Proclaiming His Excellencies

The last reference to Christ and the Old Testament as seen in the Law of Moses that I want to consider is the most important. In a sense, I have been waiting a long time to just get to this one reference.

Jesus said to the Jews of John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you  think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me.” Jesus was reprimanding the Jews for their misguided zeal and willful misplacement of Scripture. They, in their religious system, had taken Scripture, the Law of God, and believed that in bisecting and dissecting it to their own ends, they can gain eternal life. This is the heart of all their misunderstanding of Torah. Numerous times Jesus rebuked the Jews for their lack of understanding of Scripture. And, in many ways, Jesus, were He physically walking among His churches today, would say the same thing to us. Just like the days of the Jews, we too have taken the Scripture and used them to our own prescribed religious and personal ends. You know that this is the case when pastors, 1) Don’t believe that they really need to study in order to prepare for their messages on Sunday. 2) Don’t believe there is a need to know the original biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek (I would like to see a medical doctor get away with thinking, “I don’t need any specialized training.” 3) Have already convinced themselves of the meaning of the text before really dealing with the text. 4) Follow established systems of theology without subjecting that system to the exegetical findings of the actual text of Scripture. 5) Refuse to study anymore because they have been in the ministry for years and think they understand the Bible well enough by now. 6) They ridicule those who refuse to do all the above. You also know that this is the case with those attending church when, 1) They don’t carry a Bible to church. 2) They disagree with the Scripture when correctly understood. 3) They believe that they own the church because they give a certain amount of money. 4) They judge the pastor by the way he dresses, and not how he handles Scripture. 5) They expect to be entertained while in church and if that does not happen, then they threaten to leave. 6) They refuse to show love to someone who hurt them 20 years ago. 7) They make light of the sufficiency of Scripture, thinking in their hearts, “We can’t just study the Bible when we come to church. We need something more.”

The above scenarios divulge a modern-day Judaism that Jesus was essentially clamoring against. We use the Scriptures to our ends, but refuse to be taken by the Scriptures to God’s ends, namely Jesus Christ. Or worse, we build our methods and ‘ministries’ and attribute them to Jesus, when in reality they contradict and undermine His very work.

Jesus corrects the Jews. Rebukes them really. He says that they think that in the Scripture they have eternal life. That is, simply codifying the Bible like a textbook and following subsequent religious functions is what gains eternal life, and that is not so. It is true that Scripture is living and active (Hebrews 4:12; in that context, it is referring to the power of the Word of God to judge) and the “incorruptible seed” (1 Peter 1:22-25). However, the Scriptures testify of Christ for eternal life. Eternal life is the issue. The Scriptures did not die for sins. Our religious systems did not atone for our sins. Our Calvinism did not remove our sins from God’s books. My Doctrines of Grace did not permit God to justify me. Only Christ holds that supreme position. Only Jesus Christ is capable of these things, not the systems that we hold dear. I find it amazing that people are so proud of their Calvinistic leanings, their dispensational stance, their Covenantal tradition and their independent, fundamental history, and yet speak very little of the Person, work and economy of Jesus Christ. This tells me where their allegiance and worship is. And, by and large, just like the Jews, it is misplaced.

The Scriptures testify of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, they describe and define Him, His work, and His eternal kingdom. His accomplishment is the subject of Scripture. This is far more than a devotional understanding of Jesus. The depth and height to which God has gone in order to gain all the glory for redemption is breathtaking. And Jesus Christ is in the center of it all. However, we cannot breathe the air of that glory unless, as Jesus said, we are “willing to do the will of the Father” (John 7:17).

The panorama of God’s work of redemption (John 5:17), begins in seed-form. It, like a tree, begins with a small reference to the hope that God announced to the couple who plunged the universe into futility and separated man from his Creator and from their blossoms unto maturity in the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was also an announcement to the one heavenly being responsible for the generation of sin in the first place. The declaration to Satan by God is a judgment and a warning of his impending death. The passage that we will be examining in some detail is Genesis 3:15. It is the foundation of all the redemptive revelation found in the rest of God’s Word. Its shoulders are broad and strong. It is the footer upon which the entire building of redemption, both Jew and Gentile, is built. It is all summarized in one single sentence.

    And I will put enmity
      Between you and the woman,
      And between your seed and her seed;
      He shall bruise you on the head,
      And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Having already covered the first days of creation in past posts, I won’t do so now. However, it is important to realize that at this point, the pristine glory and beauty both in creation and in the man and woman are lost. They have ‘died’, as it were. Their hearts have been darkened and their consciences seared. This is all evident from the responses that God received from Adam and Eve after they ate of the tree. God, now, has to punish all parties involved. He does so.

He begins with a curse upon the serpent, the animal. He makes the animal to slither on the ground, changing the animal anatomically into eternal humility because of its role in corruption. However, the being who inhabited the snake, he sentences him not to eternal humiliation, but eternal damnation for his role in the whole event. It is to him that the above-mentioned verse is spoken.

Notice that God continues the sentence upon the serpent, speaking to the being behind the act of the snake, by using the conjunction “and.” In doing that, it continues the curse upon him that was started with the animal. The curse upon the being, Satan, is that God will put a hostile disposition between the offspring of Satan and the offspring of the woman, i.e. righteous offspring. Their “children” will be at odds. This is the source of all spiritual struggles (Ephesians 6:10-20).

However, there is something very unique about this curse. At the end of the verse, it states, “He shall…” We need to stop and ask, “Whom?” At this point, we understand that it is a singular, masculine pronoun. This is referring to a singular, male offspring of the woman. God did not say, “it”, or “she.” God specifically said, “He.” Further, God states that this One will “bruise you on the head.” There will be a final, fatal blow to the head that will end up in the death of the Satan. This will result in bruising which indicates fatal, internal damage. This intimates that the One giving the blow will be stronger than he. Thus, this seed must not be a human, since mankind has just bowed the knee to Satan via the man and the woman. And yet, He will be a human since He will be the seed of the woman. So, this will be one who is above Satan, and yet is made of the same material as those who bow to Satan, i.e. a man. Satan, then, is told that he will die at the hands of a child of the woman.

What is interesting is the reference to the woman. This is peculiar since obviously the seed is from the man. So, for God to relegate the seed to the woman indicates a purposeful peculiarity of the Child. So, this offspring of the woman will be the One who will fatally deal with the enemy of God, and thus, undo all his handiwork (Hebrews 2:14; 1 john 3:8), and he will be powerless to stop it. At this juncture, God’s plan for redemption of sinners is begun. And what a plan it is! The central figure in it all is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. He will crush the serpent. He will pay the penalty of death for man. He will be the unique seed of the woman, and not of a man. However, He will be fully man and yet without sin, which makes Him superior to Satan.

This reference to Christ as the seed of the woman and the enemy of Satan is what feeds the rest of Scripture. It is the hope of all the redeemed. It is the purpose and plan of God. It is the magnanimous foundation upon which the whole structure of God’s redemptive plan rests. And, it is spoken in just one sentence. Truly, our God is in the heavens, He does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3).