Grace to you and peace… from Jesus Christ… the firstborn of the dead (Revelation 1.5b)

What does it mean to be firstborn of the dead?

As people born into families we are accustomed to the range of emotions experienced when a new child enters our little familial communities. Generations gather and celebrate the newborn, the child who shares the combined features of the mother and father; a combination woven together into a human life. It’s breathtaking. Grandparents smile on as their children welcome in a host of joys and griefs, celebrations and sorrows.

As people born into a fallen world we are all too well acquainted with the mourning of death. We lay our loved ones to rest, as they fade before ours eyes to occupy a still and quiet place in our memories. We reminisce on ‘that one time’ we spent together, the little quirks and habits that brought us joy, the funny stories we tell by heart. Grandchildren crease their eyes in grief as they say goodbye to the ones they never got to know as well as they wished.

Before Jesus, the best we could hope for after death was an eternity in sheol, that nebulous underworld of shadow and mystery. We gazed to the horizon of our lifetimes, to an end where we were gathered to our fathers, beyond memory. And then Jesus transformed our broken existence with His death and resurrection. He showed the way to pass through death into eternal life. We are no longer burdened with the void of a timeless space, but reborn in Christ to an eternal land of new life with Him before God the Father! Death has lost its sting. In Jesus, the firstborn from the dead, we have immeasurable grace and everlasting peace.

Jesus, thank you for transforming how I see the horizon of time. Thank you for redeeming me and securing my new life in your grace and peace.