Studies in the Gospel Message
The subject of the fifth lesson in the present series, the one for May 3, is The Gift of the Seed. The Lord himself first preached the gospel when he said, “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.” In this simple promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head was included the whole gospel of the kingdom. All the promises made and all the instruction given since that time are simply the development of what was involved in the original promise, and of what was present in the mind of the Lord when he made the promise. The promises to Abraham are all rooted in this first promise. When Abraham first came into the land of Canaan, the Lord said unto him, “Unto thy seed will I give this land;” and after the test of his faith in the offering up of Isaac, the Lord said to him, “In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” From this it is evident that the most important thing in the promises to Abraham, that upon which all the rest depended, was the gift of the Son of God in the flesh as the seed of the woman. The promise to David, “I will set up thy seed after thee, . . . and I will establish his kingdom,” finds its complete fulfillment only in David’s greater Son who was both David’s son and David’s Lord. The very heart and soul of “the everlasting gospel” are found in the fact that the Word, which was from the beginning, through whom all things came into being, and without whom nothing came into being, should become flesh, “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” and thus make the actual union between divinity and fallen humanity. As there can never be any other gospel than the one “everlasting gospel,” it follows that when this gospel is truly preached, the central truth presented must always be the gift of the Son of God in our flesh, and the blessings which come to us in and through this wondrous gift. It is also important to notice that when God gave his Son to humanity, he gave to humanity the seed of all things, and therefore in giving him he gave all things to humanity in him. “His name is called The Word of God,” and “the seed is the word of God,” and “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” And so it is written, “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground.” It is the characteristic life of the seed which is planted that determines the kind of growth which comes from the seed. This is the law of the seed. And this same principle is revealed in the giving of the divine Seed to humanity. It was through death that this divine Seed became fruitful in the reproduction of itself in human flesh. “Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” When the Son of God became the Son of man, he came as “the last Adam,” the head of a new humanity, that man might again be restored to the image of God. By himself becoming the seed of the woman, he united to humanity that power through which sin may be overcome in the flesh, and the head of the serpent may be bruised. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” It is through our personal faith that we receive this wonderful gift of the Seed. Believing on him is receiving him. And when we receive him, he becomes to us “the Lord our righteousness,” and the life we live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God. And this is the simple but very real experience of justification by faith. “The just shall live by faith.” What a glorious gospel is “the everlasting gospel” which has been committed to us for “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people”! “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”