THE FIRST PROMISE OF THE SAVIOUR

God announced the serpent’s defeat in the same chapter that records man’s fall. Adam and Eve had sinned. They were hiding from God, trying to cover themselves and shifting the blame. Before God pronounced the consequences on the woman and the man, He addressed the serpent. “And 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.” Genesis 3:15 KJV. This passage is often called the protoevangelium, meaning “first gospel.” Right there in Eden, God promised that the woman’s offspring would defeat the serpent. The Hebrew word for “seed” is zeraʿ, meaning seed or offspring. It can describe descendants collectively or a particular descendant. The promise comes into focus as Scripture reveals the coming Saviour. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” Galatians 4:4 KJV. Jesus Christ is the promised Redeemer. The bruising of His heel points to His suffering. The bruising of the serpent’s head points to the defeat He would accomplish. Jesus was betrayed, beaten and crucified. He died for our sins and rose again. Hebrews explains that His death was the very means through which He broke the devil’s power: “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;” Hebrews 2:14 KJV. The promise of redemption was already there before Adam and Eve left the garden. The rest of Scripture unfolds how God would fulfill it through Jesus Christ. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8 KJV. #MoreJoyMinistries