"Upright Standing"

"Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth." (Psalms 89:27)
The third of six verses that point to Jesus, this verse makes a statement about two very important points that need to be pointed out regarding the Kingdom of God. The first of which is the idea of Jesus being the "firstborn." John touches upon this in his opening verses of the Gospel of John, by making mention of who Jesus was, where He came from, and what it was He came to do. He does this in a way that makes it perfectly clear that Jesus was not an ordinary man, saying, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) Paul expands this concept regarding the origin of Jesus in several of his epistles, one such example would be that of Philippians 2:6-11, where Paul speaks of Jesus coming in the fullness of God, but putting Himself in submission to the cross; and as such, He has been highly exalted above every other, to the point that, "every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Anyone that has been following this blog for any length of time should know how I stand on this issue as to whether or not Jesus was God; I do not waiver, not even an inch! My testimony regarding my conversion is a good example of why this is so; having been raised off and on in a cult that believed otherwise, I was determined from day one to make this truth known: Jesus is, was, and anyways will be, God! In a very popular portion of the Bible, where the famous verse John 3:16 is found, Jesus speaking to Nicodemus mentions a term called "born again." It is this term which has confused many generations of people who have either been deceived or have chosen to deny the power of God to change a life, from that which is born of the flesh to that which is born of the Spirit. Jesus Christ was the Firstborn of the Spirit, and He has made it so that we can be born of the Spirit also; which is why John declares in his opening verses, "But as many as receive him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13) The second point of which, is the actual Kingdom; a Kingdom that is not of this earth, and as such, it is higher than any kingdom that has ever been upon this earth. Here is another point of confusion that is among those that seem to not understand or have been taught that the Jews no longer matter, or that somehow the church has replaced the children of Israel. First of all, Jesus was a Jew, born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth; mark at His death, 'King of the Jews.' If you really want to get right down to it, we are adopted into the family, not replacing anything. One of the first songs that I learned when I was a new Christian, was Father Abraham. I was so excited to stand in a circle with my new brothers in the Lord, singing that song, marching and turning, and declaring the miracle of God's grace, that we could be called one of Abraham's sons, sons of the promise and the covenant with God...
"Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see -such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault." (Colossians 1:15-22) NLT