Following the event of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, God declares a promise to the serpent (Satan). Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”. In this declaration, God is saying that He will put enmity and strife between Eve and her seed (the Messiah) and Satan’s seed. In short, there will be conflict and war between God’s people and Satan’s people. In case you are thinking that Satan’s people are crazed demon possessed demonic worshippers running around throughout history causing havoc, keep in mind that the temptation was to obtain the knowledge of good and evil from the tree. In other words, Adam and Eve wanted to decide for themselves what was good, and what was evil. This authority belongs only to God. Therefore, they usurped His authority. This caused the fall into death and separation from God that no one could rescue them, and all humanity from. They were forever doomed to an eternity banished from God; all that is good including life itself. In the fall, great devilish evil is included as well as man’s desire to do things his own way.
God makes a further promise to Satan. I will cause the seed of the woman (the Messiah) to bruise, or crush your head. That is a death blow. Also, Satan will be allowed to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman (constant harassment/persecution of God’s people) throughout human history. Galatians 4:4 say that Jesus Christ is the seed of the woman, “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law”.
Throughout history, God’s lineage and Satan’s lineage will be in constant conflict. Satan’s lineage will be strong and overpowering while God’s lineage seems weak and conquerable. But a day will come when the seed of the woman crushes Satan’s head and puts him and his cohorts out of business.
This occurred at the CROSS!
No mortal man, even if brought back from the dead, could destroy Satan because they are all sinners and under the wrath of God (Romans 1:18). But God had a plan. A Savior would be born of a virgin and unstained by sin who would destroy Satan and his works (1 John 3:8). Jesus Christ had to become a man in order to fulfill the promise of Genesis 3:15. God accomplished this by the Holy Spirit creating a special body in Mary’s womb. Hebrews 10:5 “Wherefore when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering thou would not, but a body has thou prepared for me”. This body prepared by God combined both God and man together making Jesus Christ 100% God and 100% man. This was truly miraculous! Jesus never stopped being God when He became man. He was absolutely perfect/sinless in every way.
Now, with the birth of Christ, the stage was set for a battle. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Satan knew the promises of a Savior who would come and free the world from his bondage. He knew that this Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the Christ who was to come. If he could kill Jesus, then Genesis 3:15 would never be fulfilled. Satan tried to kill him several times (Matt. 2:16, Lk. 4:29). The final attempt was to put Jesus on the cross and have Him crucified. Then, he could drag Jesus down into hell like all other men, and keep Him there forever. We can see right here how much Satan DID NOT know; (1 Cor. 2:8). More on this in future posts.
On the cross, Jesus would confront Satan as seen in Isaiah 50:6-8 which we will look at next time. The Son of Man came to this confrontation weak and silent. He was beaten and nailed to a cross, bloodied beyond comprehension. Jesus then calls for His adversary to come near; “Let us stand together”, “come near to Me”. He was beckoning and challenging Satan when He said, “who is my adversary?” In essence, Jesus was saying, “Come now Satan, here I am, come and get me. Now is your chance.”
Satan comes to the cross to prosecute Jesus of sin. To commit His soul to hell, and have Him placed under the wrath of God just as he had done with all other men. The great adversary brings with him his prosecution team to the cross where the trial is set to begin. The courtroom of Heaven is assembled with God the Father as the Judge, Jesus Christ the defendant, and Satan is the prosecutor.
As we will find out, it seems that Satan has an airtight case against the Savior of the world.
Hang on to your hats, it’s quite a dramatic trial!
Grace and Peace unto you!