How could Jesus be “the firstborn from the dead” when others were raised from the dead before He was?

The expression “firstborn from the dead” in reference to Christ has caused some people a little confusion. Obviously, Jesus was not the first one to be resurrected. Besides Moses in the Old Testament, at least three individuals were raised from the dead by Jesus Himself.

There are two ways the word “first” here could be understood. It can mean either first in point of time or first in preeminence. The U.S. President’s wife is spoken of as the First Lady—not because she is the first lady who existed, but first in honor. King David explains this well when he writes in the same vein, “I will make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:27). It is in this way that Jesus is the foremost, the greatest, the chief, the finest, the most supreme, and the most excellent in the universe.

Christ was “firstborn from the dead” because His resurrection took preeminence over all other resurrections. In truth, all other resurrections had taken place or would take place by virtue of His triumph over the grave. Jesus’ power to lay down His life and take it up again (John 10:17) set Him apart from all others who had been resurrected. His was first in importance to such a degree that no other, ever, could have been raised without reference to His resurrection.

All resurrections, before and after Christ, rest on His supreme resurrection. It is the source of freedom from the tomb. The bonds of death are broken because He was victorious over the grave and now has the right to give us eternal life. Some have been resurrected, but only Jesus can unlock the tomb. Only He can say, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Revelation 1:18).

Key Bible Texts

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5 KJV)