Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head… The promise of the recovery of mankind out of Satan's bondage, and from under God's curse, contains in it these principal heads, all of them expressed or implied in those few words, being so many grounds of our faith. 1. That God's promise of grace is every way free, not solicited by Adam, and much less deserved, as being made unto him now, when he had offended God in the highest degree, and stood in enmity against Him, and therefore must needs proceed from God's free will. 2. That it is certain and infallible, as depending, not upon man's will, but upon God's, who speaks not doubtfully or conditionally, but positively and peremptorily, that He will do it Himself. 3. That it shall be constant and unchangeable: the inward hatred and outward wars between Satan and the holy seed shall not cease till they end at last in Satan's total and final ruin. 4. That it shall not extend to all the seed of the woman according to the flesh, but to some that are chosen out of her seed. For some of them shall join with Satan against their own brethren. 5. The effect of this gracious promise shall be the sanctifying of their hearts, whom God will save, manifested in the hatred of Satan and all his ways; which though they had formerly embraced, yet now they should abhor. 6. This work of sanctification shall not be wrought upon them as a statuary fashions a stone into an image; but God shall make use of their wills and affections to stir them up and to set them against Satan, as this word — enmity — necessarily implies. 7. Those affections shall not be smothered and concealed in the inward motions of the heart, but shall outwardly manifest themselves in serious endeavours for the opposing of Satan and his power, as the war here mentioned and intimated by the wounds on both sides, necessarily supposeth. 8. The work of sanctification, though it shall be infallible and unchangeable, yet shall be imperfect, as is implied in the bruises which the godly shall receive by Satan's hand, not only by outward afflictions, but by inward temptations, which shall wound their souls by drawing them into divers sins, all implied in that phrase of bruising the heel. 9. Those wounds which they receive at Satan's hands shall not be deadly, nor quench the life of grace, which the devil shall not be able to destroy, as is intimated in that part of the body which shall be wounded, which is the heel, far enough from any vital part. 10. The author of this work of sanctification shall not be themselves, but God by His Spirit. For it is He that shall put enmity into their hearts against Satan and his seed, as the words import. 11. This work of sanctification by the Spirit shall be established by their union with Christ their Head, with whom they shall be joined into one body, as is implied when Christ and His members are termed one seed. 12. By virtue of this union the holy seed shall have an interest in and a title to all that Christ works. For so, in effect, Christ's victory over Satan is called their victory, when it is said the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head, that is, Christ and His members shall do it. 13. For the making way to this union and communion between Christ and His members, He shall take on Him the very nature of man, so that He shall truly and properly be called the seed of the woman. (J. White, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. |
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