The Gospel of Jesus Christ (3) Protoevangelium

​“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush** your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gn 3:15)
 
Review
We’ve been talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Last Sunday, we focused on the meaning of sin in the Bible along with its consequences.
 
To know what sin is and what sin does is critical in understanding the essence of the gospel and experiencing its power because solving the problem of sin was the very purpose of Jesus coming into the world in human form and dying on the cross to give us the good news.
 
Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mk 2:17)
 
Jesus said that He didn’t come for the healthy and the righteous but for the sick and sinners. Here, Jesus is not saying that He is not interested in the healthy or the righteous. In fact, there’s no one in the world whom He’s not interested in. What Jesus is implying by saying that He came for the sick and sinners is that everyone in the world is actually in a condition of spiritual sickness because of their sin.
 
The Bible clearly reveals the sinful condition of human beings. The best definition of sin is to make oneself like God. That was how Satan first deceived human beings, which led to the first disobedience.
 
The serpent came to Eve and told her, “You will not certainly die… when you eat from [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Gen 3:4-5)
 
After listening to this lie, she looked at the tree again. It looked good, pleasing, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she ate from the tree with the desire to be like God. It was truly a rebellious act against God. By eating from the tree that God had forbidden, Eve rejected God as her king.
 
And, because the essence of sin is rebellion against God, sin inevitably resulted in the severance of our relationship with Him. And this severance consequently brought death. Since only God has eternal life, being separated from His presence meant death.
 
That’s the spiritual condition of all human beings that the Scriptures testify to. All human beings are under the power and authority of sin without exception. There’s no one righteous, not even one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That’s who we were before we met Jesus.
 
However, eternal death wasn’t the only consequence of sin. Sin also makes us slaves of Satan, the deceiver.
 
The Origin of Sin
To understand this, we need to understand how sin first came to the world. When it comes to the existence of good and evil in the world, there are some people who think that God created evil things along with good things. So they often ask, “why did God make all these evil things happen?”, and blame Him for them.
 
But God didn’t create evil things. There are no Bible passages that talk about God creating evil. He only created good things. During the creation of the world in Genesis 1, God repeatedly declared that “it was good.”
 
Everything He created was good in His sight. And His creation includes heavenly beings. Even though the creation story doesn’t reveal when and how God created spiritual beings, in Ezekiel chapter 28, God commands Ezekiel to tell the king of Tyre,
“You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you… You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you…” (Ezk 28:12-14)
 
This passage isn’t talking about a human being, since the king of Tyre wasn’t in the garden of Eden and wasn’t a cherub, which is a type of angel. Cherubim, which is the plural form of cherub, were created as perfect beings full of wisdom and beauty, adorned with every precious stone. They were ordained as guardians in the garden of Eden. 
 
We also see from Genesis 3:24, “After [God] drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Gn 3:24)
 
But, their perfection, wisdom, and beauty made them fall from God. As Ezekiel continues,
 
“You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you… you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth…” (Ezk 28:15-17)
 
The prophet Isaiah puts it this way.
“How you have fallen from heaven, morning star [O Lucifer, KJV], son of the dawn!... You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God… I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.” (Is 14:12-15)
 
Here, we find the motivation the corrupt cherub had when he sinned against God. He became proud out of his perfection, beauty, wisdom, and splendor, and he ended up wanting to be higher than God. He was perfect and beautiful, but that perfection and beauty made him forget who he was, and he developed the desire to make his throne above God’s and make himself like God.
 
And, as a result, he was expelled, thrown to the earth, and brought down to the realm of the dead, which refers to hell. Hell was originally the place God made to put the devil in, not human beings.
 
Jude 1:6 says, “The angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling - these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.” (Jd 1:6)
 
And Jesus also said, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Mt 25:41)
 
So, God does not ‘send’ sinners to hell as some people misunderstand. What God does regarding hell is quite the opposite. God wants to bring us back to Him because we were heading to eternal death and hell in our sins. In order to do so, God didn’t even spare His most precious One, and sacrificed Him.
 
That’s the purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world. “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (Jn 3:17)
 
So, this is the origin of sin that the Bible describes. Sin existed even before the first human beings committed the first sin. The first human beings committed sin because they were deceived by the corrupted angel, which Genesis calls ‘the serpent’, who had already committed the sin of rebellion against God.
 
And we see Satan using the same desire that motivated him to sin against God, which is to make his throne above God’s and make himself like God, to deceive the first human beings. And even now, he’s using the same strategy.
 
Even though there are many kinds of sin, the root of all sin is the same. It is to deny God’s lordship, take Him down from His position as our Creator and King, and make ourselves the lords and kings of our lives instead.
 
Three Consequences of Sin
Sin has three consequences. First of all, it severs our relationship with God. Second, the severance of our relationship with Him resulted in eternal death since we’re departing from the One who alone is immortal and everlasting. We already covered these two subjects last Sunday. Most of us are familiar with them since we’ve heard a lot about it in church.
 
But, there’s one more consequence that we should think about seriously. Sin not only severs our relationship with God and causes us to head to eternal death, but also makes us enslaved to Satan.
 
Everything the serpent said to Eve was wrong. That’s who he is. He’s good at lying. And he’s also good at hiding the truth by not mentioning it.
 
Satan lied to the woman when he said that she would be like God if she ate from the tree. But there was a truth that he intentionally hid by not mentioning it. Satan didn’t tell her that she would be enslaved to him if she ate from the tree.
 
The biggest lie in the world is that it is possible for us to be the lords of our lives. We can’t be. We think we can choose between the two—to let God be the Lord of our lives or to be the lords of our lives ourselves.
 
Strictly speaking, that’s wrong. We are not choosing whether or not we ourselves will be the lords of our lives or if we will acknowledge God as the Lord of our lives. Rather, biblically speaking, we choose between accepting God as our Lord or Satan as our master.
 
Paul said in Romans 6,
“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?... When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” (Romans 6:16, 20-22)
 
According to this passage, there are only two masters we can choose between—God or Satan. If we obey God, we become slaves of God, which results in righteousness and eternal life. But, if we obey Satan, we become slaves to sin, which results in death.
 
And, if our lord is Satan and we’re enslaved by sin, we’ll also end up being put in hell with him.
 
That’s the spiritual reality the Bible talks about. There are only two ways in front of us. If we choose to obey God, we may need to give up pleasures in this world but we’ll have eternal life with Him in the end.
 
On the other hand, if we choose to disobey God and obey Satan, we may live in the world, doing whatever we want to do and following the ways of the world, but we’ll end up reaping death. So, which way will you choose?
 
We just talked about some of the consequences of sin. It severs our relationship with God, makes us slaves to Satan, and sets us on the path to eternal death.
 
But the good news is that our Lord Jesus Christ came to the world to save us from these consequences of sin. Hebrews 2:14-15 says,
 
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery” (Heb 2:14-15)
 
In Jesus Christ, we find true forgiveness of sins. In Jesus Christ, we find true freedom from slavery to the devil who holds the power of death. In Jesus Christ, we’re reconciled with God again. As Paul said, “while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Rom 5:10)
 
That’s why we proclaim the good news, the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
Protoevangelium
Now, let’s talk about one more thing. Genesis chapter 3 doesn’t only tell us about how sin first came to the world through the serpent’s deception and the first human beings’ disobedience, but also reveals how God responded to the sin and its consequence from the time it first entered the world.
 
This is what God told the serpent right after He found Adam and Eve, who had hidden themselves from God. Let’s read it one more time together.
 
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gn 3:15)
 
This is known as the protoevangelium—the first gospel. This verse reveals God’s solution to the problem of sin and its severe consequences.
 
The book of Genesis was written by Moses around 1,500 years before Jesus was born. But still, through God’s revelation, Moses predicted the coming of an offspring of a woman.
 
It was unusual to use the expression “her offspring” because children were considered the seeds of their father, not mother. That’s why our last names are usually the same as our fathers’ last names.
 
So, the expression ‘her offspring’ or ‘an offspring of a woman’ is somewhat unique since it implies the absence of a biological father.
 
That’s why many biblical scholars think that the offspring mentioned in Genesis 3:15 refers to Jesus Christ, the only person born of a virgin woman all throughout human history.
 
Then, if the offspring of a woman refers to the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, what does it mean that God said to Satan, “he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel?”
 
Traditionally, it's interpreted in such a way that Satan tried to kill Jesus, but even though it seemed that he almost succeeded, he ended up failing because Jesus was raised from the dead. Satan only struck His heel.
 
But Jesus, the offspring of a woman, crushed the head of Satan by destroying the authority of death, which was Satan’s biggest weapon. By His resurrection, Jesus perfectly defeated Satan, who holds the power of death.
 
As 1 John 3:8 says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1 Jn 3:8)
 
And, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 also says,
“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Co 15:54-57)
 
Now, death has no victory anymore. There’s no sting of death anymore. It was defeated when Jesus was resurrected from the grave.
 
And, by doing so, Jesus freed us from our slavery to sin and death and gave us true victory. Moreover, Jesus gave us living hope by showing us eternal life in Him which was revealed in His resurrection.
 
When Jesus was crucified, it seemed that He had failed and Satan had won, but His death was actually not a failure, but rather the biggest victory. The best news given to mankind is that Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected from the dead, defeating the power of death.
 
So, the promise of an offspring of a woman, which was written around 1500 years before Jesus was born, was perfectly fulfilled in the empty grave when Jesus rose again from the dead. That’s the good news, the gospel, we must hold onto.
 
I think that’s what Genesis 3:15 is about. And, what we also know from the protoevangelium is that God always had the plan of salvation in mind, and informed us of His plan as soon as sin entered the world.
 
God’s plan to save all humanity through His only Son’s incarnation, death, and resurrection started right after sin first came to human beings by Satan’s deception. And He never stopped working for our salvation.
 
God deliberately planned everything needed for our salvation, gradually revealed it in the Old Testament through important symbols and prophecies, and fully achieved His plan by having His Son be born of a woman and die on the cross. We can’t even imagine His unending wisdom, but one thing we know for sure is that He loves us and is always faithful to us.
 
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God, who didn’t even spare His only Son to save us, will give us everything we need. God, who loved us and decided to sacrifice His most precious One even when we were sinners and His enemies, will never give up on us but will always guide us and lead us with His unconditional and everlasting love.
 
Knowing this serves as an anchor of our souls. God, who can’t lie and who never fails to fulfill His promises, not only promised us eternal life but also confirmed it with His oath to show the unchanging and never-failing nature of His salvation.
 
The One who plans and promises our salvation is God almighty. He is so good and faithful. He is the only One that we must put our hope and trust in.
 
So no matter what situation you’re in now, I want to encourage you to lift up your eyes to our heavenly Father, who always takes care of us and guides us with His everlasting love and unfailing promise. Then, we’ll find true comfort and peace that enables us to overcome everything that’s in front of us.
 
Now, let’s read Psalm 42:5 and wrap up with prayer.
“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (Ps 42:5)
 
[Closing Prayer]
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us this opportunity to listen to Your word and know more about who You are.
 
Oh Lord, we thank You for everything You’ve done to save us. We were sinners who were heading to eternal death in our rebellion against You, but You never gave up on us and instead faithfully worked for our salvation.
 
We thank You for Your salvation that You planned even when we didn’t deserve it. And we thank You for faithfully working for our salvation even when we didn’t notice it.
 
Now Lord, we want to put our hope in You. We want to lift up our eyes and see You working in our lives no matter what we face. Please continue to work in us and reveal who You are to us so that we can continue to put our trust in You no matter what.
 
We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1. What consequences of sin did you experience in your life before you believed in Jesus? How would you describe your spiritual situation at that time?
 
2. The protoevangelium reveals God’s plan of salvation that would be achieved through the virgin birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It also shows us God’s faithfulness to His promises. Have you experienced God taking care of you and guiding you in your life?