A Brief Examination of Genesis 3:15

I must admit that I agree 100% with incarnational apologetics. We must live out the Christian life for God's glory alone. The "why" for incarnational apologetics is to "crush the head of the Serpent". Let me explain...

In Genesis 3:15, after the Fall God prophesied concerning Satan, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (ESV)."

Ever since the fall of mankind there have been two peoples, sons of God and sons of the Devil. You can see this throughout the Scriptures; Cain/Abel, Shem/Ham, Isaac/Ishmael, Jacob/Esau, Israelites/Philistines, and the list goes on and on throughout even today. Satan, ever since the Fall, has hated mankind, and especially the sons of God. He constantly tries to "crush our heads" while only being able to "bruise our heels". We also see this in the examples of the sons of God, Israel, being in bondage temporarily having their "heels bruised", only to be freed by the grace of God, and thus the "crushing of the Serpent's head".

Once we understand this context, we can understand why Jesus did the miracles He did. Jesus' miracles had very little to do with His love for the people and everything to do with crushing Satan's head for His Father's glory. Let me give you an example: In John 5, Jesus came to the pool of Bethesda where there was a multitude of people waiting to be healed. As far as we know, Jesus only healed one person there. If "love" was what motivated Him to heal this man, does this mean that He didn't love the multitude that was left in their diseases? Absolutely not, because love wasn't His motivation. After all, throughout the Scriptures, from our perspective, it seems Jesus' miracles were random. Love alone was never His motivation in healing; "crushing the Serpent's head" for His Father's glory was.

So, through Jesus' miracles, He was silently screaming that the results of the Fall, the results of Satan's kingdom, had no hold on Him. Let's think about this for a moment: Why do people get sick; and why are there diseases? Why are there natural disasters? Why do people go hungry? Why do people go thirsty? Why do people lack shelter? Etc. The answer to all of these questions is that we're no longer in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had no diseases, there were no natural disasters, the Garden was well watered from beneath, there was a continuous "buffet", and they had no need of shelter.

In John 11, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead to show that the disease he died from as well as the death that was holding him in the grave, had no hold over Jesus. In Matthew 8:26 Jesus calmed the storm to show that the "groaning" of creation had no hold over Him. In Luke 9 Jesus fed the five thousand to show that lack of food had no hold over Him. And finally, Jesus ultimately crushed the Serpents head whenever He got up out of the tomb three days after His death. Though Satan had bruised His heel, Jesus crushed His head!

Through Christ, the church will ultimately "crush the Serpent's head" as well; however, as long as we're here on earth we must communicate to the sons of the Devil that their father's kingdom has no hold over us, for we are in Christ! Whenever we meet someone's needs we are participating in the crushing of Satan's head, because if they were still in the Garden, they wouldn't have any needs. So, whenever we provide food, shelter, disaster relief, mission trips, clothes, medicine, health care, etc. we are telling them that through Christ, Christians are crushing the head of Satan; and if they'll turn to Him, they will be victorious as well!

Therefore, because of these truths, the foundation for "Incarnational Apologetics" must be to show the world that through Christ the results of Satan have no hold over us. Whenever we live the Christian life meeting the needs of others, we don't do this so they'll listen to what we have to say; we do this to bring glory and honor to God... for our goal must be the same as Christ's goal. His goal was to "crush the Serpent's head" for His Father's glory, and our goal must be the same as well, in every area of life. So, I help those in need because I'm privileged to be involved in the crushing of Satan!

Lastly, on the flip side of this, if we Christians aren't living the Christian life, we are allowing Satan to "bruise our heels". The sad reality is that a Christian who has a "bruised heel" looks similar to a son or daughter of the Devil. Whenever they see us "bruised" by him because of sin, they see themselves in us, and thus, they view us as unable to help them for we look and live like them.

Church, we have the saving message of the Gospel that will take dead men and bring them to life! The results of the Fall have no hold on us through Christ; this will be fully realized in our glorification. Until then, we must give the Gospel of Christ, which "crushes the Serpent's head"; and we must also actively participate in this crushing through our God-glorifying actions. Love for God, first, and love for the lost, second, must motivate us!

For God's glory alone!