When God passed judgment on Satan for the original sin, He started revealing the Plan of Salvation. This devotional reading looks at how the serpent’s and woman’s offspring would interact.
Nuggets
- The Messiah was promised to restore humankind’s relationship with God.
Not long after Satan succeeded in unleashing sin on the world, he got a sentence of losing to the Son of God. I don’t think he knew about the lake of fire yet (Rev. 20: 10).
But Satan knew from the get-go that, though he may win some battles, he was going to lose the war with God.
The loss would be a crushing defeat. His head was going to get smashed. “The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out” (Jn. 12: 31 NLT).
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Devotions in the Celebrating Creation’s Story series
The Promised Messiah
“... He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3: 15 NLT)
The Messiah was promised to restore humankind’s relationship with God.
Satan learned this of is defeat by being informed there would be a Messiah to save us. He would arrive through a human birth.
Ooo, baby. I bet that was a blow to Satan. He thought humans were worse than second-class citizens – and One of them was going to defeat him!
Before we were even created, God knew our relationship with Him would break, and He set a path to lead us back. It looks like two seconds after God confronted the couple about their sin, the Plan of Salvation was unveiled.
God, when He had to have been upset and hurt because the couple had sinned, immediately became the first Preacher.
“I have heard all about you, LORD. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy” (Hab. 3: 2 NLT).
No, God did not come up with the Plan of Salvation on the fly. It was designed long before it was needed.
- “God chose him [Jesus] as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake” (I Pet. 1: 20 NLT)
- “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes” (Eph. 1: 4 NLT).
- “And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made” (Rev. 13: 8 NLT).
- “Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!” (Jn. 17: 24 NLT).
- “The beast you saw was once alive but isn’t now. And yet he will soon come up out of the bottomless pit and go to eternal destruction. And the people who belong to this world, whose names were not written in the Book of Life before the world was made, will be amazed at the reappearance of this beast who had died.” (Rev. 17: 8 NLT).
- “For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 1: 9 NLT).
- “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world’” (Mt. 25: 34 NLT).
- “If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice” (Heb. 9: 26 ESV).
Belief in the Messiah was the way to the path of restoration. “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NLT).
We can’t say that Jesus wasn’t in the Old Testament. We can’t say that Old Testament believers knew nothing about a Messiah.
Don’t miss this. When the Messiah was promised here, there is no mention of Him being a military Messiah. It is clearly – and only – about spiritual freedom from sin.
Make no mistake. Salvation came through a curse. God cursed Satan by telling him that he would lose through our turning back toward good.
The third thing not to gloss over is that Satan can only reach the heel. Manton put it this way. Manton wrote, “The devil cannot reach to the head, but the heel only, which is far from any vital part.”
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Ooo, baby. That would bite. Satan was trying for a complete overthrow of God, and all he was going to accomplish was a swat at the heel.
Gibson made a great point. The Gospel had to come through a curse because, even today, there are those who feel a good works salvation is enough.
It isn’t. We can’t earn our way back into Heaven.
Being a good person isn’t good enough. It does address our disobedience to God.
We have to commit to being obedient to God and His laws and Will.
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Paul explained how the Gospel, instead of the law, leads to salvation. “The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever!” (II Cor. 3: 7-11 NLT).
Jesus came as our substitute. He stands between God and us to take God’s wrath for our sin.
Buddicom had an interesting reminder. “… Jesus should not get the victory unwounded.” Jesus had to suffer as Messiah to fulfill this prophecy.
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Not only did Jesus have to suffer the pain and humiliation of the cross — not just spill His blood — but He also had to experience normal human trials. He had to be one of us.
I don’t think this means only the way the battles between good and evil will occur. I believe it means the battles will be continuous.
The outcome, however, was always secure. “… He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3: 15 NLT). The Prince of Life would defeat the devil of death.
- “But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses” (Ac. 3: 14-15 KJV).
- “Because God’s children are human beings — made of flesh and blood — the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death” (Heb. 2: 14 NLT).
Satan sticking out at a human’s heel isn’t too life threatening to the human on its own. Jesus striking Satan’s he’d is fatal.
But think of it this way. Not only would Jesus be victorious over Satan, but also all humans who accept Him as our Savior and Redeemer also kick him in the head.
Not bad for mere humans!
Spurgeon took it a different way. He took the Messiah’s heel to be His lower part – His human nature.
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How many times did Jesus agonize over His dense followers?
- “But they didn’t understand any of this. The significance of his words was hidden from them, and they failed to grasp what he was talking” (Lk. 18: 34 NLT).
- “They didn’t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant” (Mk. 9: 32 NLT).
- “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future” (Lk. 16: 12-13 NLT).
Wasn’t He in anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane? “He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood” (Lk. 22: 44 NLT).
Didn’t He weep over Jerusalem? “But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. ‘How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes’” (Lk. 19: 41-42 NLT).
Jesus was the Suffering Servant. “He was despised and rejected — a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief …” (Isa. 53: 3 NLT).
Suffering, bruised, in anguish – true. “… Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16: 33 NLT).
It’s going to hurt, but He will be victorious in the end.
Manton reminded us that this suffering was in God’s plan. This makes salvation mean all that much more to us.
I see you over there asking how Satan could only bruise the Messiah’s heel when He ended up dying. But did He stay dead?
No. The Messiah was resurrected. “But the angel said, ‘Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body’” (Mk. 16: 6 NLT).
We can expect the same. “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day” (II Cor. 4: 16 NLT).
So, the very first promise God ever gave to us was that He had a way to restore our relationship with Him. Even though we had rebelled and been disobedient, He had a way to love us back into His fold.
This verse gives a wonderful picture of the gospel. Jesus is going to stand in the gap between mankind and Satan. He will protect us from Satan.
But Jesus is also in the gap between mankind and God. He has provided the way in which we can once again have access to our Heavenly Father.
Jesus will be the One to free us. “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free” (Jn. 8: 36 NLT).
Making the Connections
Yep, the original sin blew it for every human born after that time — for all time.
Since we aren’t told until later that there were children involved, we have to believe that the children didn’t show up until after the original sin. True, as we will learn in the next chapter, Cain had the free will to make his own wrong choice.
But after the original sin, humankind had a sinful nature as well as free will. That is why disciples continue to sin even after conversion.
Bradford make an interesting observation. He said, “… while our evil inclination is centered in our minds, our sinful nature is pretty much centered in our spirits or our souls, depending on how one defines spirit and soul. That is, we either have a corrupt spirit in us, OR we have a Holy spirit in us. We don’t have a little of each, or none at all…..it’s fully one or fully the other.”
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We get the Holy Spirit in our souls by asking Jesus to be our Savior and Redeemer. “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (II Cor. 5: 17 NLT).
Bradford argued that is why the burnt offering (Olah) and grain offering (Minchah) were instituted. They were to address humankind’s sinful nature, not sinful behavior.
That is why we say the animal sacrifices aren’t needed after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Yes, we keep on sinning; but when we are children of God, our nature has been restored.
Yes, we have to ask forgiveness when our sinful behavior occurs. But we now have access to God to ask for that forgiveness.
That is a really important point. God still does not accept disobedience from His children. He still demands obedience.?
How Do We Apply This?
Understand the Messiah’s victory is for this world but is mainly for eternity.
Accept we are not exempt from trials and temptation in this world.
Realize we will still sin in this world after conversion.
Encourage fellow disciples to withstand Satan’s temptations.
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Father God. We are awed at how much You love us. We disobeyed You, and You immediately told us there would be a way to restore our relationships with You. Thank You. We could never have earned our way back into Your presence. By sending Your Son to die for us, all we have to do is believe He paid the debt for our sins. Amen.
What do you think?
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