The First Promise of the Bible

How do you feel when you have sinned? Do you feel shame? If so, there is hope for you. Sin should make us ashamed of ourselves. God has made us with an inner conscience that accuses when we do wrong and approves when we do right. There was a Native American Christian who compared conscience to an arrowhead in his heart. When I do wrong, it turns and hurts me until I make it right. But if I keep on doing wrong, the arrowhead keeps turning and wears down the points, so it doesn't hurt me anymore. The Bible refers to that as a seared conscience, it is deadened and no longer functions properly.

America, for the most part, is living with a seared conscience. The sins that used to slink down the back alley now strut down the main drag. And no one is bothered by them anymore. America's conscience is seared. But not everyone's conscience is seared. Thank God for that sense of shame when sin is committed.

Adam and Eve felt a great sense of shame after they so wickedly sinned against God. But God gave them a promise that has been fulfilled for the most part today. It will be fulfilled completely in a future day. This promise is found in Genesis 3:15. There God said, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is called the protevangelium or "the first gospel." Here we have the first announcement of the coming Savior and Redeemer of mankind.

This is a glorious verse. To the Old Testament saints it was a beacon of hope. To the old serpent, Satan, it was a declaration of war and pronouncement of Satan's sure destruction. To Eve it was assurance that indeed she was forgiven and that God would from woman bring the Redeemer into the world. It contains the whole gospel, and the essence of the covenant of grace. It promises a birth. We have just celebrated that glorious birth. It promises a bruising. The seed of the woman, even our Lord Jesus, was bruised in His heel, terribly. But how terrible will be the final bruising of the serpent's head! This was virtually done when Jesus took away sin by His death, conquered death, and broke the power of Satan by His resurrection. It also promises a blessing. For it awaits a still fuller fulfillment at our Lord's Second coming, and in the day of Judgment.

Charles Spurgeon, that great preacher of yesteryear reminds us that the promise stands as a prophecy that we shall be afflicted by the powers of evil in our journey in this old world, and thus bruised in our heel: but we shall triumph in Christ, who sets His foot upon the serpent's head. Throughout this year we may have to learn the first part of this promise by experience, through the temptations of the devil, and the unkindness of the ungodly who are his seed. They may so bruise us that we may limp with our sore heel; but let us take firm hold upon the second part of the verse, and we shall not be dismayed. By faith let us rejoice that we shall still reign in Christ Jesus, the seed of the woman. God loves you and so does First Baptist Church.