Protoevangelium

2021-12-31

The promise of Jesus Christ did not come in a generation or two before His coming; He was promised since the beginning of time!

The Protoevangelium is the first glimpse of the Gospel of grace. It happens immediately after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. The term refers to Genesis 3:15.

Background

God knew what Adam and Eve did. He asks them rhetorical questions to elicit confession. They pass the blame, but they ultimately confess. Satan in the guise of the serpent gets no question from the LORD; He gets condemnation. The serpent itself gets his own condemnation in Genesis 3:14. The spirit behind the serpent then gets his condemnation. This is the Protoevangelium:

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. (Genesis 3:15)

Aspects

• The serpent and the woman have enmity between them. There is a hostility between them. He took advantage of her to get her and Adam to fall.
• The seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman also have enmity between them. Women do not have seed. Men do. It is rare to say that a woman has seed. One such example is Hagar having seed. This is said because Ishmael, Hagar’s son, will not be heir to Abraham. Here, in Genesis 3:15, it is used because the seed of the woman has no human father. The seed of the woman is none other than the Savior Jesus Christ. It is a clear reference to the virgin birth. The seed of the serpent are those who serve him (ex. John 8:44).
• The Seed of the woman will deliver the deathblow to Satan (“bruise thy head”). Satan will be destroyed by the Savior. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone... and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).
• The Seed would be harmed by Satan (“bruise his heel”). This is a reference to the crucifixion. Satan’s assault on Christ actually is his own demise.

Adam and Eve Believed

Adam and Eve might not have had all the information on the Savior after they sinned, but the first pair knew grace was being extended to them and to all people that would descend from them. After all the gloomy news from God concerning the consequences of their sin, you can see their faith in that promise:

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. (Genesis 3:20)

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. (Genesis 4:1)