified (i.e., made statements “under oath” that have power as “evidence in judgment” (like fingerprints and eyewitness report) because they are “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”) to mankind of things delivered to him from the fullness of divinity (we say, the GODhead), and of things seen and shared only among the three sacred persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) that include divine forgiveness of sin, mercy in final judgment, reconciliation, the coming of the Holy City (New Jerusalem) as well as the heaven and earth made new.
In accordance to birth order and human reckonings, Adam was the first man to appear on the earth as an offspring and “son of GOD.” In accordance with the divine law provided through Moses, Jesus appears as “firstborn” and the son of Jacob, who became primary heir of Abraham and Isaac through grace, divine prerogative, and sovereign will. Properly understood, the heir receives a double-portion of the inheritance that may be shared with many sons and daughters. Thus, where there are six siblings, there must be seven shares. The second portion to the heir is not to grant them greater wealth than the others; it is to ensure the heir may complete the unfinished business of the deceased. Included may be providing for the burial and memorials; cancelling debts; and “giving the deceased a new name” (a positive and respectable reputation).
As for us today, those who died from Adam to Moses and others to the death of Christ, all may come under the atonement and propitiation for sin accomplished by Jesus dying on the cross, and returning to heaven as High Priest in the Temple, there. Their salvation is not established in their having lived responding to the law given Moses. It is by their lives of faith on the basis of what Adam and Eve overheard spoken to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Those who lived acknowledging the redemption declared by GOD (who does not lie) to be a promise certain of fulfillment, also belong to Christ, even the Friend of GOD (before Abraham was, I am). Consider again the following that uses language from the Bible:
Hebrews 1: 1-4, King James Version (KJV): 1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high: 4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
(2.) Galatians 4: 4-7, KJV: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
(3.) Romans 6: 3-7, KJV: 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Of course, there is far more that could be said. (For example, (4.) Galatians 2: 19-21, KJV: 19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.) Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful. Be it unto you according to your faith.
Washington, DC
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