pilgrim people

The Fall (con't) and the Seed Promise

Adam and Even now felt shame for the first time. They tried to hide from God. They covered themselves with fig-leaves in attempt to hide their shame. Their physical nakedness was not intrinsically evil, but it was a symbol of their spiritual nakedness. The very fact that they tried to flee from God's presence shows that their own consciences were now testifying against them.

Since Adam was our federal head and representative in the CoW, humans needed a new covenant-federal head, a Second Adam. This is purpose of the Incarnation. The eternal Son had to become a real human (real body and real soul) in order to redeem us from the curse of the law and bring us to the consummation and eternal Sabbath symbolized in the Tree of Life.

In the midst of God's judgment of Adam, Eve and the serpent, as he is executing the sanctions of the now broken CoW, he brings hope and good news. He promises that HE will send a Second Adam, a Seed to crush the serpent's head. God essentially says to Adam and Eve, "I am not going to allow the relationship you entered with the devil to continue. I am going to place emnity between the serpent's seed and the woman's seed."

Notice what God says to the serpent in Gen 3.15: "I will put emnity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspirng; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The whole gospel is taught here in a nutshell. This is why many theologians refer to this verse as "The Mother Promise." In some ways, this is the most important verse of the Bible. Everything that follows, from Genesis to Revelation, is essentially an unfolding of this mother promise of the Seed who will bruise the serpent's head and restore life.

It is important for us to notice that there is both a singular and a collective aspect to the seed of which God speaks. There is a singular Seed (Christ) and a corporate seed (his people). The same is true when this promise is restated and expanded to Abraham in Genesis 15. Paul picks up on this in Galatians 3. Notice how he deals with both the singular and the collective aspects of the seed: "Now the promises were made to Abraham and his seed. It does not say, 'And to seeds,' referring to many, but referring to one, 'And to your seed,' who is Christ." (v.16) Then, at the end of the chapter, he says, "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise."

From Gen 3.15 on, we see that history is made up of two separate collective seeds, represented by two different singular, representative seeds: Christ and Satan. This is the siginifcance of Jesus being driven to the desert for 40 days immediately after his baptism. There he was the true Israel, being tested in the wilderness, the Second Adam being tested by Satan...and he prevailed! 

More to come...