Advent and the First Gospel Promise (1)
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.” —Genesis 3:15a
Genesis 3 has rightly been called “the black chapter” of Scripture. Our fall in Adam is the blackest reality of human history. Genesis 3 tells us sad truth about ourselves.
Any attempt to exclude ourselves from Genesis 3 is futile. Through the fall of Adam as representative head in the covenant of works, we have all become children of the devil and servants of sin. We have subjected ourselves to the sentence of death, the infinite wrath of God, the curse of the law, and the dominion of Satan. Experien-tially, we must become Adam before God. The fall must become our fall, our guilt.
Genesis 3 unlocks the secrets of numerous tragic truths. How did we break God’s covenant, scorn His majesty, trample His law underfoot, challenge His attributes? How did we turn our backs on our worthy Creator? How did we cast away His image in its narrower sense—exchanging ignorance for knowledge, unrighteousness for righteousness, and perversity for holiness? Genesis 3 informs us succinctly, graphically, tragically.
Genesis 3 unveils how we have become what we are by nature: lost, con-demnable, rejectable sinners; dead in sins and trespassess; death- and hell-worthy, fit to be vessels of sovereign and just reprobation. Total depravity, separation from God, slavery to Satan, the origin of sin and evil, the cause of all misery and death, a stained creation—Genesis 3 explains it all.
A black chapter indeed! Its blackness is beyond human expression. Who can comprehend the depth of our fall and its consequences for our natural hearts? “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).
By nature, we do not know ourselves. Daily we live out our fall unawares in actions, thoughts, words, motives, and perceptions. We are blind to our blindness. We are such slaves of Satan that this enslaver’s hold over us passes us by largely unnoticed. As Rev. Ledeboer said, “Our greatest misery is that we do not know our misery.”
Grace, however, changes all this. For God’s people, sin becomes sin. Satan becomes the archenemy. The fall becomes their fault. The burden of original sin becomes ten times greater experi-entially than the burden of actual sins. Paul expresses this burden well when he exclaims: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do…. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:18, 19, 24).
Happily, Genesis 3 also speaks about this grace of self-awareness, of self-abasement, as well as the grace of divine intervention and provision. Genesis 3 may also rightly be called “the red chapter” of Scripture, for three reasons: On its page the Father’s first gospel promise of His coming, blood-shedding Son is unfurled (v. 15). On its page the first exercise of faith in the Father’s advent promise of life is expressed by Adam in the naming of his wife Eve, which means in Hebrew life or living (v. 20)! On its page, the first sacrificial blood is spilled, pointing to the gospel (in God’s slaying of animals to make Adam and Eve coats of skins, v. 21).
Against the the black backdrop of Genesis 3’s tragedy, God paints a red chapter of atonement, a white chapter of hope. Genesis 3 preaches that God is always ahead of Satan. It preaches amazing, staggering grace to lost sinners. Especially in the first gospel promise of Genesis 3:15, it presents sovereign grace as flowing out of enmity announced by God, conflict waged against Satan, and victory assured in Christ.
Enmity Announced by God
Advent is upon us once again. December 3, 1989, introduces Advent and, simultaneously, a new ecclesiastical year. For four weeks prior to Christmas, the message of Advent sets the tone for the Christian church’s festival season which lasts for six months, finding its culmination in Pentecost on June 3, 1990, the Lord willing.
Against the the black backdrop of Genesis 3’s tragedy, God paints a red chapter of atonement, a white chapter of hope.
“Advent” is a Latin word which means coming, arriving, approaching, and often contains the notion of haste. The church calls its four-week pre-Christmas season Advent because of the comings of Jesus Christ. In the fulness of time, He came with haste in Bethlehem’s manger (the First Advent). He shall come again upon the clouds with haste to judge the living and the dead when God’s time is ripe (the Second Advent).
For God’s church, Advent contains profound meaning. Advent memorializes the past. Advent confesses faith for the future. Advent gives expression to present yearnings and hope. Advent preaches that the coming Christ of yesterday and of tomorrow is the always coming, always advent Christ of today. Advent preaches that Christ is always on His way, always near-at-hand, yes, always present. Advent proclaims, “For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee…. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13:5b, 8).
Genesis 3:15 is the first Advent text of Scripture. Most remarkable is its beginning—”And I will put enmity.” In the original Hebrew, which often accents the first word of a sentence, we read: “Enmity will I put….” “Enmity” introduces Scripture’s first gospel promise and sets the tone for the entire verse!
For lost, fallen sinners, deliverance and enmity are inseparable. Some find this astonishing. Some do not believe it. They say the gospel should contain nothing but love. Still others do not understand. They ask: Why does God begin with enmity? Wasn’t enmity already present? Didn’t Satan show enmity when he tempted Eve? Didn’t Eve show enmity when she gave fruit to Adam? Didn’t Adam show enmity when he ate forbidden fruit and then blamed God and Eve for his sin? Why would God bring more enmity into a world which only moments prior knew nothing of enmity?
Enmity itself was not the problem in Paradise. Adam and Eve should have been at holy enmity with, and full of holy hatred towards, the serpent for even suggesting the possibility of eating of the forbidden tree. They knew well that such eating entailed challenging God’s authority, calling Him a liar, breaking His covenant and fellowship.
Adam and Eve had a misdirected enmity. They directed their enmity against God instead of Satan. Mercifully, the Lord came to intervene in the Paradise scene to redirect their enmity to its proper focus: sin and Satan. The Lord said, as it were, “Enmity will I place between the serpent and his seed (Satan and unbelievers) and the woman and her seed (representing the elect church). I will reverse your newly acquired values. I will cause you to hate what you now love, and love what you now despise. I will plant new enmity. I will give you a new heart.”
God’s surprising intervention in Paradise was not a request to the “free will” of man; it was a declaration, an announcement of His irresistible, “free grace”: “Enmity I will put” God did not stir up enmity already present He did not request Adam and Eve to put enmity into exercise. In fact, he was not even addressing Himself directly to them, for he was speaking to the serpent.
All of this underscores one solemn truth: Fallen man is not able to put enmity against sin in his own heart. Only God can do what man cannot do for himself. God takes the initiative. This is our only hope as fallen creatures: divine initiative, sovereign intervention, amazing grace.
This is our only hope as fallen creatures: divine initiative, sovereign intervention, amazing grace.
God takes salvation into His own hands, allowing for no uncertainty: “I will put enmity.” Hence, the new birth always does and must bring new enmity. God-planted enmity. Enmity against sin, “old-man” self, Satan, the pride of life, the lusts of the flesh and eye—anything that dishonors the Lord.
Are you experientially acquainted with this sovereign grace: “Enmity will / put”? Dear believer, you know that you not only could not, but also would not, have placed enmity in your own heart against sin. Is not sovereign grace your only hope? That grace which does all for a sinner who can do nothing rightly? That grace which turns around those who are rushing to hell, and plants their footsteps in the narrow pathway to heaven?
[Next month’s editorial, the Lord willing, will conclude with an explanation of “conflict waged against Satan” and “victory assured in Christ,” based on Genesis 3:15b.]
The Depth of the Fall
Unless the LORD teaches us:
We do not understand nor believe
the condition in which we live;
We do not understand nor believe
the need of our souls;
We do not understand nor believe
the necessity of conversion;
We do not understand nor believe
the work of Christ as Surety;
We do not understand nor believe
the exercises of faith;
We do not understand nor believe
the acts of God’s justice;
We do not understand nor believe
the giving of Christ;
We do not understand nor believe
that we are lost;
We do not understand nor believe
that we must be saved;
We do not understand nor believe
the necessity of the LORD Jesus’ dying;
We do not understand nor believe
the wonder of the Resurrection;
We do not understand nor believe
that we have to die;
We do not understand nor believe
the wonder of conversion;
We do not understand nor believe
discovering preaching;
We do not understand nor believe
that the portal of heaven is closed
to us apart from Christ;
We do not understand nor believe
that God is righteous.
Dr. J. R. Beeke is pastor of the First Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Crand Rapids, Michigan
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Bekijk de hele uitgave van woensdag 1 november 1989
The Banner of Truth | 30 Pagina's
Bekijk de hele uitgave van woensdag 1 november 1989
The Banner of Truth | 30 Pagina's