Firstborn from the Dead

I was studying and happened upon Colossians 1:18 that says, 'He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything He might have supremacy.' I started thinking....you know, He wasn't the first to be raised from the dead, so what does this mean? They raised people from the dead in the Old Testament and Jesus Himself raised people from the dead, the most famous one being Lazarus. So what does it mean? He was the first after redemption from sin - the debt had been paid, but He was sinless. He could have gone back to the Father at any time. I believe the difference is the resurrected, glorified body. He took it with Him when He left, no one else has done that since, nor had anyone done it before except perhaps Elijah and Enoch. (Mark 16:19 The Lord is received up into Heaven. II Kings 2:11 Elijah went up in a whirlwind and Genesis 5:24 Enoch walked with God and then was not, for God took Him.) When we die, our spirits go to the Lord (Eccl. 12:7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.)and our body is given back to the dust of the earth where it came from. In I Cor. 15:15 The question is asked, 'How are the dead raised? And with what body do they come?' After he tells them that they are foolish to think God cannot take care of this (paraphrase), he says in vs. 42 'The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.' That's pretty clear to me that our body will be raised. Incorruptible, as the Lord's was when He ascended. This is substantiated in vs. 20. He is called the Second Adam in vs. 48 and vs. 49 says that 'as we have borne the image of the man of dust (Adam, humanity) we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man (Christ). All of this is still in I Cor. 15. I just realized I changed my Bible versions and was using a New King James, I'll go back to the NIV, but they don't conflict.
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II Cor. 5:8 says that to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord. That would be our spirit that is absent, obviously. So we know we aren't just 'asleep' in our graves with our bodies. I Thess. 4:14 says that when Jesus returns, He will bring back with Him those who have fallen asleep in Him. Their spirits, because their bodies are on earth. Beginning with vs. 13 he says he doesn't want us to be ignorant about what's going to happen. Vs. 15 says we will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. (Precede in what?) vs. 16 The dead in Christ will rise first. Wait a minute! Weren't they just with Jesus? Apparently, this is the rejoining of the spirit and the body when we are raised incorruptible. Vs. 17 Then the ones left on the earth who are alive will be caught up.
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I Cor. 15:52,53 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
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Then we will be like Christ in His glorified body that was the firstborn from the dead.
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I realize not all of you may come to my conclusion. It's just food for thought and not a 'salvation' issue.