THE FIRSTBORN ADVANTAGE


There is something special about being the firstborn. 23 of the 44 presidents of the United States were firstborn, including Barack Obama. The overwhelming majority of CEO's are firstborn. In Bible days if you were the firstborn male you were the heir to the family fortune. It was the Firstborns responsibility to execute all contracts. It was his birthright because of his birth order.

When God placed humanity "In Christ" at the Incarnation, humanity became "Joint Heirs"; we became Firstborn! Understanding the firstborn thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation will help us better understand how God in Christ Jesus saved us. We will come to understand when empowered, what an advantage it is to live as a Firstborn son of God.

The Advantage of Salvation by Sonship

God the Son became Jesus the Firstborn so that He might be the first of many firstborns. The Firstborn understanding of the Gospel is the "Good News.” The fact is that Jesus became our elder brother to bring us back into the family as the firstborn sons of God. Jesus, the second Adam, undid everything that the first Adam had done. Adam lost our status as sons of God; Jesus restored all of us to the family. Jesus became the Firstborn, the "Saviour of the World."

The Advantage of Firstborn Characteristics

The chief characteristic of a firstborn child is a desire to please their parents. Firstborns feel the burden of leadership within the family. The firstborn child understands their performance will in many ways determine the success or failure of all the children who come after them. To make us all "Firstborns,” God the Father sent His Son to be the first human born a Son into the family of God. The Son became a human with the clear intention that He would become the Way back to God for all who came before and all who would come after. Jesus the Firstborn became the way by recreating within Himself an entire world of firstborns sons, perfect as He. Then upon His death, He atoned us all back to the Father within His Firstborn spirit.

The Firstborn Advantage of not failing

Being in Christ, the Way, makes you a winner; you are firstborn. Dr. Kevin Lehman lays out the case for the firstborn advantage. He explains why there is such a benefit to being the firstborn child. In the light of the benefit of being firstborn, it makes total sense that God would "Predestinate" Jesus to become the Firstborn. Because of this advantage we can see why Jesus the Firstborn was so focused on the mission. We understand why Jesus successfully achieved His purpose. Jesus was the embodiment of the Anna Karenina principle. He truly felt the pressing weight of knowing that any deviation from obeying the strict will of the Father would result in failure. He knew we would be lost forever if He failed!

The Advantage of Being Perfect

To save us, Jesus predestined us to pass probation, Jesus, the Firstborn had to make our Sonship-spirits complete from start to finish. In other words, he needed us all to come into the world as firstborns just like Himself. In doing so, He made us commandment-keepers from the start, worthy of entry into heaven. He didn't just accomplish this legally, or forensically, as some theologians say, by simply declaring us righteous. No, Jesus the Firstborn, at the Incarnation, took our spirits, our unmanifested, unfilled characters/spirits out of the prison house, where they had been on death row since Adam sinned. He took them into Himself, where He made us completely and perfectly righteous, filling our Sonship-spirits with the predestined good works He from eternity past planned for us to perform. In this way, he predestined us to glory.His perfect works became all mankind's perfect works. “In Christ” we all were made “the righteousness of God." The result is we come into this world with a perfect and complete self, just like the human spirit/self that Jesus the Firstborn possessed.



The Advantage of Knowing who you are...