THE PROMISED INCARNATION IN OUR PREVIOUS LESSONS, we saw the entrance of Spiritual Death into the life of man. In studying the problems that the Father-God faced in providing a Redemption from Spiritual Death for man, we saw that mans need of a Redeemer demanded the union of Deity and humanity in one individual. Mans need of Righteousness, Eternal Life, and a Mediator, could only be met by the Incarnation of Gods Son. The Incarnation of Deity with humanity will provide a substitute of Deity and humanity united on such grounds that the Incarnate One can stand as mans mediator. Being equal with God on the one hand, and united with man on the other, He will be able to bring the two together. Again, being Deity and humanity united, He will be able to assume the obligations of human treason and satisfy the claims of justice, and thereby bridge the chasm between God and man. Gods First Promise of the Incarnation When man committed the crime of High Treason, he died spiritually. In his existence of spiritual death, his condition is described as without hope and without God in the world. Immediately Gods love began to work on mans behalf. The Father-God faced mans condition squarely. He knew that mans needs could only be met on legal grounds by the Incarnation of His Son. His love counted no sacrifice too great that would bring man again into His fellowship. Mercy and truth were met together (Psalm 85:10) and the triumph of love gave to man a promise of a Redeemer. In His conversation with Satan, God gives to him the first promise of the Incarnation. Genesis 3:15, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Let us notice four remarkable statements in this promise. First, I will put enmity between thee and the woman. That is, there will be enmity between Satan and woman. This is proved by womans history. She has been bought and sold as common chattel. Only where Christianity has reached the hearts of a country has woman ever received any treatment that would lift her above the brute creation. In Christian countries she is the heir of our diseases and the victim of the divorce court. Doctors tell us that 95 percent of all the hospital cases are women. Second, I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed. Satans seed is the unregenerate human race, and womans seed is Christ. Christ was hunted from His babyhood by Satans seed, until finally they nailed Him to the cross; and from the Resurrection of Jesus until this day; the church has been the subject of the bitterest persecutions and enmity of the world. Third, The seed of the woman. Here is a prophecy that a woman shall give birth to a child independent of natural generation. A child is always called the seed of man. Fourth, And He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. He shall bruise thy head-that is, the head of Satan. In all Oriental languages, the term, bruise the head, means breaking the lordship of the ruler. A man has given to Satan his dominion. Satan has just come into the dominion that God had given to man. He is going to exercise that dominion until the Seed of Woman comes. A man is going to break his lordship. The heel is the Church in its earth walk. The long ages of persecution of the Church by the seed of Satan are a matter of history. This is a remarkable prophecy, and how clearly it has been fulfilled. The Incarnate One has come and brought to naught him that had the authority of death, that is, the devil, and delivered all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:14). This Scripture has also found its fulfillment in Jesus bitter persecution, which finds its culmination in His death on the Cross; and then, in the persecution of the Church, which is the Body of Christ, and which carries out His Will upon the earth. Genesis 3:20, The man called his wifes name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. The word Eve in Hebrew is Havvah, which literally means the living one, or the life-giver. Here God tells man that his wife shall be the mother of the life-giving One, our Christ. Universal Mans Desire for the Incarnation The teaching of the Incarnation is not out of harmony with human desire or tradition. It has been believed in by all tribes of people in some form. Universal man has craved an Incarnation. His spirit hungers for union with Deity, because he was created in Gods image with the ability to partake of Gods life. This is proved by man’s drinking the blood of human sacrifices, by the naming of his kings after the titles of his deities, and also making his emperor or kings an incarnation of Deity. The gods of the Greeks and Romans were supposed to have been divine and human, showing mans hunger for a union with Deity. The Incarnation is no more difficult to believe than the creation of the first man. Adam was created by an act of Divine Power: the rest of the human race was generated by natural processes; but this Redeemer, Who is to be born of the woman, is to be formed by a special act of Divine Power. He is God Almighty, and the Incarnation is a possibility with Him. Satans Attempts to Thwart Gods Plan We do not know how clearly Satan realized the plan of God for mans Redemption that was given in the promised Redeemer. We know that he did not fully understand it, or he would not have crucified Christ (I Corinthians 2:8). He thought that crucifixion was the destruction of Christs life, not knowing that it was the means of mans Redemption. Nevertheless, Satan must have realized the fact that a Redeemer was coming through humanity who would break his dominion over man. He, therefore, seeks to destroy the plan of the Father-God. The working of Satan to thwart the purpose of God follows two lines: He seeks (1) to destroy the knowledge of God on the earth, and (2) to destroy a Righteous line in humanity. Through these two he will make it impossible for a Redeemer to ever come through humanity. He desires to separate man from all fellowship with God. Satans first attempt to pursue his purpose was in the murder of Abel by Cain (Genesis 4:1-15). Abel had had witness borne to him that he was righteous by offering a sacrifice in faith according to the revelation that God had given to him. Genesis 4:4, And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof, and Jehovah had respect unto his offering. Hebrews 11:4, By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous. God bearing witness in respect to his gifts, and through it he being dead still speaketh. Satan did not know but what Abel would be mans Redeemer, therefore he destroyed his life. In doing this he destroyed the righteous line then existing. Genesis 4:25, Seth was born to Adam and Eve. Eve seemed to realize that a righteous line had been destroyed and that Seth had been given to fulfill Abels place. She named him Seth, which means substitute, and said, God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, for Cain slew him. The Seed of the Woman As generations pass, Spiritual Death is at work within the life of man, causing him to walk alienated from God, with his mind blinded (Ephesians 4:17-18). Satan is attempting to make the seed of the woman so utterly estranged from God that He will never be able to send a Redeemer through humanity. The only promise so far given in reference to the Incarnation had been very general. Therefore, Satans bitter war against the seed of the woman is general. Later on, God makes the promise of the Redeemer more specific and marked; and as we study we shall see a specific working of Satan to the destruction of the righteous line named by God. Genesis 3:15, the Incarnate One is called the seed of the woman, a general term. Genesis 12:3, it becomes more marked, and the Incarnate One is specified as being the seed of Abraham. Psalm 89:3-4, He is termed the seed of David. He shall come from the family of David. A family is marked. And Isaiah 7:14 makes it still more specific when he says, Behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and call His Name Immanuel. He says, the virgin, just as though He had marked her out. An individual is marked. As we study the history of Israel, we shall see the efforts of Satan directed toward the seed of Abraham, and then the seed of David, and then his bitter hatred and persecution of Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin. Genesis 5 Genesis 5 gives to us the genealogy of Noah. As Satan works to destroy a righteous line, God is preserving a line through which the Redeemer shall come. He is working toward the Incarnation. It is well for you to read chapters four and five, that two things may be noticed. After Cain is brought conspicuously before us by the murder of his brother, his issue is traced for just a little way, and ends in Lamech, also a murderer (Gen. 4:18-23). The Holy Spirit seeks to interest us in another man altogether, the third son born to Adam and Eve, named Seth (Genesis 4:24-26.). In this line came Noah, Shem, Abraham, Jacob, and then later on, Jesus Himself-the seed of the woman who bruised the serpents head. In order to fix our attention on Seth, the righteous line, the Divine Author reiterates at the beginning of chapter five the original account of creating man, tracing the history of Adam briefly, and then giving in detail the line of Seth. This shows us His dealings are now with this line. Genesis 6 Genesis 6:1-3, And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all they chose. We notice here the marked distinction between the Cainites and the Sethites, the Righteous line. The Cainites built cities, invented arts and devised amusements to palliate the curse of sin (Genesis 4:21-22). The Sethites walked with God (Genesis 4:26). In Genesis 4:25 the word LORD in capitals indicates that in the original it is Jehovah, the Covenant name of God. They who believed and had hope in His promise knew and loved that name. It is well to note that the seventh from Adam through the line of Cain, Lamech, was a polygamist, murderer, and worshipper of the god of forces (Genesis 4:16-24) ; while the seventh in the line of Seth was Enoch, a man who had this testimony, that he pleased God (Hebrews 11:5), and was translated (Genesis 5:21-24). In the sixth chapter of Genesis we see again the working of Satan to thwart the purpose of God. He causes the intermarriage of the line of Cain with the righteous line. This corrupts the line through which the Redeemer shall come to such an extent that only Noah is left in the worship of the Covenant God. Genesis 6:5, And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the heart was evil continually. Satan had destroyed the knowledge of God in the heart of man. The thought of every mans heart was evil continually. Only Noah knew and walked with the true God (Genesis 6:8-9). If humanity were left in that condition, after Noahs death, the knowledge of God would have been completely lost. The Righteous line would have been destroyed, and the Incarnation would have been an impossibility. Seemingly, Satan had triumphed in his efforts, but God Almightys purpose was not to be thwarted. It was a small matter for Him to bring an end to humanity in its corrupt condition (Genesis 6:11-13). If a righteous line were preserved, and the knowledge of Himself kept upon the earth, God must destroy humanity and continue the line through which the Redeemer would come-through Noah. In the past, if we have not understood the working of the Father-God toward the Incarnation, perhaps the destruction of humanity by the flood has been hard for us to understand. Now, in the light of the fact that mans need could only be met by the Incarnation, we can see that the flood was imperative. The Basic Bible Course. Kindly share this
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 08:26:07 +0000
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