Jesus was called the “firstborn from the dead” in Colossians 1:18 and Revelation 1:5. What does this appellation mean? In his first letter, the Apostle Peter wrote the following.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3 (NASB) 

For many of us, this is not the first time we have read this verse. As sometimes happens when we become familiar with passages of Scripture, we may quickly gloss over the words, thinking we fully understand what they mean. But recently when I read this I asked myself, “Just how does the resurrection of Christ cause us to be born again?” In other words, to use a familiar analogy, just how is the sausage made? The answer to this question provides an amazing insight into the glories and grace of the New Covenant.

Allow me to back up a bit as I attempt to properly frame my answer to this question. Also let me emphasize that God gives us glimpses into the mystery of salvation in the Bible, but we cannot yet fully comprehend how God did what he did. For us simply to accept what the Bible says with wonder and awe is enough for now. One day I am confident that we will know in full. Until that time, I hope that this article will increase your awe factor and make you even more appreciative of the fabulous nature of what Christ accomplished on our behalf.

When Adam and Eve betrayed God by quickly, easily, and sadly falling for Satan’s lie and choosing the knowledge of good and evil over allegiance to their Maker and life, they ceded their God-given authority over the earth and its creatures to Satan. In so doing, they became slaves of the devil, having no legal rights, which made them subject to his oppressive and cruel lordship. As Jesus described him, he is a liar and murderer whose object is to kill, steal, and destroy.

In order to redeem his fallen and captive people, God needed a man to reverse the course, a kind of Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:47), so to speak, who would honor and obey God, remaining faithful to him, no matter how great the pressure.

That is why Jesus became a human being through the miracle of the Incarnation (John 1:14). His mother was Mary, from the line of David, making Jesus a human being, but his Father was God himself, making his God’s Son. His divine conception was prophesied by Isaiah.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 (NASB) 

When the Eternal Logos, who had always been with God, took on a human body, it enabled Jesus to avoid suffering from the innate corruption by sin that every other human being inherited. He was the God-Man, fully God and fully man.

When Jesus arrived on the scene, the battle of the ages commenced. Satan’s first plan was to kill the baby. He used Herod to accomplish this grisly task, but God warned Joseph to flee to Egypt, thus preserving the child. We don’t know if other attempts were made upon his life subsequently, but when Jesus reached manhood, at just the right time, he entered into his three-year public ministry. At the very outset, Satan attempted to compromise Jesus’ integrity and devotion to God. The temptation in the wilderness initiated an aspect of Satan’s warfare against the Messiah that would continue right up to Calvary, the crescendo being the temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus warned and prepared his disciples for his coming crucifixion, but like most of us, they could not, or would not, hear what he was telling them. It was too awful to contemplate. Jesus knew from the beginning that his destiny was to give his life as a sin offering as God’s Lamb, but it is far easier to declare our intentions to do something difficult when it is yet a long way off than to do it when the time is upon us. Being human, Jesus faced his fears and dread of what was coming. Crucifixion, an ingenious method of torture used by the Romans as a deterrent to crime and sedition, was a horrible way to die. But as terrible as the physical suffering would be, the greatest temptation was most likely connected to Jesus’ facing the imminent separation from his Eternal Father when the sin of mankind fell upon him in such a way that the Bible says he “became sin” (2Corinthians 5:21). He was so thoroughly identified with our sin and guilt that he became one with it, which separated him from his Father, just as it separates sinful man from our Creator (Isaiah 59:2, Matthew 27:46). Contemplating this, no doubt, is what made our Lord sweat blood (Luke 22:44).

Sin is not an abstract concept, just floating around in the universe. Sin has an identity.

It was first “embodied” or identified with Satan, who cleverly and sinisterly brought the entire human race into his coup attempt against the sovereign Creator God. Sin dwells in those who sin (Romans 7:23).

Therefore, for Jesus to “become sin” he had to become one with us.

This is what Paul meant when he wrote that what Jesus suffered on our behalf actually included us. He did not merely suffer for us as a representative: we suffered and died with him. This mystery, which is clearly taught in the Bible, is not fully understood, but it is the truth. It is, so to speak, how the sausage is made.

Without the miracle of identification, there can be no salvation.

Paul understood and taught this amazing truth in his letters. One of the clearest examples is found in the following passage.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20 (NASB) 

This is not some pretty poetic saying that has no basis in reality. It really happened. Just think of the ramifications.

This means that not only did Jesus take our punishment, we took it, too. He paid the price for our sins as the innocent Lamb, but in him and through him we also paid the ultimate price as guilty sinners.

And legally we cannot be forced to pay the same debt twice.

But Paul did not stop with our being crucified with Christ. We also rose with him, which is what saved us. If we were identified and unified with his death to pay the penalty for our sin and rebellion against God, we also are identified and unified with his resurrection.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5  even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6  and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7  so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7 (NASB) 

When Jesus rose from the dead, he became the first person in a new creation order of people, the firstborn from he dead. He emerged from the “womb” of death into life eternal, never again to be subject to that dread enemy. He conquered death, never to die again. In so doing, he carried us with him. We rose again with him. We also crossed over from the realm of death into life, never to die again.

This agrees with the words spoken by our Lord himself.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John 5:24 (NASB) 

This is how Jesus’ resurrection from the dead saves us. Jesus was born again out of the realm of death, becoming the firstborn of those who “rode his coattails,” likewise emerging from the realm of death with and in him.

Knowing this glorious truth enables us to live fearlessly and worshipfully. We are not on some “works treadmill” trying to earn or maintain favor from God. We have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and abode of the dead into God’s kingdom and life eternal because we are in Christ and participate completely in his death, resurrection, and enthronement in heaven.

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14 (NASB) 

Isn’t it about time we start acting as if these things are true? Because they are!