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Study 3: The Promises of God Introduction | The Promise In Eden | The Promise To Noah | The Promise To Abraham | The Promise To David | Digressions (Destruction of Heavens And Earth, The Claims Of "British Israelism") | Questions |
3.2 The Promise in EdenThe pathetic story of man's fall is related in Genesis chapter 3. The serpent was cursed for misquoting God's word and tempting Eve to disobey it. The man and woman were punished for their disobedience. But a ray of hope comes into this dark picture when God says to the serpent:-
This verse is highly concentrated; we need to carefully define the various things involved. A "seed" means a descendant or child, but it can also refer to the people associated with the particular "seed". We will see later that Abraham's "seed" was Jesus (Gal. 3:16), but that if we are "in" Jesus by baptism, then we also are the seed (Gal. 3:27-29). This word "seed" also refers to the idea of sperm (1 Pet. 1:23); so a true seed will have the characteristics of its father. The seed of the serpent must therefore refer to that
which has the family likeness of the serpent:- We will see in Study 6 that there is not a literal person
doing this, but that within us there is This "man" of sin within us is the Biblical
"devil", the seed of the serpent. The seed of the woman was to be a specific individual -
"thou (the serpent's seed) shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3:15). This
person was to permanently crush the serpent's seed, i.e. sin — "it shall bruise thy
head". Hitting a snake on the head is a death blow — seeing its brain is in its head.
The only person who is a likely candidate for the seed of the woman must be the Lord
Jesus:- Jesus Christ, who hath (by the cross) abolished death
(and therefore the power of sin — Rom. 6:23), and hath brought life and immortality to
light through the Gospel" (2 Tim. 1:10). "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh", i.e. the Biblical devil, the seed of
the serpent (Rom. 8:3). Jesus "was manifested to take away our sins"(1
Jn. 3:5). "Thou shalt call his name Jesus (meaning
"Saviour"):for he shall save his people from their sins" (Mt. 1:21). Jesus was literally "made of a woman" (Gal.
4:4) as the son of Mary, although God was his Father. Thus in this sense, too, he was the
seed of the woman, although provided by God in a way no other man has been. This seed of
the woman was to be temporarily wounded by sin, the seed of the serpent — "thou shalt
bruise his heel" (Gen. 3:15). A snake bite on the heel is normally a temporary wound,
compared to the permanence of hitting the snake on the head. Many figures of speech have
Biblical roots: "knock it on the head" (i.e. completely stop or end something)
is probably based on this prophecy of Jesus hitting the snake on the head. The condemnation of sin, the serpent's seed, was
primarily through Christ's sacrifice on the cross — notice how the verses quoted above
speak of Christ's victory over sin in the past tense. The temporary wound to the heel
suffered by Jesus is therefore a reference to his death for three days. His resurrection
proved that this was only a temporary wound, compared to the death-blow that He gave sin.
It is interesting that non-Biblical historical records indicate that victims of
crucifixion were nailed through their heel to the stake of wood. Thus Jesus was
"wounded in the heel" through His death. Is.53:4,5 describes Christ as being
'bruised' by God through his death on the cross. This is plainly alluding to the prophecy
of Gen.3:15 that Christ would be bruised by the seed of the serpent. However, ultimately
God worked through the evil which Christ faced, He is described here as doing the
bruising (Is.53:10), through controlling the forces of evil which bruised His Son. And so
God also works through the evil experiences of each of His children. But the question may have arisen in your mind: "If
Jesus has destroyed sin and death (the serpent's seed), why are those things still present
today?" The answer is that on the cross Jesus destroyed the power of sin in himself:
the prophecy of Gen. 3:15 is primarily about the conflict between Jesus and sin. Now this
means that because He has invited us to share in His victory, eventually we, too, can
conquer sin and death. Those who are not invited to share in His victory, or decline the
offer, will, of course, still experience sin and death. Although sin and death are also
experienced by true believers, through their association with the seed of the woman by
being baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27-29), they can have forgiveness of their sins and
therefore eventually be saved from death, which is the result of sin. Thus in prospect
Jesus "abolished death" on the cross (2 Tim. 1:10), although it is not until
God's purpose with the earth is completed at the end of the Millennium that people will
actually stop dying — when death will never again be witnessed upon earth: "For he
must reign (in the first part of God's Kingdom) till he hath put all enemies under his
feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Cor. 15:25,26). If we are "baptized into Christ" then
promises about Jesus, like that in Gen. 3.15, become personal to ourselves; no longer are
they just interesting parts of the Bible, they are prophecies and promises which are made
directly to us! As the seed of the woman, we, too, will experience the victory of sin over
us in the short term. Unless the Lord returns in our lifetime, we, too, will be bruised in
the heel as Jesus was, in that we, too, will die. But if we are truly the seed of the
woman, then that "wound" will only be temporary. Those who are properly baptized
into Christ by dipping under water, associate themselves with His death and resurrection -
symbolized by the rising up from the water (see Rom. 6:3-5). If we are the true seed of the woman, then our lives will
reflect the words of Gen. 3:15 — there will be a constant sense of conflict
("enmity") within us, between right and wrong. The great apostle Paul described
an almost schizophrenic conflict between sin and his real self that raged within him (Rom.
7:14-25). After baptism into Christ, this conflict with the sin
that is naturally within us should increase — and continue to do so all our days. In a
sense it is difficult, because the power of sin is strong. But in another sense it is not,
seeing that we are in Christ, who has already fought and won the conflict. Note how
the believers are described as a woman in Eph. 5:23-32, as if by being the seed of the
woman we are also the woman. In the same way as the seed of the woman represents both
Jesus and those who try to have His characteristics, so the seed of the serpent speaks of
both sin (the Biblical "devil") and those who freely show the characteristics of
sin and the serpent. Such people will disregard or misrepresent God's Word, which will
eventually lead them into the shame of sin and alienation from God, which happened to Adam
and Eve. Seeing that the Jews were the people who actually put Jesus to death — i.e.
bruised the seed of the woman in the heel — it is to be expected that they were prime
examples of the serpent's seed. This is confirmed by John the baptist and Jesus:- "When he (John) saw many of the Pharisees and
Sadducees (the group of Jews who condemned Jesus) come to his baptism, he said unto them,
O generation of (i.e. gendered by, created by) vipers (snakes), who hath warned you to
flee from the wrath to come?"(Mt. 3:7). "Jesus knew their (the Pharisee's) thoughts, and
said...O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?" (Mt.
12:25,34). The world — even the religious world — has these same
serpent characteristics. Only those baptized into Christ are associated with the seed of
the woman; all others are, to varying degrees, the seed of the serpent. How Jesus treated
the people who were the serpent's seed must be our example:- Yet for all this they hated Him. His own effort to be
obedient to God made them jealous. Even His family (Jn. 7:5; Mk. 3:21) and close friends
(Jn. 6:66) put up barriers and some even went away from him physically. Paul experienced
the same thing when he lamented to those who had once stood with him through thick and
thin:- "Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell
you the truth?" (Gal. 4:14-16). The truth is never popular; knowing it and living it as
we should will always create some form of problem for us, even resulting in persecution:- "As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted
him that was born after the Spirit (by true knowledge of God's Word — 1 Peter 1:23), even
so it is now" (Gal. 4:29). If we are truly united with Christ we must experience
some of His sufferings, so that we may also share in His glorious reward. Again Paul sets
us a matchless example in this:- "It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him
(Christ), we shall also live with Him: if we suffer (with Him), we shall also reign with
him ...therefore I endure all things (2 Tim. 2:10-12). "If they have persecuted me (Jesus), they will also
persecute you...all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake" (Jn.
15:20,21) - i.e. because we are baptized into the name of Jesus
(Acts 2:38; 8:16). Faced with verses like these, it is tempting to reason,
"If that's what being associated with Jesus, the woman's seed, is all about, I'd
rather not". But of course we will never be expected to undergo anything which we
cannot reasonably cope with. Whilst self-sacrifice is definitely required in order to
unite ourselves fully with Christ, our association with Him will result in such a glorious
reward "that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed in us". And even now, His sacrifice enables our
prayers for help through the traumas of life to be especially powerful with God. And add
to this the following glorious assurance, heavily underlined in many Christadelphian
Bibles:- "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it" (1 Cor. 10:13). "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye
might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer: I have
overcome the world" (Jn. 16:33). "What shall we then say to these things? If God be
for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31). |
