The Coming of the Redeemer
By Geo. A. Snyder
I. The Promise of the Seed
When God said to the serpent: “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” (Gen. 3:15), He was revealing thus early to fallen humanity His eternal purpose concerning the redemption of man’s lost estate through the incarnation and sufferings of Christ. Notice the language carefully. It is “her seed,”—born of woman—that is to bruise the serpent’s head. The final triumph, the bruising of the serpent’s head, is to be accomplished only through the bruising of the woman’s seed. The seed of the woman is referred to by a personal pronoun in the singular number. It is not their heel, but “his heel” that is to be bruised by the serpent. So Christ was born of woman, and “bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53), “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Heb. 2:14. The promise of the seed was later reiterated to Noah and Abraham. In Gen. 13:14-16 Abraham was promised an earthly inheritance and a numberless posterity for himself and his seed after him. In Rom. 4:13 Paul says that the promise to Abraham embraced the whole world, and in Gal. 3:16 we read: “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.” This makes it evident that everything promised to Abraham through his seed is to be fulfilled only through Christ. In Acts 7:5 Stephen declares that Abraham never received enough of the promised inheritance to set his foot on, and in Heb. 11:8-13 we learn that he never expected to see the promise fulfilled literally in his natural lifetime, but that he embraced it afar off by faith. In due season the Seed through whom the promises were made was born of woman in the direct lineage of Abraham; but, lo, Christ says of Himself: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.” Luke 9:58. And again, just before His crucifixion, He says: “My kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:36. The Jews, and even Christ’s own disciples were much disappointed that He did not seek to establish a temporal sovereignty as a fulfilment of the promise made through Abraham’s seed. They did not seem to grasp the full import of the original promise made to our foreparents in Eden. Christ did fulfil as much of the promise as was then due. He was born of woman, “and took upon Him the form of a servant, . . . and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Phil. 2:7, 8. He was fulfilling that part of the promise which said that the seed of the woman should be bruised. That part of the promise which says that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head is yet to be fulfilled; and this triumphant phase of the promise is just as sure to be fulfilled as that the other has been fulfilled. That same precious Jesus whose weary body was bruised on the cross will yet see the travail of His soul and be satisfied when all those who have accepted His cross shall also with Him wear the victor’s crown. That numberless posterity promised to Abraham through the Seed will be made up of all those who through the succeeding ages have grasped by faith the blessed truth that “He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isa. 53:5. All those who accept of salvation through the bruising of the Seed are counted with Him as the seed of Abraham. “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:29. It is a great mistake to suppose that the seed of Abraham are made up solely of his fleshly posterity, for “they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” Rom. 9:8. And again: “The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” Gal. 3:8, 9. It is only through faith in the Seed that we shall be counted worthy of being among the sheaves at reaping time. The Seed was sown in Gethsemane, on Calvary, and in Joseph’s tomb. The first fruit of the harvest appeared when Christ came forth from the tomb, and all the sheaves will be gathered when all the dead in Christ arise. The tares will be destroyed when the Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head in the final eradication of evil from the universe. (Continued on next page.)