Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - May/94

Contributor - John H. Muller

Title - I Believe: "God's First Redemption Promise"

Topic - Belgic Confession

ARTICLE 17 of our BELGIC CONFESSION is passed by in some of the writings about this standard of our faith. However, I believe that it states an important truth, which is worth our time. Basic to our Calvinistic understanding of the Scriptures is the fact that God seeks man, rather than that man seeks God. God is the initiator of salvation. The CONFESSION enlarges on the promise of Genesis 3:15, which is the first promise of our redemption, given by God Himself. In dealing with this Scriptural passage, Dr. A. Pieters says that on its surface it speaks of nothing but men and snakes. But, he says, it takes a wooden head and a cold heart to see nothing more in it. It is more messianic in essence than in its form. The Scriptural wording follows the curse upon the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush you head, and you will strike his heel." (Genesis 3:15 NIV)

Satan is our enemy. He will do anything he can to get us to follow his evil and deadly path. The phrase "you will strike his heel" refers to Satan's continual attempts to defeat Christ during His life on earth. "He will crush your head" foreshadows Satan's defeat when Christ rose from the dead. A strike on the heel is not deadly, but a crushing blow to the head is. Already God was revealing His plan to defeat Satan and offer salvation to the world through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Following man's sin, this verse is the first indication that God would intervene on behalf of His people. We often speak of it as the protevangelium, which translates as the first promise of the Gospel.

The Dutch name for it is the moederbelofte, the mother promise -since it is the mother promise of the Messianic promise in the Bible.

Other Scriptures relate to this truth. (Galatians 4:4-5 NIV) "But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under law." Other passages also relate such as: John 12:3 1, Hebrews 2:14, and Colossians 2:15. This conflict between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman is also portrayed pictorially in the last book of the Bible. Revelation 12 pictures a woman enveloped in heavenly splendour, about to bring forth a man child, who is to become the ruler of the nations. A terrible dragon stands before the woman to devour her child as soon as it is born. When the child is born he is "snatched up to God and to His throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God." Then follows "war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down -- that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him." (vs. 5b-8 NIV)

The CONFESSION relates this verse to the graciousness and goodness of God. He was pleased to find man when he was completely miserable" and "trembling all over, was fleeing from him." He comforted him with the Genesis 3:15 promise and made him blessed.

Thus this first redemptive promise takes on great importance in our interpretation of Scripture. "Christian faith seeks to understand the Scriptures of the Old Testament in accordance with the word of Jesus: 'These are they which testify of Me.' (John 5:39) In Jesus Christ all the promises of the Old Testament are yea and amen. It is not surprising then that the first promise after the first sin stands in a particular sense in relationship to Christ. His Gospel is God's answer to the sin of man, and it is the fulfilment of the first promise." (Koopmans)

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