The Seed

is the first promise given after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. It’s also the first gospel sermon ever preached on the face of the earth. Theologians call it the protoevangelium, or “first gospel.” These words spoken by God contain the earliest promise of redemption in the Bible. Everything else in Scripture flows from this one verse. As the acorn contains the mighty oak, so these words contain the entire plan of salvation. The great English preacher Charles Simeon called this verse “the sum and summary of the whole Bible.” (Sermon Outlines, vol. 1, p. 36)

Some people discount the first eleven chapters of Genesis. They don’t think it has anything to do with Christ. That’s not true. Jesus came to overturn the curse of Genesis 3. We can’t ignore the clear teaching of the opening chapters of the Bible if we hope to understand the true meaning of Christmas.

Although you may not see it at first glance, Christ is in this verse. He is the ultimate Seed of the Woman who would one day come to crush the serpent’s ugly head. In the process his “heel” would be bruised and his body would be broken on the cross. In short, this verse predicts that Jesus would win the victory over Satan but would himself be wounded in the process.

Because this verse is so important in the history of redemption, we need to understand something about its context.

1. Time and Place. We begin with the observation that this verse takes place near the beginning of human history. Adam and Eve have just eaten the prohibited produce and sin has entered paradise. Their first impulse is to hide from God. Their second is to make excuses for their sin. Adam blames the woman and Eve blames the serpent. No one is willing to stand up and say, “I did it. It’s my fault and I take responsibility.”

Suddenly the glorious garden is not so beautiful. The entrance of sin has ruined Eden. Dark shadows fall on the ground as Adam and Eve contemplate what they have done. The smell of death is in the air. Under a nearby tree the serpent lies quietly. He alone is happy. He delights in what is happening for this was his plan from the very beginning. He intended to humiliate God by ruining paradise and now he has done it. He has shown the whole universe that God’s great experiment would not work--that no race of beings could ever be trusted to freely obey God. Left to themselves they always disobey, even in paradise.

2. Persons Involved. As God surveys the moral wreckage of the fall, he immediately begins to deliver judgment. He begins where the sin began--with the serpent. Later he will come to the woman and then to the man, but he speaks to the serpent first.

Although you may not realize it at first glance, this verse is not directed at you and me, though it certainly applies to us. God is the speaker and the serpent is the one being spoken to. In Genesis 3:14, God passes judgment on the serpent for his part in the fall of humanity. First, he is cursed above every other animal. Second, the serpent will crawl on his belly forever. Third, he will eat dust all the days of his life.

3. The Bad News. The bad news for the serpent is that there is no good news for him. God doesn’t ask him what he did or why he did it because the Lord had already judged Satan when he threw him out of heaven in Ezekiel 28: