The Whole Christmas Story

The Whole Christmas Story
“The Seed of the Savior”
Genesis 3:1-24

Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor

When Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating the fruit from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than destroy them, which would have been within His purview of justice, God announced His plan to redeem them from their sins. (Protoevangelum)

• In Genesis 3:6, we see the failure of the covenant of works, as Adam and Eve were deceived into disobeying God, and their fellowship with Him was broken.
• In Genesis 3:15, we see the covenant of grace, where God promised to send a Savior who would give His life to redeem them from their sins.

Genesis 3:15 also identifies the point where humanity was divided between two seeds: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Human history is the story of cosmic and earthly battle between those two seeds.

In Genesis 3:1-24 we see four events:

• The Temptation – Satan, who was Lucifer, the angel God cast out of heaven because of his rebellion, tempted Eve to doubt God’s Word, and Satan used Eve to tempt Adam to do the same.
• The Fall – Both Adam and Eve sinned against God. God created them to glorify God and to praise Him forever, but they chose to glorify themselves, and so they fell short of God’s glory.
• The Confrontation – Rather than cry out unto God for His forgiveness, Adam and Eve tried to hide from God, and having lost their innocence, they tried to cover their nakedness with leaves.
• The Curse – While Adam and Eve, who represent all mankind, would suffer some earthly consequences for their sins, God cursed Satan for having deceived them; i.e., rather than destroying Adam and Eve, which was within His rights, God laid out His plan to redeem them and restore them to Him.

Until we fully understand the historical prophetical truth of Genesis 3:15, we will never fully understand the primary reason for the generational animosity among mankind that can never be settled. Neither will we ever fully comprehend the amazing grace of God in sending His Son as the Prince of Peace; to restore man’s broken fellowship with God, and to bind mankind together in His love.

1. Satan’s Eternal Curse – Genesis 3:15 – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

In Genesis 3:15, God divided humanity into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Satan and the Kingdom of God, and the flow of human history reflects that division.

• The New Testament Gospels of Matthew and Luke include the two genealogies of Jesus of Nazareth.
• Matthew starts with Abraham and traces Jesus’ lineage through David’s son, Solomon.
• Matthew 1:17 – “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.”
• Luke starts with Jesus works backward to Adam, tracing Jesus’ lineage through David’s son, Nathan,
• Luke 3:37-38 “The son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

3. The Savior’s Eternal Victory – Genesis 3:15 – “It (the seed of Eve) shall bruise thy head, and thou (the seed of Satan) shall bruise his (the seed of Eve’s) heel.”

• What Satan did to bruise, pierce, wound, or bite the Seed of the Woman was limited to the human events he carried out on this earth; they were all temporal.
• What the Seed of the Woman did to crush or trample down Satan’s head, was done in heaven – which means it is eternal!
• First, Satan was crushed at the Lord’s Birth:
  • 1 John 3:8 – “The Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil!”
• Second, Satan was crushed at the cross:
  • John 12:31- “Now the prince of this world will be driven out!”
  • John 19:30 – “When Jesus received the vinegar, He said, It is finished!”
  • The debt of sin that every person owed to God the Father was paid! The atonement for the sins of all who would believe in Him had been made. Over 300 prophecies from Genesis to Malachi had been fulfilled, including the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 that the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head.
• Third, Satan was crushed at the Lord’s resurrection.
  • When Christ rose from the dead on the third day, He conquered the very thing Satan had brought into the world – death.
  • 1 Corinthians 15:22 – “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive!”
• Fourth, Satan will be crushed at the Lord’s second coming!
  • In Revelation 20:1-4, the Apostle John said he saw an angel coming down from heaven when the key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season!”
  • Revelation 20:10, at the end of the millennium, John said Satan will be cast into the lake of fire, along with those who followed him: “The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever!”