God's Promised Victory Over Sin and Death (Genesis 3:15)

Genesis 3. Full StudyMap on Genesis here.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring an her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

Lord Jesus, please explain this word that was given to the serpent, after the Fall of Adam and Eve. 

Response received:

This verse, the Father's word to the serpent, mentions both the tension between the serpent and humanity, and announces my coming victory. 

When Eve and Adam disobeyed the Father’s command, when  they ate from the tree of good and evil, they went away from His perfect protection, and discovered evil. They already knew about what is good. What they did not know was what evil is. Now they began to learn about evil, about doubt and loneliness, about guilt and shame. This had a sad impact on the relationship with us, they could not anymore experience this closeness and intimacy that was there before, they forgot that the Father loved them dearly and they began to fear Him. They had entered on the path of sin and self-centeredness, of broken relationships, they began to distrust us and to accuse each other. 

In your life, you also have learned the consequence of listening to the voice of the serpent, the voices of power, pride or selfishness. You have learned the cost of following such voices, but now you learn how to be released from evil through my cross and through my guidance. 

This verse speaks about the battle between good and evil, and announces my coming and victory. I would be born of a woman, a distant offspring of Adam and Eve. The devil did bruise me, but I crushed his power. He could only harm my heel, the weak places in my life, but I came to crush his head and defeat him. 

The devil could bruise my heel or target my heel, attack me when I was weak. It is what he did when I was fasting in the wilderness, he only came when I had spent 40 days fasting and that I was weak and hungry, and he came again at Gethsemane when I was tired and struggling to fully accept the weight of the cross. 

In the same way, the devil will try to attack you in your weaknesses. Remember that we are able to sustain and to protect you, particularly when you are weak, but you need to come to me. When you are tired and weak, come to me and I will give you the rest that you need (see Matthew 11:28-30). You need to discover that it is when you are weak that you are strong. 

If you follow my example, the moments of weakness will become key moments in preparing fruits for your life and for others. After the serpent targeted my heel - my weakness, in the wilderness, after I stood by the words of my Father, I began the ministry that He had prepared for me, in the power of the Holy Spirit. As I kept my Father’s word, He sent angels to serve me (see Mk 1:13). As I fully accepted the cross and refused the temptation of the devil to reject the perfect will of my Dad, I could win the final victory over death and sin. I could defeat the devil, who was keeping people enslaved through sin and the fear of death. 

Through my death and resurrection, I could demonstrate that the power of the snake, his hideous head, was crushed forever, that the life of the Spirit in me had defeated sin and death. This victory is final, and each person who comes to me and learns from me will share in this victory. Eternal life is not about a distant future, it is about partaking with me of the life given by the Father, it is about renewed fellowship, it is about learning to know the Father and to know me. As you learn to know me, as you learn to fellowship with us and to follow me, you learn to let eternal life flow in your veins (see John 17:3). As this eternal life flows in you, you experience already the first fruits of my victory over sin and death. Take heart, I have overcome the world.