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GOD’S GRACIOUS AND IMMEDIATE
PROMISE OF REDEMPTION |
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Immediately after the fall God announced His plan of
salvation to Adam, Eve and the serpent.
The historical context was the aftermath of the first sin. The promise of salvation was God's
gracious response to the willful sin of His creatures. When God announced the promise He was
speaking directly to the serpent. In
the context of speaking to the serpent, the promise was actually a
curse. The words of the promise are: "I will put enmity between
you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and her
offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Ge
3:15). In this passage, God outlined
the nature of the new sinful age and the path that the promise would take
from inception to fulfillment. The
current age was to be characterized by "enmity" (hatred, hostility)
between Eve and the serpent, between Eve's offspring and the offspring of the
serpent. The hostility would reach its zenith in the decisive battle between
the "he" 3:15b and the serpent.
In that battle, "he" would crush the serpent's head while
being wounded by the serpent in the process.
The course from promise to fulfillment is traced from Eve through her
offspring, reaching its climax in the "he" of 3:15b. The promise is somewhat enigmatic, and aside from Eve
and the serpent, the identity of the other referents was probably not clear
to those who heard the promise when God spoke it. We know from redemptive
history who the referents are: the offspring of Eve and the offspring of the
serpent are their respective spiritual descendents (see John 8:44; 1 John
3:12; Hebrews 11:14); the "he" of 3:15b is the Messiah, the
anointed one of God, God Himself in human flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ. The decisive battle was fought on the
cross, where Christ was wounded by the serpent (the devil/Satan, Rev 12:9)
but the serpent was destroyed by Christ (Heb 2:14; 1 Jo 3:8). The original hearers of the promise would
not have understood all the details.
What would have been clear is that God intended there to be enmity and
that through the enmity He would bring victory. How this would develop, and who the participants would be,
would only be seen later in the unfolding of redemptive history. |
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