11 Minutes
One thing was made most certain in God’s dealing with the situation that
occurred in the Garden. Satan’s judgment was fixed. He knows there will be
a deathblow.
Satan would have this eternal dread hanging over him that with the birth of
every male child this could be the very one who would be his end. And Adam
and Eve heard it as they all stood before God. At the time of the giving of this
promise no child had been born to Adam and Eve.They learned of their
generations to follow. Adam and Eve were so impressed with the message
of hope that they reinforced it in the minds of their children and their children
passed it on from generation to generation. This is the first prophecy of
Jesus. It is impossible to see the fulfillment of this promise without reflecting
on and seriously considering the Word of God.
Isaiah 7:14
Luke 1:30-35
Because of Adam’s sin this would be completely impossible without a wonder
from God.
SOP - There is not, and cannot be, a natural enmity between fallen angels
and fallen humans. Both are evil. Through apostasy both cherish evil
sentiments. Wicked angels and wicked people are leagued in a desperate
confederacy against the good. Satan knew that if he could induce the human
race, as he had induced angels, to unite with him in his rebellion, he would
have a strong force with which to carry on his rebellion. {CTr 28.3}
In the hosts of evil there is jarring and discord, but they are all firm allies in
fighting against heaven. Their one aim is to disparage God, and their great
numbers lead them to entertain the hope that they will be able to dethrone
Omnipotence. {CTr 28.4}
When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, they were innocent
and sinless, in perfect harmony with God. Enmity had no natural existence
in their hearts. But when they transgressed, their nature was no longer
sinless. They became evil, for they had placed themselves on the side of the
fallen foe, doing the very things that God specified they should not do. Had
there been no interference on the part of God, fallen humans would have
formed a firm alliance with Satan against heaven. But when the words were
spoken, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,”
Satan knew that although he had succeeded in making human beings sin,
although he had led them to believe his lie and to question God, although he
had succeeded in depraving human nature, some arrangement had been
made whereby the beings who had fallen would be placed on vantage
ground, their nature renewed in godliness. He saw that his actions in
tempting them would react upon himself, and that he would be placed where
he could not become conqueror. . . . {CTr 28.5}.
God shall see His seed...and only God can bring forth beauty from death...it
is He that can make us new. God’s Word is itself a divine action. For us to
come to God reasonably it is vital to see how God’s earlier revelation
prepares the way for His latter purposes. If we consider that God stands
outside of time and created all things for the purpose of putting them under
His Son’s feet, then we must study the Bible as one unified but unfolding plan
of God’s will, God’s providence, God’s determination. We must put together
the fact that the One God has related to His people in divergent ways. The
study of last things reasoned in the most crucial verse in the Bible shows
God’s purpose in the first sermon prophecy of Jesus’ sacrifice to redeem his
people. The whole of scripture is packed into every word of this verse. And
we may allowably and reasonably expect every scripture to prepare and
make room for the truth deliberately creating the fulfillment of God’s covenant
in this single verse. It was the establishment of the covenant of grace. It
establishes the principle that runs throughout the word, creating an
expectation of not only “this seed” being actively opposed to sin but showing
the intense hostility that will come in the very end between those born by the
sperm and those born of the Spirit. This verse establishes a cosmic
explanation for the disorder of the world: Satan’s work begins on earth. It
even shows us God’s attitude toward Satan. God doesn’t call Lucifer Satan
by name, He through inspiration insinuates the depraved character of the
fallen angel by speaking to the instrument of his use, the serpent. This being
done to discount the notion of Satan being capable of contending in power
against God. He is just a representative of evil having a high aptitude for the
element of deception. Satan is not the opposite of God. Nothing can be the
opposite of God. God is not bound by anything. There is no tomorrow for
God. There is no yesterday. There is only ‘now’. He is right now at the
creation of the world, right now at the crucifixion, right now at the end of this
age. Right now. Why do people give this adversary recognition. God is all-
powerful, everywhere present, and all-knowing. Satan is none of these. He
does not have unlimited power, he cannot be everywhere at once, and he
does not know everything. He is a created, limited being. He depends upon
God for his existence. Without God's permission, Satan is not able to do
anything. He cannot create or search the human heart. Therefore the conflict
between God and Satan is not really a struggle between two great equal and
opposing powers with the outcome still in doubt. All power and authority
belong to God and Him alone. This adversary morphs from the serpent to
the great red dragon and because he has read the bible, he knows his
eventual future end. The principle of the victory of the kingdom of God over
the kingdom of darkness is established from the beginning. Let there be light.
Last things are purposed. God’s prophecy already declared triumph. The
enmity premise will be of such a devious nature that true hatred will be
concealed until the first human crime. That one act will set the temperament
for those who think to please God in their way as opposed to His way, by
their words and works, rather than through obedience to His commands as
reasoned in His revelations. Unpleasant feelings are created which
subsequently generate the enmity. But in this prophecy God promises a
Savior and at what cost to Him and the whole of creation. Pause to consider
the significance of the price God paid. God gave the life of the Creator to pay
the penalty for us. Nothing else would have been sufficient. The cost would
have been paid even for one human being. God reasoned that with this
payment it was not merely adequate to meet the cost of one person's
redemption, but is so great it satisfies the cost for all the sins of the whole of
mankind for all time! This One was the Only One who could be exactly as is
God. This One is more than life. This One is the very source of all life. God’s
glory, majesty, and exaltation is greater than life itself. No matter what
happens, God is greater than life! How can we understand God’s sorrow?
How can we not love Him with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all
our might, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, with all
our mind. Considering the spiritual perspective, so, what is man...? If we are
not moved with compassion for the hurting, the lost, then we need to pray for
God to remove our heart of stone and give us the heart of Jesus. He tells us
of the earth mother of His Son and those who are in Christ, and how in enemy
occupied territory His plan of redemption is worked out within the context of
the assurance of victory, rather than the prospect of defeat. We are to be
equipped and ready for battle, but with the certainty that the decisive battle
with the enemy has already taken place and has been won. We teach this
passage as the reasoned truth, as the first evidence of God’s unfathomable
love for man.
Genesis 3:15
A seed has all the ingredients of what it will be when fully grown. This is to
be our faith, our trust in God’s promise to have everything we need to be
completely godly and fully effective as His servant. It was after this promise
was given that Satan engaged in a relentless but futile effort to destroy the
ancestral line of the coming “seed” and then to kill the Christchild himself. In
the garden and on the cross, Jesus saw each of us, and therefore the
Savior’s atonement in the garden and on the cross is intimate as well as
infinite. Infinite in that it spans the eternities. Intimate in that the Savior felt
every person’s pains, remorse, desire for, or lack of repentance, sufferings,
and sicknesses. Under what time and circumstances will he see us? It was
after the cross that Jesus’ seed was prominently germinated. Dormancy was
its condition since the Garden. It was in the state of suspended animation
until conditions were right for its coming forth to grow in the fullness of time.
It is the blood of Christ that anchors the root of the seed as the water of the
Holy Spirit is absorbed whereby the seed emerges up into the rising of the
Son. The seed struggles to break through that which is the dust of the
ground. And the air of life gives the seed resilience to the environment. This
“seed” is that of God.
Mark 4:26-32
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