Last week we saw the fall of mankind through a choice to disobey and rebel against God. Death was the awful result which permeated all of creation. Man was separated from God and there was little hope in light of their exile from the garden and His presence. But our God is an indescribably good God and wasn’t content to leave mankind in their helpless state.
In verses 3:15, and 3:21, we see that the answer to this problem that we have is none other than Jesus Christ the Lord. Here in these verses, God gives a promise of victory and a foreshadowing of what this might look like.
Genesis 3:15 God introduces a very important promise. First, God speaks to Satan and pronounces a curse upon him. In this curse on Satan, we find our hope. God says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” What exactly is meant by this? Very simply, God intends to pronounce defeat on Satan by the offspring of a woman. He promises that Satan will be crushed and defeated by the birth of a baby.
These verses also point toward a crucial moment to come in the future plan of God. In 3:21, we see a foreshadowing of the atonement. “Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” Here we see that animals were killed and sacrificed to serve as a covering for Adam and Eve. In the same way, Jesus Christ would come and offer His very life as a sacrifice as an atonement for our sin.
Thus, God’s cure for our sin problem is his very son Jesus who came to this earth to die between two thieves and give his life as a ransom for many. What was “uncreated” and undone at the Fall, God had a plan to redeem and make right, and holy, and anew. This gift came through the person of Jesus Christ, who was and is the physical incarnation of the redemption of mankind.
