The Law of the Firstborn: from failure to victory
Last week I posted an article based on the first sermon in my Christmas series this year. I had plans to write up each message in full, but life intrudes. Today I’d like to summarize the series to give a coda to the opening overture of last week.
The first message dealt with failure and the concept of substitution. The “first firstborn” of humanity forfeited his place by his murder of his brother. In the line of Adam, Seth occupies the chief place. He became the firstborn. Thus, we see substitution after failure. But really, for all humanity, substitution is necessary.
Adam is called “the son of God” in Luke’s genealogy. Adam failed and forfeited his birthright, passing on death to every generation. Seth is a substitute for Cain, but Seth, too, will die. Everyone dies, and if there is ever hope that men might live again, we need something to solve the problem of death.
Consecration
The theme of the firstborn is picked up in Exodus 13. There, we have it as the context for the law of Passover. The Lord declares, “The firstborn are mine” and he institutes Passover to substitute for the firstborn of Israel. Egypt, however, gave up its firstborn in death to God’s destroying angel.
The firstborn in human culture is the next generation on whom all hopes are pinned. He occupies the place of chief heir, clan leader, family priest. He is a representative figure. In God’s economy, he stands in for the whole family. Again, we hear the echo of God’s declaration, “the firstborn is mine.”
This requirement is seen in all the wealth of Israel: its herds and flocks. The firstborn of all cattle and sheep belong to God (roughly one tenth of a breeding ewe’s output by modern standards). The firstborn of unclean animals also belong to God. They are not sacrificed, but they must be redeemed or die.
The same is true for men. The firstborn is set aside, he belongs to God. Since he is a man, and he is unclean, he must be redeemed or die. He inherited his uncleanness from Adam, he has an opportunity for redemption from God. In his consecration to this place, he is a stand in for all his family. Really, everyone belongs to God and needs redemption.
Ransom
The next major development of the law of the firstborn comes in Numbers 3. Here we have a long account, dealing with the numbering of the tribe of Levi and the numbering of the firstborn of Israel. In a one-time event, the Tribe of Levi is taken in ransom for the firstborn of Israel at that time. The tribe of Levi is set in array around the tabernacle, and consecrated to holy service, a kind of buffer zone to keep the ordinary Israelite from incidentally touching holy things, then being condemned to death. (One recalls the shocking experience of Uzzah who merely tried to steady the Ark of the Covenant and died as a result.)
The census of Levi vs. the census of the firstborn produces an interesting result. All the males of Levi from one month old and upward amount to 22,000 persons. The firstborn males of Israel, from one month old and upward amount to 22,273. The tribe of Levi is the price of redemption for all but 273 from the rest of Israel. God doesn’t “average it out.” He requires a price to be paid. Israel transfers the cash redemption price over to Aaron as the price of redemption for the unaccounted 273.
The emphasis in this development of the law of the firstborn is cost. There is a cost to redemption, and someone must pay.
When it comes to the redemption of the race, who can pay? No one is clean. All owe the price. How can it be paid? Is the blood of bulls and goat sufficient to atone for sin?
Prototokos
The Greek word for firstborn is prototokos. In culture, the firstborn son, the one born first, holds the right of primogeniture (the right of the first born, the right to the inheritance). Through the Bible, though we see again and again the idea of substitution, of a younger son standing in for an older. It isn’t just Seth for Cain, it is Jacob for Esau, Joseph for Reuben, and Ephraim for Manasseh as well. Prototokos emphasizes position not merely the chances of birth.
In the New Testament, Paul declares Jesus “firstborn of all creation” (Col 3.15). That doesn’t mean he is part of creation, as Paul makes clear in the following verses. It means he is chief over creation. All things, Paul says, were made by him, both of the material world and of the spiritual world. He is over all things and sustains all things. Everything depends on him.
More than that, however, Jesus Christ is the head of the body, the church (Col 3.18). How so? Because he is the “firstborn from the dead.” He is the first who died and rose never to die again. A few other resurrections are recorded in the Bible. Every one of them died again. Not Jesus he died, and rose, and lives forevermore.
What does his place as firstborn from the dead mean? He didn’t deserve death. He, of all men, is utterly clean.
Instead, his death is a substitution. All men belong to God, and he requires their souls of them. Since they are sinners, they must die. But the firstborn of all creation came to earth as a man, entered the world he created, took man’s place, paid the price, and redeems all who believe from their sin. He is the firstborn from the dead.
Men now have an opportunity: Life or Death. If you will not be redeemed, you will die. Choose life! Choose Jesus Christ, your representative, your substitute, your Redeemer.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.