Genesis 3:15, commentary and pictures

Spoken to the serpent in the hearing of guilty Adam and Eve, the sentence falls chiefly on Satan himself as the originator of sin and is the first promise of redemption and a coming Saviour. The enmity is not natural to fallen humanity, which is in harmony with Satan, but is put by God Himself through Christ's grace as hatred of sin and renewal to godliness. The promised seed of the woman is Christ, who laid aside heavenly glory to clothe divinity with humanity and give Himself as substitute and ransom. Bruising His heel is Satan afflicting Christ with temptation, suffering and death to the tomb, while bruising the head is Christ by that very death destroying him who had the power of death and making salvation sure. The words foretell an intensifying war between Christ and His followers and Satan and his agencies to the close of time, offering in the covenant of grace pardon, probation, and regaining through Christ of all that was lost by yielding to Satan.

Setting and First Promise

Genesis 3:15 was God's sentence of judgment upon Satan after humanity's fall, spoken to the serpent in the hearing of Adam and Eve while they stood guilty before the righteous Judge awaiting punishment for transgression. It belongs to the judgment pronounced after Satan brought sin into the world and death by sin by leading Adam and Eve to disobey the one prohibition and eat the forbidden fruit, opening the floodgates of woe upon the world. It teaches for all mankind that God's Word is to be sacredly respected and His requirements implicitly obeyed.

The serpent that spoke was Satan disguised in the form of a serpent, speaking through the serpent, then one of the wisest and most beautiful creatures, dazzling as burnished gold, winged, resting in the rich-laden branches and eating the fruit. Eve was deceived and Adam was not deceived but was persuaded by his wife, and after Adam blamed Eve when God inquired about disobeying the one restriction, God first pronounced a curse on man for transgressing His law and on the earth because of man's sin, leaving Adam still to tend the garden as a laborer together with God but now to earn bread by sweat of brow, then spoke this word to the serpent. The curse falls chiefly on the devil as originator of sin, not on the serpent as mere medium, and Satan and his associates fall under it, confining him to this earth and to this globe. The same curse rests on all who today allow themselves to be used as his instruments to lead others to disregard God's commandments, for the serpent represents Satan the tempter who is everywhere, and whoever is led away from truth from any motive and ventures on a path of his own choosing follows a false leader into false paths, with both leader and led guilty before God and neither held guiltless.

The fall came through disregard of God's prohibition about the tree of knowledge of good and evil, under warning that in the day they ate they would surely die, when through the seductions of the wily foe the laws of nature wrought out their full penalty. Eve, alone after unconsciously wandering from Adam during daily garden labor despite caution to remain together to be in less danger, felt apprehension but dismissed fear trusting her own wisdom and strength, gazed with mingled curiosity and admiration on the very beautiful fruit and questioned why God had withheld it, and lingered wonderingly instead of fleeing when addressed in a musical voice with subtle praise of her surpassing loveliness that surprised yet did not displease, with no thought the fascinating serpent could become the medium of the fallen foe working unperceived, where fear would have been excited had she been addressed by a being like the angels. Eve was beguiled to believe God would not do as He had said, ate and felt no death but a pleasurable sensation of new and more exalted life as angels feel, and her experience arrayed against the positive command of Jehovah seduced Adam to eat, for true experience is in harmony with natural and divine law while false experience arrays itself against the laws of life and the precepts of Jehovah, and because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily hearts are set to do evil. That violation of the law of Jehovah brought sin into the world with unutterable woe, drove Adam from Eden, left the race lower physically, mentally and morally, began a downward tendency lessening vital force and bringing deformity, decrepitude, disease, imbecility and feeble mental, moral and physical power, making the world a place of anguish, with intemperate parents transmitting corrupted blood, disease, evil inclinations, enfeebled intellects and polluted morals from father to son, and Satan's success in Eden leading him to believe he could also overcome Christ.

The verse is the first gospel sermon and first intimation of redemption to man, announcing the plan of salvation after Adam and Eve broke the simple command when Eve believed Satan's misrepresentation. It is the first promise of a Deliverer to free men and women from bondage of sin and the grave, prophesying the breaking of Satan's power and deliverance from ruin wrought by transgression, declaring war between man and Satan yet that though they must suffer from their mighty foe they could look forward to final victory and need not yield to utter despair. It means Christ, as Commander of all heaven, pledged Himself to suffer to rescue the world from Satan's power if the man He created was deceived by the fallen foe, laying aside His glory to bear the penalty of God's violated law and becoming the object of concentrated jealousy and revenge of Satan and fallen angels, and it does not mean the law would be annulled, for not a jot nor tittle could be destroyed while heaven and earth remain. It means the Son of God offers to atone with His own lifeblood for transgression and grants a period of probation in which through faith in Christ's power to save fallen men and women may become children of God again, with the guarantee that the enemy cannot touch the head unless the person lets him. It refers in a special manner to Christ who pledged Himself to engage in conflict with the prince and power of darkness and bruise the serpent's head, and to all who accept and confess Him as the only begotten Son of God as sons of God, His chosen soldiers to war against principalities and powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, in an unwearied conflict with no end until Christ comes the second time without sin unto salvation to destroy him who destroyed many souls through masterly deceiving power.

It was given as a star of hope and ray of light to Adam after disobedience opened the floodgates of woe with all nature feeling effects of sin, brightening the pathway of the faithful ever since and illumining the dark and dismal future as sin increased through successive ages. Before Adam and Eve heard of toil, sorrow, thorn and thistle, suffering and death and returning to dust resulting from sin, they heard this promise of hope and proclamation of the Redeemer. It declares that all lost by yielding to Satan can be regained through Christ, who redeems the human family from the destroyer's power and restores them to God's image and sonship, so that after they disobeyed and hid from God He did not leave them to hopeless ruin but preached the first gospel sermon Himself.

When the words were spoken Satan did not fully understand them, knowing only that they held a curse for him, though he heard and knew their force against him. Jehovah spoke them to Satan in the presence of Adam and Eve after Satan had ruined them by lying deception, as the first gospel promise to man and curse upon Satan for seducing the holy pair. When Christ was manifested on earth Satan feared He was indeed the promised One come to limit his power, have his deceptive wiles discerned and exposed, weaken and lessen his influence over man, contest his dominion and control of the kingdoms of the world, and finally destroy him.

The words also meant to Satan, though seeming obscure, that his claim to be prince of the newly formed world would be contested because of the charges he made against God to allure Adam and Eve from allegiance, that One would come whose work would be fatal to his evil purposes, and that he and his angels would be forever defeated. To bruise the heel means Satan would bruise Christ, afflicting Him from the desert to Calvary with the storm of his wrath, with human beings feeling the strength of his affliction because Adam and Eve yielded to temptation. To bruise the head means Christ would bruise Satan, destroying his power and ending the enemy's assurance of certain power and sense of security, and it also means sinners would not be left without a Helper, for Christ came to be tempted in human behalf and in human behalf to overcome, clinging ever more firmly to His Father's hand through the bloodstained path.

The promise was spoken by the Son of God Himself, with Jesus Himself bringing His gospel to Adam in the promise of a Redeemer who would bruise the serpent's head. Since the sin of the first parents there has been no direct communication between God and man, and the Father has given the world into Christ's hands that through His mediatorial work He may redeem man and vindicate the authority and holiness of God's law, so all communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. Through all ages after the fall God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, with Christ as foundation and center of the sacrificial system in both patriarchal and Jewish age, joined to a system of sacrifices devised by Christ and given to Adam to typify a Saviour to come who would bear the sins of the world and die for its redemption, later spelled out in definite directions through Moses, the same gospel afterward preached to Abraham, to Jacob, and to Moses. Sin made a fearful separation between God and man requiring a mediating ministry, and through Christ alone by an offering equal to the demands of the divine law the communication cut off because of Adam's transgression is opened between God and the ruined sinner so the guilty may find access to God, for Christ speaking right after the fall declared to save man from penalty of sin He would come Himself to conquer Satan on Satan's own battlefield, continuing on earth the controversy begun in heaven to answer before the heavenly universe whether God's law is imperfect and in need of amendment or abrogation or is immutable and whether His government needs change or is stable, with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses understanding the gospel in this promise and looking for salvation through man's Substitute and Surety. At the fall Christ took the position of Redeemer of the fallen race as Saviour, and this same Christ is speaker of the holy living and neighbor-love commands given to Israel through Moses.

Enmity God Alone Implants

The enmity is not natural to fallen humanity, for after transgression human nature became evil and in harmony with Satan, leaving no warfare between fallen angels and fallen men because both are evil through apostasy and evil leagues with evil against good. In Eden there was innocence and perfect harmony with God with no such enmity in the heart, but by sinning humanity placed itself on the side of the fallen foe. Without God's intervention the human family would have joined Satan against heaven, allied with him in warfare against God, and become his agents in rebellion.

God Himself puts the enmity by pledging to introduce a new principle into the heart, a hatred of sin and deception and pretense and everything bearing the marks of Satan's guile. By divine power He gives a new mind and renovating energy through Christ's grace and renewing power, renewing fallen nature in godliness and placing fallen beings on vantage ground. This turns Satan's success in making humans sin and depraving human nature back upon himself, breaking unity of action with him and leaving him unable to become conqueror. The conflict thus created will not submit to his counsels and deceptive reasoning but opposes them.

The promised enmity is universal, not confined to Satan and Christ, but between Satan and his angels on one side and all mankind on the other. The serpent's seed is wicked men who resist the Spirit of God and, like their father the devil, call God's law a yoke of bondage, for sin is transgression of the law and he that commits sin is of the devil. The enmity between the two seeds is supernatural, though with Christ it was in one sense natural and in another sense supernatural because humanity and divinity were combined in Him. Its first example was the murder of Abel by Cain, moved by Satan against a follower of Christ, and the same spirit produces through all ages persecution and martyrdom because Satan and his hosts cannot force submission to their control.

Its presence is seen when Christ's grace creates opposition in the soul, enabling people to resist Satan, abhor sin, and conquer passions that once ruled them. A converted person who has put away unrighteousness opposes Satan, exalts righteousness, calls sin by its right name, separates from evil, discerns deception, and refuses what God condemns. This new principle brings conflict where there had been peace and willing service to sin, showing that a power from above is at work.

The enmity must be personally chosen by accepting great salvation instead of voluntarily choosing the side of the transgressor, for to be at enmity with sin and Satan is the dividing line of mastery. Man cannot create it himself, yet bringing the will into subjection requires inclining heart and will to be on the Lord's side, praying as a little child, and opening the heart to Christ rather than closing the door against Him. God will not force it upon determined resistance but leaves the heart free, and it must be kept alive by constant vigilance in words, deportment, and business transactions with exactitude, lest deceptive practices endanger souls and those who cannot see the danger soon feel no enmity against the archdeceiver. Those who receive it occupy a distinct, decided position against evil, sharing Christ's righteous fervor against abomination and His unsullied purity that exposes corruption.

Without this daily converting power upon the heart there is no disposition to oppose Satan's counsels and no inclination to be religious. As soon as a person separates from God he has no power of enmity against Satan, remaining his willing captive, dupe, and servant, ready to obey him and choosing bondage over freedom in Jesus Christ. Apart from it Satan's power surrounds people and threatens them, and they must regard him as a deadly foe to be resisted in Christ's name rather than joined in transgression.

Christ the Promised Seed

The woman's seed is Christ and the serpent is Satan, and the promise refers in a special manner to Jesus as the promised offspring who triumphs over the serpent. It is God's sentence against Satan and a promise to Adam and Eve that redemption would come through Christ, with the conflict between the two seeds foretelling that Christ would defeat Satan though Satan would wound Him. The Seed of the woman is Christ who in a special manner bruised the head of the serpent as the instigator of sin, while Satan would bruise His heel by wounding Christ for human transgressions to bring peace. Christ came into the world to dispute Satan's claims and bruise his head, for He alone as stronger than the strong man armed can overcome him, take his armor, divide his spoil, dispossess his weapons, and limit his power.

To fulfill the promise He laid aside the glory He had before the world was and clothed His divinity with humanity in unselfish sacrifice, because man could not overcome and become a conqueror in his own strength. As Commander of all heaven He pledged Himself to suffer to rescue the world from Satan's power, laying aside His glory to bear the penalty of God's violated law and becoming the object of the concentrated jealousy and revenge of Satan and the fallen angels. The King of glory who is from everlasting left the royal courts of heaven and was born a helpless babe in Bethlehem to take the sin of the world upon Himself, bearing the humanity men bear that humanity might touch humanity. He could not come as an angel but must meet man as man to represent the Father's character, bring moral power, and help humanity return to loyalty, living with humanity and bearing all its trials and afflictions, tempted in all points as men are yet without sin and understanding all their temptations. He gave Himself as substitute, surety, and ransom, taking the anguish sin brought into His sinless being, paying the debt sinful man could never pay, breaking the bondage holding humanity, and working out deliverance by every pang and insult.

With humanity and divinity combined, the enmity was with Him in one sense natural and in another sense supernatural, and it was never developed to so marked a degree as when He became a resident of earth. Never had there been a being on earth who hated sin with so perfect a hatred, having seen its deceiving power cause holy angels to revolt, and all His powers were enlisted against Satan. In the purity and holiness of His life He flashed truth amid the moral darkness Satan had spread, exposed Satan's falsehoods and deceiving character, spoiled his corrupting influence, stood as a perfect representation of the Father, and by character and practice refuted misrepresentations of God by revealing Him as compassionate and merciful, not willing that any should perish. His purity, sinlessness, holiness, self-denial, and truth reproved the ungodly and stirred intense hatred and most vigorous warfare from Satan, evil angels, and wicked men, who united against Him, and the same hostility is directed against those who resist sin and advocate truth.

He pledged Himself to engage in conflict with the prince and power of darkness and bruise the serpent's head, and to all who accept Him as the only begotten Son of God as His chosen soldiers to war against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. He would stand on the field of battle to contest the power of Satan and prevail against him, coming to represent God's character as given in His holy law, for the law is a transcript of God's character and Christ is both the law and the gospel. He came with a divine commission to have Satan's deceptive wiles discerned and exposed, weaken his influence over man, contest his dominion and control of the kingdoms of the world, dispute his claim as prince of this world, disprove his ownership of the earth, and prove he has not gained complete control of the human race. He came to set free all who desire deliverance from Satan's power and finally to destroy him who destroyed many souls through masterly deceiving power, in an unwearied conflict with no end until He comes the second time without sin unto salvation.

Bruising of Heel and Head

Bruising His heel is Satan afflicting Christ all the way from the desert to Calvary through temptation, anguish, affliction, sorrow, scourging, thorns, nails, bodily torture, rejection, and being shut in the tomb where the Vanquisher seemed vanquished. It was fulfilled when Satan and his angels united with priests and rulers in mocking and deriding the Son of God, filling them with vile speeches and inspiring their taunts, so that those who mocked Christ as He hung in agony while evil spirits rejoiced and evil men reviled personified Satan and his angels. Christ's obedience to every word of God and His rebuke of all sin and hypocrisy drew this irrepressible fury, and Satan followed Him everywhere with falsehoods, prejudice, perverted doctrines, assaults on His pure character, forcing Him to flee from city to city until He could hardly live three and a half years after His public ministry began, with malignity reaching its height in the crucifixion of the Lord of glory. Wounding the heel means Satan cannot touch the head or the reason unless it is given to him, for he gets possession when a person steps onto his ground, and he cannot read thoughts. Satan came to dispute Christ's claims and would have crushed Him out of existence, holding the bodies and minds of those who do not know God in bondage and ruling their minds and affections, yet Christ alone as stronger than the strong man armed could overcome him, take his armor, divide his spoil, dispossess his weapons, and limit his power.

Bruising the head is Christ's victory by that very death, for through death He destroyed him who had the power of death, decided the destiny of the rebel chief, paid the penalty on which Satan's power is founded, broke the bondage holding humanity, took the keys of hell and death, signed emancipation, opened the way for mercy to the ends of the earth, and made the plan of salvation and deliverance of the race forever sure. Before Adam and Eve heard of toil, sorrow, and death resulting from sin they heard this promise of hope, that though fallen under Satan's seductive influence by disobeying God's plain command and must suffer from their adversary's power, they need not yield to utter despair because the Son of God offers to atone with His own lifeblood, grants a period of probation in which through faith they may become children of God again, and all lost by yielding to Satan can be regained through Him. By every act of humiliation and suffering, by every pang and insult, Christ was bruising the head of His adversary, taking the anguish sin brought into His sinless being, paying the debt for sinful man, and working out deliverance, so that when His heel was bruised that very act crushed the serpent's head. It foretold war between man and Satan, declared the great adversary's power would finally be broken, and meant that though people would suffer under their mighty foe they could look forward to final victory through Christ's merits.

Satan could only cause pain and reach the heel because Christ knew no sin as a Lamb without blemish and without spot, and he could distress and cause agony without contaminating or defiling Him, so that with every attack he lost his hold upon humanity. He could not touch Christ's head unless Christ proved false to God, for bruising the head would have meant defeating Christ by finding sin in Him and corrupting His soul with even one evil thought or action by deception and snares. Had even one sin been found in Him, or had Satan so bruised His heel that He yielded to physical torture or gave license to sin, Satan's triumph would have been complete, he would have triumphed over man's Surety and gained the whole human family, the world would have plunged into blackness and ruin and become Satan's kingdom, divine wrath would have come upon Christ as it came upon Adam, and the hope of the human race and of the church would have perished. The battle was fought here on this earth blow after blow against Satan's tyranny and oppressive power, measured in the wilderness of temptation, in Gethsemane, and on the cross where Christ's wounds became trophies of victory, and because Christ obeyed and remained sinless Satan gained nothing but effected his own discomfiture and downfall by working through the priests against Him.

The struggle over heel and head vindicated the honor of the law before heavenly angels and unfallen worlds, settled the controversy not only for this world but for heaven and all created worlds, revealed Satan's true character and malignity before all heaven, cut off his future influence with heavenly beings and created worlds and placed them wholly on God's side, while Christ's humanity will demonstrate the settled question for eternal ages. It was watched with intense interest by heavenly angels, unfallen worlds, and the confederacy of darkness because it was the controversy over the divine and human Substitute and Surety, in which the honor of the law was being vindicated not for this world only but for the universe to be forever settled. The controversy that began in heaven would be continued on earth on Satan's own battlefield, with vast interests at stake, answering before the inhabitants of the heavenly universe whether God's law is imperfect and in need of amendment or abrogation or is immutable, and whether God's government needs change or is stable. Christ's bruising of Satan's head in that same dying agony opened to the universe a view of the character of God and His love for man far surpassing human love, lifted the law of God to its own eternal dignity, revealed the attributes of God and vindicated the holy requirements of His law whose effects are still felt, so that all who would be saved must have an interest in the crucified One.

Believers share in both bruisings, for Satan can wound the heel of Christ but Christ wounds Satan's head, and Satan cannot touch the head because with the mind God's law is served while mind and heart are enlisted in Christ's service. Satan bruises the heel by persecution and cruel death of the faithful, yet his head is bruised when martyrs like Huss remain faithful, for Huss's triumphant death under suffering, contempt, abuse and perjury, witnessed by all heaven and the whole universe, struck the heel by killing the martyr yet defeated Satan because his godly works, steadfast faith, pure life and conscientious holding of truth would not yield even to save his life, and his constancy has reflected light down through the centuries to lead others to submit soul and body to God alone, exalt God alone, take the Scriptures as guide, and gain victories even in sorrow and death. His head is also bruised whenever a soul is won to Christ and freed from his oppression and whenever the message makes its way to a heart, with the gospel's spread through publishing presses carrying truth into nations and challenging superstition, heresy and error, and each such victory defeats the tyrant and arouses the adversary's malice to greater activity. Cooperating with the Redeemer in this bruising is the appointed work in the vineyard while time is short, meaning warfare directed against the power of Satan never against fellow men, forbidding accusing, repressing, hindering, bruising fellow workers or weakening their influence and giving any place to the devil, and requiring encouraging and restoring, repressing every evil word and work, and uniting under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel.

Conflict Spanning the Ages

The sentence spoken in Eden is a prophecy embracing all ages to the close of time, foreshadowing a great conflict that will engage all races of men who live upon the earth. It declares an unwearied conflict to the close of time between Christ and His followers on one side and Satan with his angels and human agencies on earth on the other. That warfare is fulfilled in every conflict between good and evil, between right and wrong, between truth and error, between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness, between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. It began at the start of human history and goes forward for thousands of years, developing from age to age and increasing in intensity with each successive generation until an end is put to all strife by the destruction of the works of the devil. The truth as it is in Jesus will gain the victory the prophecy assures to it, yet to all human appearance error will overwhelm truth, with the larger number swept into idolatry, lifting up what Christ has not lifted up, striving to tear down God's great standard of righteousness, growing worse and worse until all except a few bow to idolatry and falsehood appears to triumph.

The two seeds are two classes under two banners, Christ and His followers against Satan and his followers. Fallen people and fallen angels are naturally in harmony because both have apostatized, and without divine interruption humanity would have joined Satan against Heaven, so the promised enmity is God Himself interrupting that alliance and enabling humanity to resist Satan's power. When a person is converted and joins Christ's side this God-given enmity becomes evident as separation from evil and opposition to Satan, who had hoped to win people as allies in rebellion and use them to control the earth and wage war against God. One class receives truth, vindicates God's law, preserves order, restrains wickedness and upholds God's honor, while the other makes void God's law, opposes truth and righteousness, resists the Spirit, calls God's law bondage, and persecutes those who obey God's commandments. The murder of Abel by Cain, moved by Satan against a follower of Christ, was its first example, and Cain's hatred is echoed as the wicked envying the righteous until the second coming.

The enmity appears in murderous religious persecution against those obeying God according to conscience, proving the persecutors do the works of their father the devil. The spirit of persecution for liberty of conscience comes from Satan, who is a deceiver, a liar, a murderer and accuser of the brethren who loves human misery and exults in distress. It was displayed when Satan and evil people united against Jesus because His purity, holiness, self-denial and sinless devotion reproved sin, and it continues in the hatred and persecution directed at Christ's followers. Satan's agents oppose God's rule, deceive Christ's followers, draw them away from loyalty to God, distort Scripture, malign and seek to destroy them, and this opposition continues through the great controversy to the close of time. It appears also in dissension, false teachings, fables, new sects, and spiritualism, so the church must keep a distinctly marked separation from the serpent's practices and remain obedient to the Lord's commandments.

God would place enmity between Satan and humanity so Satan could never hold absolute sway over the inhabitants of the world, but a power would work in people against his dominion. He has limited the power of Satan's working to this world and confined him to this earth, and this world is engaged in the warfare of expelling Satan, coming out from his seducing methods, calling sin sin and righteousness by its right name. The curse falls chiefly on the devil as originator of sin and not on the serpent as mere medium, and Satan and his associates fall under it. The sentence was implemented partially at the crucifixion and will be executed fully at the beginning of the millennium. The promised Seed is Christ as Son of man, come with divine commission to dispute Satan's dominion, disprove his claim to own the earth as prince of this world through control of men, prove he has not gained complete control of the human race, set free all who desire deliverance, and recover the dominion Adam lost through sin.

Adam and Eve heard the promise in Eden and expected the Deliverer soon, even hoping their first-born son would be He, but they died before seeing its fulfillment. The promise was then repeated through patriarchs and prophets, keeping alive hope for the Saviour's advent, whose fulfillment was at hand when Christ was born under a Roman ruler. Adam sought pardon through the promised Sacrifice, and the offerings he taught his descendants to honor pictured that Saviour to come, prefiguring the Redeemer while Satan worked against them because they showed repentance for sin and faith in the coming atonement. Adam treasured the promise for nearly a thousand years to the ninth generation, and Enoch believed and relied on this promise of God's grace fulfilled in the gift of His Son as the world's Redeemer. Its glory and blessedness outmeasured the anguish and sacrifice of the Prince of life, filling heaven with inexpressible joy that rang out as glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men, with the morning stars singing together and all the sons of God shouting for joy with deeper gladness than at the new creation.

Covenant Gospel and Law

Genesis 3:15 is the first promise of the covenant of grace, spoken in Eden after the fall when the woman's Seed was pledged to defeat the serpent. To all men it offers pardon and the assisting grace of God for future obedience through faith in Christ, and it promises eternal life on condition of fidelity to God's law. By it the patriarchs received the hope of salvation, and the same covenant was afterward renewed to Abraham. Ancient believers were saved by the same Saviour as now, though then veiled and seen only in figures, types and shadows pointing to the great offering to be made by the world's Redeemer for the sins of the world. Christ's death and resurrection completed the covenant revealed in the promise, and being ratified by His death it is called new, bringing men back into harmony with the divine will.

It does not annul the law, for not a jot nor tittle of it could be destroyed while heaven and earth remain. The law is unchangeable as God's character and throne, a transcript of His character, holy and just and good, and Christ came to represent that character as given in His holy law, being both the law and the gospel. The gospel was first preached to Adam by Christ, and Adam taught his descendants to turn from sin toward obedience and faith in the coming Saviour, being saved from utter ruin as they repented and believed the promise of pardon through Christ who undertook to bear human guilt. The valuable sacrifice to pay the debt of transgression exalts the law and evidences its sacred character, magnified as golden threads through the gospel, so mercy covers guilt only after sin is repented of and forsaken and never justifies continuing in transgression. Proclaiming the everlasting gospel first declared in Eden, the same later proclaimed by the angel flying in the midst of heaven, means proclaiming the law of God, because the gospel of salvation brings men to obedience whereby characters are formed after the divine likeness.

Sacrificial offerings were ordained at once to establish that promise, beginning with the first sacrifice and the lamb without blemish, and pointing forward to the death of Christ as the great sin-offering. The required sacrifice of a firstborn lamb presented with its blood expressed faith and dependence on the coming Redeemer and kept sin and His future sacrifice in mind, confessing faith in the promised Redeemer. They taught that sin brings death and without shedding of blood there is no remission, reminding fallen humanity that pardon for past transgression comes through trust in God alone and through Christ's death preserving the honor of the law. Faith in Him was shown by obeying God's requirements for the offerings, and Adam sought pardon through the promised Sacrifice and taught his descendants to honor offerings picturing the Saviour to come. The sacrifices served as a type of that Redeemer and as a symbol of communion between earth and heaven, so that Satan could never hold absolute sway, and he opposed them because they showed repentance and faith.

Through Christ all that was lost by yielding to Satan can be regained. Before Adam and Eve heard of toil, sorrow, thorn and thistle, and return to dust, they heard this promise of hope and of a Deliverer freeing men and women from bondage of sin and the grave. He redeems the human family from the destroyer's power, ransoms many fallen people, cuts humanity loose from the destroyer, gives mastery over his power, and restores them to God's image and sonship and to perfection of body, mind, and soul. By His death He would recover the kingdom lost by transgression, and the redeemed would inherit it with Him and dwell there forever, with sin and sinners blotted out nevermore to disturb heaven or earth. This redemption, bought at infinite cost, brings back lost Paradise and access to the tree of life.

It is the first revelation in Eden of the mystery God kept in silence for eternal ages before the world was created and before man was created. The Seed of the woman is Christ, foretelling His incarnation, the union of divinity with humanity, and the atonement He made, whose sufferings perfectly fulfilled the claims of the law. His life, character, and mediatorial work are its unfolding subject, its truth remaining capable of fresh understanding and deeper glory through the Holy Spirit. It is the beginning of the gradual unfolding of God's plan of redemption through every age, the same Jesus later typified in Jewish rites and revealed in the gospel, the same everlasting gospel given to patriarchs and prophets and shining with no uncertain light from Genesis onward through the ages to the closing events of earth's history. This wonderful mystery must be declared to every son and daughter of Adam, whether Jew or Gentile.

It grants a period of probation and second trial, for through the promised Redeemer Adam, though still fallen, was placed in a new relation to his Creator, a door of hope was opened, the execution of the sentence of death was delayed, and life in the midst of death was offered to all who by faith run into the refuge provided in Christ who takes the wrath due to man. The Son of God offers to atone with His own lifeblood for transgression, and fallen men and women may through faith in His power to save become children of God again, with privilege and power to form character after the divine image as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world takes away sin as substitute, surety, Redeemer and Intercessor. Adam lost Eden and with all his posterity was placed upon probation, with every soul's salvation still determined by obedience or disobedience to every precept of that binding law. Yet this provision does not lessen the hateful character of sin in God's sight nor do away with dire consequences upon impenitent transgressors.

Call to Obedient Warfare

The verse stands as a warning that disobedience brings death and that divine justice in enforcing commands never fails. After the one prohibition about the forbidden fruit was broken, eating opened the floodgates of woe, evil and suffering upon the whole human family, and the account is given to teach that God's word is to be sacredly respected and His requirements implicitly obeyed. From the beginning God Himself put opposition between the forces of good and evil, and man vainly tried to exalt himself by following his own way in harmony with temptation and in opposition to the known will of God, gaining an experimental knowledge of evil at the cost of loyalty and fidelity. That same experiment is repeated today whenever men disbelieve God's declarations, regard their own ways and plans as wise, put human policy, tradition and inventions above expressed commandments which are holy and just and good, as in changing the Sabbath to the first day, and seek to be received as God or placed above God. No matter how advantageous Satan's proposals appear they end in ruin, and there is no safety except in walking humbly with God, believing His word, accepting His plans, and walking according to a Thus saith the Lord, which alone is the path to true exaltation and to Paradise restored.

Cooperating with the Redeemer in bruising the serpent's head is the appointed work in the vineyard of the Lord, for time is short and the end of all things is at hand. That warfare is to be directed against the power of Satan, never against fellow workers or fellow men, giving no place to the devil. It forbids accusing one another, repressing and hindering, bruising fellow men, using power to weaken the influence of those trying to work for God, and when discord and alienation are stirred among God's working forces real harm is done though the wound is limited to the heel and cannot destroy the head or defeat God's cause. It requires uniting under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel, repressing every evil word and work, encouraging and restoring, and calling evil evil and good good even when criticized, for to remain peaceable toward works that spoil faith opposes the enmity God puts against every evil work. Choosing that enmity means accepting great salvation instead of voluntarily choosing the side of the transgressor and sharing the fate of those who break God's law and teach others to break it, for to be at enmity with sin and Satan is the dividing line of mastery, without which Satan controls the person as his subject to build up his kingdom in rebellion.

The verse belongs to man's first temptation on the point of appetite, when man made upright with perfectly balanced mind and fully and harmoniously developed organs disregarded prohibition and the laws of nature wrought out their full penalty. Eve was beguiled to believe God would not do as He had said, ate from intemperate desire counting the forbidden fruit more desirable, felt a pleasurable sensation of new and more exalted life, and her experience arrayed against the positive command seduced Adam to eat, bringing a curse upon them both and upon the earth because of their sin. True experience is in harmony with natural and divine law while false experience arrays itself against the laws of life and the precepts of Jehovah, and because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily hearts are set to do evil and men flatter themselves the consequence will not be as fearful as apprehended. Breaking the law through indulgence of appetite and passion began a downward tendency lessening vital force and bringing deformity, decrepitude, disease, imbecility, feeble mental moral and physical power, anguish and suffering, repeated as intemperate parents transmit corrupted blood, disease, evil inclinations, enfeebled intellects and polluted morals accumulating misery from father to son. Christ redeemed Adam's disgrace by overcoming the test of appetite in the wilderness after fasting forty days and forty nights, and with His coming, baptism, temptation and victory He gives man another trial and brings moral power to be victorious in overcoming temptation on that point, to break the chain of slavery of habit and indulgence of perverted appetite, so that man stands forth in moral power and heaven accredits him as a man, which is the Christian foundation of temperance requiring perverted appetite to be brought under strict control lest Satan fasten evil habits upon men.

By His death on the cross Christ bruised Satan's head even in the short triumph of the bruising of His heel by nails and death, for through death He destroyed him that had the power of death. By becoming the Sin-bearer He lifted the penalty of transgression from the race and in His own body paid the penalty on which Satan's power is founded, not to make sin righteousness or transgression virtue but to make sin appear exceeding sinful, becoming possessor of the keys of hell and of death so Satan can no longer reign without a rival or be reverenced as a god. His blood signed the emancipation papers of the race and opened the way for the message of hope and mercy to be carried to the ends of the earth, so the heathen are no longer to be wrapped in midnight superstition, gloom disappears before the Sun of Righteousness, and the power of hell is overcome. The light of this promise given in Eden on the very spot of transgression as a star of hope was never designed to be centered and bound up in one locality, but its standard of truth is to be uplifted as far and as fast as possible among all nations and planted in every place to which access can be gained, with receiving the truth as it is in Jesus bringing blessing and melody to the heart. Each person won to Christ and freed from oppression defeats the tyrant and bruises Satan's head through God's help, as the gospel's spread through publishing presses carries truth into nations and challenges superstition and error, and as Christ supplying every soul need with the water of life at Jacob's well to the woman of Samaria continues until every soul has been tested and tried.

Those who honor Jesus and vindicate the law by keeping the commandments will be targets for the wrath of the dragon, for as long as human nature is under the control of the enemy hatred toward the righteous is shown through those controlled by him, and the offense of the cross has not ceased. Servants of God must expect no better treatment from the world than is given to the law, but to be reviled, misrepresented, maligned, persecuted and oppressed, with Satan opening fire through batteries masked under pretensions to godliness and stirring prejudice, falsehood, misrepresentation and slander as priests, Pharisees and Sadducees perverted Christ's doctrines, assailed His pure character, forced Him to flee from city to city until He could hardly live three and a half years after His public ministry began and malignity reached its height in the crucifixion. Yet Satan and fallen angels and fallen men united to reproach, bruise, wound and exterminate Christ's followers can only bruise the heel while the mind serves God's law, so that even when he seems to triumph by torturing and killing the faithful they are wounding the head of the great rebel. Entering the path of holiness and living as obedient children serving Prince Immanuel brings united opposition from evil angels and evil men who hate reproof and try to wrench servants from Christ, and near the close of time no one can serve God in truth with active piety without uniting it against himself, yet the Eternal has pledged Satan cannot conquer unless a person submits to his control. By fidelity and piety, by adding grace to grace and perfecting faith by trust and reverence with thorough and diligent repentance, by living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God instead of eating the serpent's meat of selfishness, hypocrisy, evil-surmising, envy and covetousness, believers gain the mastery through Christ, stand firm by grace, and contest the ground inch by inch until final victory.