MY FIRST-BORN

In attempting to understand divine relationships our thinking is often reversed. Instead of starting with God’s revelation, we start with our experience and transfer that to the divine. Being a God who has always existed in a relationship, He designed relationships in society to enable us to understand relationships that have always existed or that He purposed to exist eternally. However, no earthly relationships completely express the relationship they mirror. By design, that begets within us a desire for the eternal rather than the imperfect temporal reflection.

For us to appreciate the significance of His First-born, God linked this imperfect reflection with human generation. Who can forget the wonder of seeing life and likeness imparted to a first child? As many other children as may be born and equally loved, the first birth remains unique, Deut. 21.17. Though there is no possibility of generation within the Godhead, this title expresses a unique delight in Him who is eternally of the same substance and essence.

God is speaking about David in Psalm 89 and expresses His purpose for him as king. He will be uniquely delightful to God, above all the kings of the earth. But David, and his successors, never attained this supremacy morally or politically. In speaking of His plans for David’s ascendancy, God sees the ultimate, ‘My First-born’, tenderly expressing preciousness and unity.

In addition, the first-born is the heir with a double portion, Deut. 21. 17. None can rival him. He will carry out the purposes so important to his father, as Israel would for the Lord, Exod. 4. 22.

‘My First-born’, possessing the form of God, will forever be unrivalled, bringing fulfilment to God’s plans for government, Ps. 89. 27, for the Church, Rom. 8. 29, and for all creation, Col. 1. 15. Neither king nor government will stand before Him. All His redeemed will bear His image. All creation, made by, through, and for Him, subservient to Him, and subsisting in Him, will arrive at its goal through Him. When the Father brings the First-born back to this world, every created being will worship, honour, and bow to ‘My First-born’, Heb. 1. 6.