"The First Declaration Of The Gospel"

GENESIS 3:15

BY: REV. KENNETH SAUER, PASTOR OF PARKVIEW UNITED METHODIST

CHURCH, NEWPORT NEWS, VA

“THE FIRST DECLARATION OF THE GOSPEL”

Here we find ourselves looking at one of the most liberating and hopeful, and saving

passages of the entire Bible....right here in the first Book, the third Chapter, the 15th verse of the

Bible....after the fall of humankind we are hit head on with the Adamic Covenant or the first

evangelium....which means that it is the first declaration of the gospel. It is God’s unconditional

promise to Adam and all humankind that He will send a Savior to deliver us!

And that promise has been fulfilled through Jesus Christ....our Lord and our Savior!

The Lord God said to Satan.... “And I will put enmity” which means antagonism or

hatred “between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your

head, and you will strike His heel.”

In essence God was telling Satan that he would be crushed by one particular seed or

descendent of the woman.

What a glorious promise: Some descendent of the woman was to destroy Satan. The

Serpant would strike the descendent’s heel and bruise Him, but the descendent would strike

the final and fatal blow!

The New Testament clearly tells us who the promised seed is....the Seed may sometimes

refer to the descendents of humanity or Israel, but the primary meaning of the Seed is singular: It

is Jesus Christ Himself!

As the Bible says in Galations chapter 3: “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to

his Seed. The Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds’, meaning many people, but ‘and to your

Seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ.”

And the promised Seed is said to be the seed of the woman, not of the man. This points

toward the virgin birth--the incarnation--of Christ.

So the Devil from this point on--tryed to destroy the seed of the woman.

But notice that God never said which woman would bear the Seed, so Satan was left

guessing, and Satan has been trying to desroy the Seed of the woman throughout history....He has

been waging war against the Seed of God, the Savior of the world, ever since God promised

to save the world here in Genesis 3:15.

For example, there was the line of Abel, and Satan led Cain to kill Abel, but God gave

Adam another son, named Seth.

There was the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob....and Satan led Essau to threaten to kill

his brother, Jacob....but God protected him.....

Then there was the line of David, and Satan led several of David’s sons into sin, led them

to commit murder and disqualify themselves from the godly line....but God always kept at least

one son alive....and the list goes on and on.....

Then there was the line of the promised Seed Jesus Himself at His birth....Satan led

King Herod to slay all the babies in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the promised child. But God

warned Joseph and told Joseph to flee with the child.

Then there was the line of the Promised Seed, Jesus Himself, on the cross.

Satan led the world to put Jesus on the cross and to kill Him. But God raised Jesus from

the dead.

Talk about emnity!

And now that Christ has come, Satan continues to do all that he can to turn people away

from Christ.

And even when we do

repent and turn to follow Christ--Satan does all he can to lead us astray!

And that is why we all need to be as wise as snakes and as innocent as doves!

Now we must not become too preoccupied with Satan....but we must at least be aware of

his presence.

As C.S. Lewis once put it, “There are two mistakes that Christains often make

regarding Satan....one is to not believe that he exists, and the other is to have an unhealthy

interest in him. For, with both, Satan is equally pleased.”

And we must be aware of Satan’s desire to squelch our relationship with God...to lead

us astray...or to stop us from having a relationship with God because....through Jesus

Christ....and Him alone we too.....become the promised Seed of the woman....as the Bible

declares in 1st Peter chapter 1: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of

imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God.”

That’s right...our lineage as Christains goes all the way back to Genesis.....

And it’s a spiritual lineage.....it’s an imperishable lineage....but it is also a lineage that is

in conflict with an enemy...

As the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but

against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the

spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”