The Promises God Made in Eden

• Adam and Eve had just committed the first sin and God in accordance with His law was sentencing them to sorrow and mortality. But in his mercy, God made a promise of salvation through a saviour he would provide in Genesis 3:15.

  God’s promise in Genesis 3:15 was addressed to the serpent which became a symbol for sin. Sin had become another will that slandered God by calling him a liar and rebelled against God's will, 1 John 1:7-10. The impulses and tendencies to sin had become a natural part of human nature.

  Romans 7:17-18, Genesis 6:5, Jeremiah 17:9, Matthew 15:10-20, Mark 7:14

• God declared enmity with sin and promised he would obtain victory over it. The woman and the serpent symbolised two opposing ways of thinking and being.

  • The woman symbolised the Truth and spiritual mindedness because she initially spoke the truth when questioned by the serpent, Genesis 3:2-3, Galatians 5:22-25

  • The serpent symbolised sin and fleshly mindedness because it spoke the first lie that opposed and slandered God, Genesis 3:4, John 8:44, Matthew 3:7, 12:34, 23:33, Galatians 5:19-22.

  • These two ways of thinking and being are opposed to each other and are at enmity with each other.

    Romans 8:5-9, Galatians 5:16-25, James 4:4

• The offspring of the serpent represents those who are fleshly minded and the offspring of the woman represents those who are those of faith in Christ who are spiritually minded.

  1 Corinthians 15:22-23, Matthew 3:7, 12:34, 23:33, 1 Peter 1:3-5, James 1:18, 1 John 5:1-5

• There is one specific offspring or seed of the woman who will overcome the serpent, who is Jesus Christ.

  Genesis 3:15 NB the singular "he" and "his". Being the offspring or “seed of the woman” implies that God was Jesus’ Father because he was not born of a human father. Only God could achieve victory over sin and death by working in Christ because Christ on his own could not achieve it, John 5:30, 19, 8:28.

  John 1:4, Galatians 4:4, Luke 1:33-35

• This specific offspring or seed of the woman will kill the serpent with a fatal wound to the head while suffering a temporary wound on the heel. The figure is of a serpent striking a man's heel and the man crushing the head of the serpent under his heel.

  This figure was fulfilled in Jesus Christ's victory over sin and death. Jesus came in sinful flesh, or mortal human nature in which sinful impulses and tendencies reside, but he overcame these natural inclinations and was perfectly righteous and sinless. Jesus was bruised on the heel temporarily when he suffered death in crucifixion but was raised from the dead because of his sinless life. In his crucifixion, he was represented as a serpent of brass lifted up on a pole because he had “sinful flesh” nature, ie mortal human nature with the impulses and tendencies to sin, John 3:14-17. However, Jesus bruised the serpent on the head fatally because he destroyed its power in his death and is able to save those who believe in faith from sin and death.

  Hebrews 2:5-18, 4:15, Romans 6:9, Galatians 5:24, Acts 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, 50-57

  Hebrews 2:14 - the devil, (Greek - diabolos), is the Bible term for sin personified. Sin is the death-power. Diabolos, as sin personified, is an active spirit of disobedience hostile to God’s law that resides and operates in the mortal “flesh and blood” human nature that Jesus partook of. Christ took away sin at its source by the sacrifice of himself. There is no such being as the personal immortal devil of Christianity. The belief in such a being is due to the misunderstanding of certain figures and symbols in the Bible.

  Romans 8:2-3 - the term “sinful flesh” or “flesh of sin” refers to mortal human nature with its impulses and tendencies to sin that Jesus shared with us. The “likeness of” means the “same as”, the Greek is likeness in the sense of identity not resemblance. The extent of this likeness is explained in Hebrews 2:14.

  2 Corinthians 5:21 - in the expression “made him to be sin,” the word sin is used as a figure of speech by metonymy to refer to the cause of sin from mortal human nature with its impulses and tendencies to sin that Jesus shared in common with us. The impulses and tendencies to sin in the flesh of mortal human nature are real but, the description of them as “sin” is by the figure of speech of metonymy. Jesus “knew no sin” because he did not commit any sin but was perfectly righteous and obedient to God.

The Gospel Promise of the Kingdom of God

• The bruising of the serpent’s head under the feet of Christ will be completely fulfilled at the end of his millennial reign in the kingdom of God when death will finally be destroyed.

Psalm 8:3-8, 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, 50-57, Romans 16:17-20

• Adam and Eve were created to have dominion over the earth and all creatures but lost it to an animal by being deceived by the serpent’s lie. Christ overcame the serpent and will have dominion when he reigns in the kingdom of God.

Genesis 1:26, Psalm 8:3-8, Hebrews 2:5-18, 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, 50-57

The Gospel Promise of Salvation Through Jesus Christ

• The promised seed of the woman will destroy the serpent with a fatal wound to the head while suffering a temporary wound on the heel. This figure was fulfilled in Jesus Christ's victory over sin and death in his sacrifice, as explained above.

• When Adam and Eve sinned and realised they were naked, they tried to cover their nakedness with clothes of fig leaves. Nakedness became a symbol of sin.

  Genesis 3:7, 10, Hosea 2:3, Revelation 3:17, 16:15, 1 Peter 1:18-20

• God made them clothes of skins from a lamb that had been sacrificed. This sacrificed lamb symbolised Jesus Christ who was the lamb of God’s providing. This provided a true covering for sin, ie forgiveness of sins and deliverance from mortality.

  Genesis 3:21, Revelation 13:8, John 1:29, Psalm 32:1-2

• This was Adam and Eve’s first experience of death and it demonstrated the consequences of sin. Blood symbolises life and the shedding of the lamb’s blood demonstrated that death is the just penalty of sin.

  Hebrews 9:22, Leviticus 17:11, 14

• Adam and Eve were created to have dominion over the earth and all creatures but lost it to an animal by being deceived by the serpent’s lie. Christ overcame the serpent and regained that dominion over sin in his sacrifice. The last enemy to be subdued underfoot is sin and death when God has the complete victory over sin.

  Genesis 1:26, Psalm 8:3-8, Hebrews 2:5-18, Romans 6:8-14, 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, 50-57, Philippians 3:20-21

The Way to the Tree of Life

• The angels expelled Agam and Eve from the Garden of Eden lest they eat of the Tree of Life and live forever. Clearly, they had not eaten of the tree of life as this would have made them immortal.

  Genesis 3:22-24

• A cherubim was placed at the east of the garden to keep, or guard the way to the tree of life. The cherubim is symbolic of God's salvation through the sacrifice of Christ. Cherubim are described in other Bible passages. The way to eat of the Tree of Life was only accessible by the means of God's providing, which is the sacrifice of Christ.

  John 14:6, Revelation 2:7, 22:2, 14.

• The flaming sword was for offering sacrifices to God which was the only way of approach to God. This was a place of sacrifice and a system of worship where Cain and Abel's sacrifices.

  Genesis 4:3-5.