“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.”
Genesis 3:15
The words above come from the LORD’s curse on the serpent after the fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. The identification of the “Seed of the Woman” with Christ Jesus goes a long way back to at least the teachings of Irenaeus, a second-century church father and apologist. For centuries, it has been hailed as the earliest reference to the Messiah in the Bible and is considered a legitimate name of Christ.
The interpretation of God’s pronouncement of judgment on the devil was that the Savior dealt a death blow to the “old serpent” at Golgotha, the place of the skull. Satan’s doom was sealed at that point, even though when Jesus died as a substitute for sinful man, the devil stuck Him at His heel when His feet were nailed to the cross. Christ rose from the dead and broke the evil one’s claim over death. Lucifer has not and will never recover from his defeat at Mount Calvary.
It’s important to note that victory over the devil came through the Seed of the Woman and not the seed of man or Adam’s seed. Jesus was virgin-born, and so had no human father. He was God’s Son. In giving this very first recorded title of Christ, God eliminated every other man born on earth.
Verily God, yet become truly human
Lower than angels – to die in our stead;
How hast Thou, long-promised “Seed of the Woman”
Trod on the serpent and bruised his head!
– H. D’Arcy Champney (1854-1942)
December 26
