All right, last time we looked at Adam—the question of Adam and the new Adam. We saw how, particularly in Romans chapter five, Jesus is presented as the new Adam who represents a new humanity. Those in Adam are lost; those in Christ are saved. Adam disobeyed; Christ obeyed. Adam brought death; Christ brought life. Adam brought condemnation; Christ brought justification, and so on.
And we saw that God does not deal with humanity like a field of corn where everyone stands on his own, but he deals with us in our representative heads. So it’s not like a field of corn, but more like a tree with a common trunk. And if you are in Adam, then you bear the consequences of Adam’s sin—the fall, the judgment that came with it. If you are in Christ, then you have the consequences of what he did on behalf of his people.
I wasn’t able quite to finish up last week. We looked at Romans 5, we glanced at 1 Corinthians 15 and some other passages in that regard. So I want to finish that up quickly, but then go on to another subject this morning, and that is in Genesis 3:15 in particular: the first gospel promise.
Adam and the New Adam
But let’s first finish up what we started last time about Adam and the new Adam. And if you’d like, look at Ephesians chapter two. I think I mentioned that last time that we’d look there. Ephesians chapter two, verses one to three. Here the apostle Paul is describing our condition in Adam.
Here, though, a couple of things. One, Paul doesn’t use explicitly the terminology of “in Adam.” And two, here the emphasis is not on our position before God, our judicial standing before God, or condemnation. Here the emphasis is on our moral condition, that is depravity—what we are like in Adam.
So in Romans 5, in Adam we have our legal standing before God; judicially we are condemned, guilty. That comes because of Adam, our representative head. In Adam, though, there is more than just judicial condemnation. There is also what we call original sin that is passed down to humanity. The condition to which Adam fell morally is passed to humanity as well. And Paul deals with that here in Ephesians 2, verses 1 to 3:
“You were dead in trespasses and sins.” There’s an allusion back to Genesis 3, the death that was incurred because of sin. “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,”—that’s Satan—”the spirit that is now at work in the children of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
This is a horrible portrait of humanity here that Paul gives of what we are now in our natural state, outside of Christ. The idea is that of verse 1: spiritual death. And then through the rest of the next couple of verses, he gives the characteristics of that spiritual death. And it’s a horrible condition. We follow Satan. We follow him in lockstep, just like the rest of society, the rest of mankind, and that means we follow our passions in the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind. We do what we want to do. We don’t live under God, and what we want to do, in fact, is corrupt, and we follow in actions accordingly.
Now that, in summary, is what we mean by this term that you’ve heard: total depravity. Total depravity does not mean that every person is as bad as he can possibly be. Even Hitler could have done worse than he did, I suppose. Total depravity doesn’t mean everyone does the worst thing possible at every given moment. Total depravity, as I’ve often said, means we’re as bad off as we can possibly be. The idea there is that we are, as to our nature and our condition, corrupt. Our “want to” is against God; there is a proclivity for sin, a preference for sin. And all that is what Paul is describing here. We call it, captured in this word, total depravity. But here is what it is to be dead in trespasses and sins in this moral condition we are in, in Adam.
I’d like to take just a minute to mention just some famous descriptions here. They date back to Augustine, the fifth-century theologian who just has a towering influence on the church. In fact, he has towering influence on both the Roman Catholic Church, in his doctrine of the sacraments and things, and also a towering influence in the Reformation. Some have described the Reformation as the triumph of Augustine over Augustine because of that dual status that he has.
But in this matter of sin and depravity, he was a watershed moment in defining what humanity is in Adam. And he gave these four states of man in relation to sin, which I think captures it really well: before the fall, after the fall, after regeneration, and after glorification. Four states of man in relation to sin.
Before the fall, man was able to sin, but he was also able not to sin. Of course, there’s a Latin phrase for this, but: able to sin, able not to sin. After the fall: not able not to sin. There’s a Latin phrase for that too. So, before the fall, mankind is able to sin, but able not to sin. But after the fall, not able not to sin. There’s a propensity for sin in the fallen nature now that leaves us inevitably to sin.
After regeneration, now we are restored; there’s a renewal of God at work, and so we are now again able not to sin. So before the fall: able to sin, able not to sin. After the fall: not able not to sin. After regeneration, again now, we’re able not to sin because of this enablement that comes in the new heart that is given. I’ll be talking more about that in the morning message. And then after we are glorified, then finally we will be not able to sin, and we’ll be preserved in sinlessness forever.
Well, this condition that we see after the fall that he described as “not able not to sin”—that’s the condition of all humanity in our natural state. Not able not to sin; that is, we have a propensity for sin which leads us inevitably to it. We’re captive to sin as Paul describes here in Ephesians chapter two. Enslaved to sin, following in lockstep with Satan and following the passions of our mind, and that’s that.
And so we see again here that in Adam we are, and our condition is not like every man standing as a stalk of corn, but in the common trunk, the tree, Adam, all of the branches have the same characteristics. Our only hope, as we saw, is that in our new representative head, our new Adam, we will have restoration on both counts then—not just judicially, given now justification instead of condemnation, but also morally, given renewal and restored to righteousness.
Well, in a sense, that’s the whole Bible story. Our basic problem is not economic. Our basic problem is not psychological. Our basic problem is not anything at all on the horizontal plane. Our basic problem is that we are estranged from God, and being estranged from God, it has left us as moral wrecks. And it is remedied only as we have a new representative head who stands for us and in our place does what is required of us and accomplishes for us what Adam and we have all failed ever since.
All right, so that’s the end of what I wanted to say—we could expand on that at more length—but this whole matter of in Adam and in Christ. In Adam, we are wrecked in every possible way. In Christ, we are more than restored of all that we lost in Adam. Two representative heads. In a sense, that’s the whole story of humanity: creation, creation lost, paradise lost, and then paradise regained through the redemptive work of Christ.
The First Gospel Promise
Now, very closely related to that, I want to look at Genesis chapter 3 again, and this time focus on verses 14 and 15. You remember the setting: Adam and Eve have sinned, Satan has come, tempted them. By the way, I’ve mentioned that I think this is probably not a talking snake. It’s just hard to figure why Eve would be talking to a snake about morals and about the things of God and things like that. I was speaking to an Old Testament scholar this week on Zoom, actually for an interview, and I brought this question up to him, and he’s puzzled by it as well. But he conjectured—and this was interesting, so I thought I’d mention it—that maybe this is… I suggested it could be what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11, Satan appearing as an angel of light. And he said something similar to that, and he suggested it is just some kind of supernatural creature that they were accustomed to, they were not surprised by seeing. They certainly would have been surprised by seeing a snake talk. Whatever this is, it’s some kind of supernatural being, whether an angel or whatever.
But clearly we have Satan falling before this point, and now he comes to attack humanity, and God now comes in judgment. And first of all, he mentions the judgment on Satan himself, verses 14 and 15. Genesis 3:14: “The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock, above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.'”
Now, in essence, what we have here is—well, in terms of Genesis 1 to 3, those three chapters—we have set up for us what the Bible is all about. We have God creating humanity, humanity responsible to Him, humanity in rebellion against Him. In that sense God’s kingdom is under assault, and God then reasserting his kingship and going about to restore his kingdom over all the earth.
Man is created as king, to rule in God’s stead over the earth and to extend God’s rule over all of the earth from Eden outward. Man fails in that, and in the failure he surrenders his kingship to Satan. That’s an important move to understand the rest of the Bible: mankind’s kingship over creation. Remember I keep saying we’re created to be vice-regents for God, ruling in his place over creation. That has been surrendered now to Satan, and we have reflections of that and later echoes of that all through the Bible that Satan now is king.
And so you have—I’ll give you a few examples of that: John 12:31, Jesus refers to Satan as the ruler of the world. 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul calls Satan the god of this world, who has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. In fact, here in Ephesians 2, where we just were, it doesn’t speak explicitly of Satan as king, but it speaks of humanity as following in lockstep with Satan, the prince and power of the air. So there’s an echo of it as well. In 2 Timothy 2, we have Paul speaking of the opponents of the gospel, describing them as men who have been captured by Satan to do his will. 1 John 5, verse 19, John says the whole world lies in the wicked one, or lies in the lap of the wicked one.
We have all this throughout, these echoes of Satan now in charge, Satan ruling where man has failed. One important echo of this is in Matthew chapter 4, in Jesus’ temptation, the mountain of temptation. Remember, Satan takes him up to a pinnacle of the temple and looks down—he shows him, obviously a visionary experience of some kind—he shows him all the kingdoms of the world. And Satan says to Jesus, “All of this I will give you if you’ll bow down to me.” Well, the whole thing makes no sense unless there’s a sense in which Satan rules over the kingdoms of the world. So we find that happening in Genesis chapter 3 at the fall. Satan, mankind, has surrendered his kingship to Satan.
Now last time, you remember, I raised the question: what does all of this say, this rebellion in Eden? What does this say about God’s rule? Or specifically, what does it say about God’s kingdom? And I tried to make the distinction there between God’s sovereign rule and God’s kingdom. It’s an important distinction to make because on one level we have to say God rules over everything, everything, everything. Satan, sin, all evil that happens, every molecule, every detail—God rules over all of it and everything is in His sovereign control.
However, this kingdom that He established in Eden—mankind serving faithfully, serving willingly—that’s been ruined. And now God’s kingdom is under assault. His kingdom is still there in terms of His overall rule, but His kingdom is being contested. And now the rest of the Bible story is to tell how God will reestablish His kingship over all the earth, a kingdom of willing subjects who willingly render obedience and service to God. So this is the Bible story: to establish His kingdom in history.
The purpose of history, then, is for God to reassert His kingdom in the earth. This is what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” God’s will is done perfectly in heaven. It is not done perfectly on earth. And what we pray for is the reestablishing, the reasserting of God’s rule in earth so that there will be this willing service of God and a recognition of His kingship overall. And of course, we see that that will happen elsewhere in the Scriptures where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. And then at the end of the book of Revelation, of course, we see the eternal state and God’s eternal and universal kingdom.
Well, all of this is big-picture stuff and it establishes for us the right biblical worldview. God’s creatures are in rebellion against him. They’re reeling from a curse under judgment. God is actively at work to restore his kingdom, and to accomplish his kingdom now, he must defeat this new ruler who has asserted himself and he must reestablish man as king over creation. I’ll give you a clue ahead of time now: that signals to us the importance of the incarnation of the Son of God—to reestablish man now as king over God’s creation.
All right, all of that is big-picture stuff, but that’s what we see here in Genesis 3, particularly verse 15. This is the first promise of the gospel. There’s a Latin phrase for that as well: protevangelium. This is the first proclamation of the gospel. Immensely important verse for understanding the rest of the Bible: “I’ll put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, you will bruise his heel.”
Now we have a number of interrelated themes here. We have the defeat of Satan—crushing his head. We have the theme of the seed—your seed and her seed, your offspring and her offspring. We have this seed theme, this offspring theme running through Genesis and through the rest of the Bible. Who is this promised seed? And then you also have in verse 15 this mention of a champion who will come: “He.”
Notice the characters involved in verse 15: Satan and the woman, Satan’s seed (that is, Satan’s followers), and the woman’s seed. And there’s four of them. And then you have a “he.” Who is this “he”? “He will bruise your head, you will bruise his heel.” Well, we know, whoever it is at this point, we know that it’s a male offspring of the woman. Some male descendant will be coming and he will crush Satan. And there again you have the story of history. This is what the Bible is all about. It’s what God’s purpose in history is all about. She is going to have a “he” who will crush Satan. And that’s the story.
By the way, one of the Roman Catholic translations, I forget which one it was, translates this: “she will bruise your head and you will bruise her heel.” I don’t know where they got that. I know why they got that, but I don’t know where they got that. It’s clearly a reference to Mary, but the Hebrew here is very clear: it’s “he.” Actually, in Hebrew, it’s hu. But in Hebrew, hu is “he.” Just threw that in to confuse you.
All right, so we have these interrelated themes. We’ve got the defeat of Satan, we’ve got the offspring or the seed theme, and we’ve got the champion theme. Keep these three in mind. And what I want to do is just quickly run through the rest of the Bible and see how this unfolds.
The Offspring and the Champion Theme
We have these two rival seeds. They are at enmity with one another. You see that reflected throughout the Scriptures in the followers of Satan assaulting the people of God. This is the Canaanites against Israel. This is Satan against Job. This is the Pharisees and the religious community against the church in the early days of the church. This is Antiochus Epiphanes against Israel. In the end, this is Antichrist against the people of God. This is the theme that’s set up here: these two rival seeds, these two rival offspring that come—Satan against humanity, his followers against the people of God. And then in the midst of that, you have this champion arising who’s a “he,” and he is going to win the day for all of her offspring.
Now in Genesis, then, we have a lot of attention—this is a major theme in the book of Genesis—major attention given to tracing out the promised seed. In chapter 3 and verse 20—I’ve already taken more time thus far than I’m going to have to run here now—chapter 3 and verse 20, Adam names his wife Eve because she’s the mother of all living. He recognizes her place in history already. And there’s a recognition of the seed promise already there.
In chapter four and verse one, she says, “I have begotten,”—this is the birth of Cain—”I’ve begotten a man from the Lord.” I think Dan Fawcett raised the question here one time: did she think that was a reference to the promised seed of Genesis 3:15? Genesis 4:1, Cain is born: “I’ve got a man from the Lord.” A lot of people have thought that, that she thought that, but if she did think that, she was wrong. Cain was certainly not it. In chapter 4, verses 17 and following, we have Cain’s line briefly noted, but it’s clearly not a concern of Moses as he puts this together for us.
Chapter 4, verse 25, we have the mention of the birth of Seth. And here it says, unlike chapter 4 and verse 1 where it says that “I’ve gotten a man from the Lord,” here the statement is different. It is, “I’ve gotten a seed from the Lord.” So maybe now she’s recognizing in Seth this promise will be fulfilled. Well, if she thought that, she’s right. Not Seth individually, but through Seth, yes.
Now, chapter 5 of Genesis, we have the genealogy. We have Seth’s line in focus now, and that takes us all the way to Noah. And then of Noah’s three children—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—it is Shem who is recognized as the blessed one and who will have a particular relationship with God. That’s chapter 9, verses 24 and following, and we will get to that after we look at the flood. Chapter 10, we have Shem’s line prioritized in another genealogy there. Actually, it’s the table of nations there. And that’s reserved for last of Shem, Ham, and Japheth to put the emphasis now on Shem and his line. And that takes us to Abraham.
And then in chapter 12, we have the seed theme picked up again and God says to Abraham, “In your seed, all the families of the world will be blessed.” That then is repeated to Isaac: “In your seed, all the families of the world will be blessed.” It’s repeated to Jacob. We expect that it would be repeated in the narrative. We expect that it’s going to be repeated to Joseph. But as it turns out, Joseph is not the promised line. It is Judah who is the promised line. And there’s some fascinating turns in the narrative of Genesis that bring that out. It climaxes in chapter 49 where Jacob promises to Judah, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes.” And so here we have the promise of the rule of Judah over his enemies.
There is a mention also, by the way, in Genesis 17 to Abraham that through his line, through his seed, kings will come. So already now we have an anticipation of the king, the kingly line coming from Abraham. It’s repeated in Genesis 17 with regard to Sarah as well, so it refers to Isaac’s line. It will be a kingly line that comes.
Then we come to the book of Exodus. We have God’s people under oppression and they’re oppressed, of course, by Pharaoh who, I think significantly, has the serpent on his crest, and there’s the worship of the serpent goddess in Egypt. Later, we have the Canaanites, the Philistines, we have Babylon. In Numbers chapter 21, there’s an interesting event where this serpent theme crops up again. And that is we have these snakes coming into the camp of Israel and biting everyone, and people are dying like flies. And you remember the remedy for that is that a serpent is lifted on a pole and those who look to it are saved.
There’s another echo of this, I think just subtly, but interestingly in 1 Samuel 11. Anybody remember the incident with Nahash? The Hebrew for Nahash is nahash. It’s simply the word for serpent that we find in Genesis chapter 3. He’s the Ammonite and he’s defeated by Saul, and I think there’s an echo of our theme there.
In Judges we have a glimpse of this champion figure that comes up. Each of them turns out, in turn—some more than others—to be a disappointment. None of them is the promised seed to come, but they are anticipations of that in these champion figures that arise.
This theme then of the seed comes to a new climax in 2 Samuel chapter 7. There we have the covenant that God makes with David, that his seed now will sit on his throne forever. And we’re caught there to understand that either David will have a son who has a son who has a son who has a son who has a son, and forever and ever they’ll have a perpetual line that will rule on David’s throne, or you have a son down the line somewhere who never dies. And that’s how Hebrews picks up with Jesus in His incarnate state. The Son of God is the Son of David, and He takes up the regal throne, and He is this promised seed.
We have echoes then of this Davidic promise throughout the book of Psalms, throughout the Proverbs—I mean the prophets as well. Perhaps the most famous of them and one of the most significant of them is Psalm 2 in verse 8, where we find that the Messiah himself says that God said to me, “Ask of me and I’ll give you the nations for your inheritance.” So here we have an echo of that theme again. Here explicitly now it’s the anointed, the anointed one, the Messiah, who says, “God has promised me the nations.” We have the same echo in Psalm 72 in verse 9, where we have again a psalm of the king—fascinating psalm where the people of God are praying for the success of his reign. This king is idealized. It’s obviously a Davidic king that’s in view, but it’s the king par excellence who’s ultimately in view in Psalm 72. And the prayer is, “May desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust.” There is the echo of Genesis 3:14.
We come to the prophets and we find echoes again of it. David will come to rule. “My servant David will shepherd over you.” We have David coming to judge over his people and over the nations. Isaiah 11 is a good example of that where he says that the shoot coming from Jesse will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked. Isaiah 49, here it’s speaking of foreign kings with regard to Israel: “With their faces to the ground, they’ll bow down to you and lick the dust of your feet.” Again, this language of utter subjugation and again echoing Genesis 3:14 and 15. We have it again in Micah 7, verse 17. Again, it’s with regard to the nations, with regard to Israel: “They shall lick the dust like a serpent. Like the crawling things on the earth, they shall come trembling out of their strongholds.”
I think we have a graphic echo of this in Daniel chapter 7. There it’s not a serpent, but it’s this grotesque beast that is indescribable, and there’s a horn growing out of his head who is indescribable as well, and they’re raging against the nations until God comes and the Son of Man comes to rule over him and his people rule with him forever.
All of that comes to a huge climax again when we turn to the New Testament and we get to Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1: “The book of the generations of Jesus Christ, Son of Abraham, son of David.” So here we have that promise coming down to Jesus. So we have this broad seed—this offspring of the woman. It’s been narrowed. It’s been narrowed: Abraham, David, and now it’s Jesus. Now, I won’t get to this later, but significantly that begins to expand then because those who are in Christ share in him and become the children of Abraham as well. But Jesus now is the seed par excellence.
In an interesting passage in Galatians chapter three, Paul treats this. In fact, if you want to look at it quickly, it might be worth the time to pause here. Look at Galatians 3, verse 16. Galatians 3:16: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ plural, referring to many, but to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.” Now here Paul explicitly narrows the Genesis 12 promise to Jesus. How does Paul know that this is supposed to be singular? All right, the word is singular. It’s not plural, but “seed” is a collective singular. It’s like “fish.” You don’t always say “fishes.” “Fish” can be a lot of fish, not just one fish. It’s a collective singular. Same with “hair.” We’ve got other collectives. “Seed” is like that; it’s a collective singular. How does Paul know it actually refers to just one person? And I think the answer is Genesis 3:15: “He shall bruise your head and you’ll crush His heel.” And here Paul says it refers to Jesus.
An important incident along the way as this theme develops: in Matthew chapter 4, we have the mountain of temptation where Satan comes against Jesus. You have to get the picture now. We have Jesus, Son of God, who has become incarnate. This is the new Adam. And just as Satan went against the first Adam, now Satan has come against the second Adam. And guess who wins this time? And we find at the end of the narrative, Satan gives up and goes away, hoping for a more opportune time again.
This is picked up again in Matthew chapter 12. You remember Jesus cast demons out of a man and they, the religious leaders, are saying this is of Satan. And Jesus reasons with them and says, “That doesn’t make a lot of sense. Why would Satan cast out Satan? Wouldn’t that destroy his purposes and destroy his own kingdom?” I suppose you could say there’s a way in which he could do that to deceive or something. But ultimately, it just wouldn’t work for Satan to oppose Satan. And so Jesus leaves them with this dilemma. If Satan is not doing it, it would be self-defeating. Well, then who is? And Jesus says, “What it means is that the kingdom of God is among you.”
John chapter 12, verse 31: Jesus is speaking here now in reference to the cross. The next day, very soon now, He’ll be going to the cross and He says, “Now is the prince of this world cast out.” So He speaks now of His cross work as the defining moment in which Satan’s head will be crushed.
Now at this point, now in the developing of the theme through the Bible, we know that Jesus is the promised champion. Jesus is the “He” of Genesis 3:15. What we are not told yet in the developing theme is just how Jesus will defeat Satan. In John 12:31, speaking in reference to His cross—now they couldn’t recognize that at that point, but from our standpoint with the rest of the New Testament, looking back at John 12, we can say Jesus is speaking of His cross work, His death. In His death, He will defeat Satan.
But still we’re not explained for us exactly how His death defeats Satan. And for that, we come to the epistles where it expands on this theme. Colossians chapter 2 is very explicit and I just don’t have time to turn to it. I’ll have to refer to it and play on your memory, hopefully. But if you want to jot it down, Colossians 2, verses 13 to 15: “You who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us of our trespasses by canceling the debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in it.”
Alright, so through his death, he has canceled the debt of sin that was against us. God held this IOU against us, which had built up because of all of our sins, and that IOU now is canceled through the death of Christ, who pays that debt in our place. And in doing so, he says, this put Satan and his authorities to open shame. He is disarmed because he’s lost the basis of his rule. The basis of his rule was human sin. That question has now been answered and thereby Satan is disarmed. He’s disarmed by the substitutional payment of our debt of sin and we are forgiven. He has no claim on us again. That’s Colossians 2.
We have it again in Hebrews chapter 2. In the context here, this is one of the major passages in the New Testament on the incarnation of Christ—that it was necessary for him to become one like us. Not like the angels; like us. He had to become one of us in order, as one of us, to make propitiation to God and answer for our sin by his sacrifice. And in doing that, it says he destroys Satan. Again, through the canceling of sin and propitiating God through His sacrifice, Satan’s rule is defeated.
I’d like to have spent more time there. We have to move on. 1 John chapter 3. Why don’t you turn there quickly? 1 John 3, look at verse 5. Notice the purpose clauses here. Why did Jesus come? 1 John 3:5: “You know that He,”—that is Christ—”appeared,” why? “In order to take away sin.” Verse 8: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” Now notice in those two verses, we have a common purpose expressed differently. In verse 5, He came to take away sin. Verse 8, He came to destroy the work of the devil. And now look at chapter 4 and verse 10: “And this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be,”—here’s another purpose clause, why did he come?—”to be the propitiation for our sins.”
So we have a threefold statement of the single purpose of Jesus coming. By his death, he makes propitiation for sin, by that he removes sin, and by that he destroys the work of the devil and defeats Satan himself. The atoning work of Christ then works in three directions. One, and first of all, to God: it makes propitiation to God, satisfaction for sin. Two, it works toward us, removing sin. And by propitiating God and removing our sin, third, it destroys Satan’s rule.
Well, I don’t have time to finish up like I would like. Just quickly then, at this point now, we can recognize in the New Testament how salvation is described as rescue from Satan’s kingdom and as a transference into the kingdom of Christ. Rescued from Satan’s domain and brought into the kingdom of Christ. You find that often in the New Testament—Colossians 1:13 and 14, I guess, most famously: rescued by redemption and through the forgiveness of sins out of the rule of Satan into the rule of Christ.
All of that in turn—boy, this is a whirlwind—all of that in turn becomes the ground of another New Testament sub-theme, and that is our defeat of Satan, which is an interesting term: our defeat of Satan. And we defeat Satan ourselves; we participate in Christ’s defeat of Satan through gospel advance. So Romans chapter 16 and verse 20: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Here we participate in this definitive work through carrying out the Great Commission and capturing the nations for Christ.
This one who was promised the nations for his inheritance is gaining the nations today through gospel advance. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Make disciples of all the nations. And he’s gaining the nations now through gospel advance, our gospel advance. And then ultimately that kingdom will come to fruition in his return. Revelation chapter 19 and 20 reveals that in a climactic and a graphic kind of way where Christ comes to conquer Babylon, to conquer the nations, to capture Satan, to throw him in the bottomless pit and ultimately into the lake of fire where he will burn forever and ever. Paul picks up this kingship theme in 1 Corinthians 15 as well in terms of our participation in it. He comes, Christ comes, establishes His kingdom, puts down every enemy finally, the last of which being death. And we are raised from the dead and death itself is conquered.
Well, all of this is just a whirlwind tour. I wanted you to see at a glimpse, in sort of a snapshot way, the significance of Genesis 3:15 in defining for us the whole story of the Bible. Mankind has fallen. We’ve fallen under judgment. He has surrendered a rule to Satan. Satan is in control. We’re kept under captivity under Satan. God has said that will not be the last story. There’s another page, and we turn the page, and the promised champion comes. He defeats sin. He defeats death. He defeats Satan, all in his own death and resurrection and ascension to heaven, ultimately to return in glory as king over the new heaven and the new earth. And that, in a nutshell, I think is the whole story of the Bible, beginning here, set up for us in Genesis 1 to 3, particularly defined in Genesis 3:15, and then the story moves and climaxes, as you would expect, in Christ.
All right. That was a lot. Any questions? I got maybe time for one. Yeah, Jim.