Scripture Reading: Gen. 3:9, 15, 20-21
Ⅰ
Through man's fall Satan's personality became one with man's soul, and Satan was taken into man's body to be sin working as evil in man's fleshly members:
A
Man received Satan's evil thought, feeling, and will into the inward parts of his soul—Gen. 3:1, 4-5.
B
Man took the tree of knowledge into the members of his body, and his body was transmuted into the flesh—v. 6; Rom. 7:14b, 17-18a, 21.
C
As a result, man's spirit was deadened, becoming insulated from God and losing its function toward God—Eph. 2:1, 5a.
D
Because Satan has injected himself into man, all men have become serpents in the eyes of God—Matt. 3:7; 13:38; John 3:14; 8:44; 1 John 3:10, 8; Acts 13:10.
Ⅱ
God's way of dealing with man's fall was not to declare the sentence of death but to preach the gospel:
A
The opening word of the gospel was a question—"Where are you?"—Gen. 3:9:
１
Fallen man is in a lost condition, in sins, under condemnation, under wrath, in death, in darkness, and in the hand of Satan—Rom. 1:18-32; Luke 15:8, 17; John 16:8; Acts 26:18; 1 John 5:19b.
２
God questioned Adam and Eve not because He intended to condemn them but because He was seeking to save them and wanted to lead them to confess their transgressions—cf. Luke 19:10; Ezek. 34:4, 11-12; 1 John 1:9.
B
The promise in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent is the first occurrence of the proclamation of the gospel in the entire Bible:
１
The woman here signifies first Eve and then the virgin Mary, and the seed of the woman is Christ—Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23; Gal. 4:4:
ａ
In His human living, Christ bound the serpent as the strong man (Matt. 12:29), and the serpent as the prince of the world had nothing in Him (John 14:30b).
ｂ
The bruising of the serpent's head by the seed of the woman is the destroying of Satan by the Lord Jesus through His death on the cross—Heb. 2:14; John 3:14; 1 John 3:8; Psa. 22:16.
２
By coming into His believers as the life-giving Spirit, Christ works Himself into them as the threefold conquering seed in humanity—Matt. 13:3-9; 1 Pet. 1:23; 1 John 3:9:
ａ
Christ as the seed of the woman is the complete God becoming a perfect man for the dispensing of Himself into humanity to destroy Satan and to save the believers in Christ from sin and death—John 1:1, 14; Matt. 1:23; Heb. 2:14; Matt. 1:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:53-57:
⑴
Christ has fixed His "humble home" in us, and He is now bruising the head of the serpent within us—Hymns, #84, stanza 4; Rom. 16:20; S. S. 6:10, 13; Deut. 32:30; Eccl. 4:9-12; Rev. 12:4, 10-11.
⑵
We are the co-overcomers with Christ because we have Him as the overcoming seed within us; if we let this seed grow, it will be victorious—cf. Matt. 5:3, 8; John 12:24-26.
ｂ
Christ as the seed of Abraham became the life-giving Spirit to impart Himself into His believers for the blessing of all the nations of the earth—Gen. 22:18; Gal. 3:16, 14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Judg. 9:9.
ｃ
Christ as the seed of David is the resurrected King as God's sure mercies for the dispensing of God Himself into all the believers of Christ that they might share His kingship for God's administration—2 Sam. 7:12-13; Acts 13:32-35; Isa. 55:3-4; Rom. 5:17; Rev. 20:4, 6.
３
The woman also signifies all the people of God, as represented by the universal woman in Revelation 12:1, and the seed of the woman is a corporate overcoming person, the man-child, with the individual Christ as the Head and with all His members as His Body—vv. 5-11:
ａ
The man-child is the seed of a woman who trusts in God and depends on God—cf. Psa. 25:14; 1 Chron. 5:20; 2 Chron. 20:12.
ｂ
The Lord Jesus is the Head, center reality, life, and nature of the man-child—Psa. 2:8-9; Rev. 2:26-27; 12:5; 20:4.
ｃ
The woman will issue in the New Jerusalem (21:2, 9-10), and the seed of the woman will be the center of the New Jerusalem (vv. 22-23; 22:1).
C
God's clothing Adam and his wife with the coats of skins means that God justified them through their faith—Gen. 3:20-21; cf. John 3:14-16:
１
The coats are a type of Christ as God's righteousness to cover us that we might be justified by God—Jer. 23:6; 1 Cor. 1:30.
２
After being clothed by God with a coat of lambskins, Adam became one with the lamb; thus, the sinner became one with the Substitute:
ａ
When we believe in the gospel, Christ is put upon us as our covering righteousness (Luke 15:22), and we are put into Christ (1 Cor. 1:30), making us one with Christ.
ｂ
In such a union, whatever Christ is, whatever He has, whatever He has done and will do, and whatever He has attained and obtained are ours.