Adam’s sin brought innumerable suffering and grief to himself and his descendants. However, God was the One most wounded and wronged by sin. His purpose in the human race was not only defeated but He Himself was dethroned in his own universe.  This was the twofold aim of Satan in the tragedy in Eden. There was a tempter behind the temptation.

“The fall began in heaven. Sin entered into God’s house before it invaded man’s. Christ felt its sting before man felt its stab” (A. Patterson, The Greater Life and Work of Christ, p. 82).

Sin, enacted in Eden, immediately created two very critical issues that brought God into a new relationship both to the tempted and the tempter, to the sinner and to Satan.

The issue at stake between God and God’s first man was God’s union with the human race. God had become united with humanity through Adam in creation. But now through sin, that union had been broken. God is absolute holiness and could never tolerate nor overlook sin, much less dwell in its presence. Sin must be punished and the sinner expelled. Adam and Eve, through yielding to temptation, had become sinners. God had been their beneficent Creator, their generous Provider, and their intimate Companion. He must now assume a different relationship to them and the race latent in them from that which He had before, in light of their transgression of his holy law.

When God gave the command regarding the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He clearly stated the penalty if the command were disobeyed. He could never remain holy and just unless sin were punished according to its deserved punishment and in such a way as to satisfy fully his holiness. He must now exact that penalty for their sin in order to remain true to Himself. He must become their Judge and pronounce upon them the curse which sin earned.

“But He had made the human race for Himself and his own glory. He could not willingly stand by and condemn it either to destruction or to eternal separation from Himself for He loved it with an everlasting love. God’s holiness compelled Him to become a Judge but his love compelled Him to become a Redeemer. If his union with the human race had been broken through the first man’s disobedience, He would send another Man to reestablish it through his obedience. If the race had been ruined through the first man’s sin it should be redeemed through the second Man’s Saviourhood. Thus God assumes a twofold relationship to Adam and Eve in their sin: that of a Judge and that of a Redeemer. The promise of a Saviour and the pronouncement of a doom were made. Both promise and pronouncement must be fulfilled.” (Ruth Paxson, Life on the Highest Plane, p. 46)

So, in Eden, we see God seeking the sinner who was hiding from Him because of his sense of guilt and shame with its resulting fear.

Genesis 3:9

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

“What a marvelous unveiling of the infinite, abounding grace of God! A wounded, wronged God seeking a guilty, ungodly sinner! The Lord God taking the initiative to bring Adam and Eve back home to Himself And this is but the opening scene in the continuous unfolding of God’s infinitely gracious dealings with fallen humanity from that hour to this.” (Paxson, Life on the Highest Plane, p. 47)

God now brings Adam and Eve face to face with the fact and guilt of their sin and gives them a fair, full opportunity to confess it. But instead of a sorrowful, brokenhearted confession, out came a cowardly, halfhearted confession mixed with excuses and shifting of responsibility.

Yet, here again, the surpassing riches of God’s grace show forth in his giving them the promise of a Savior.

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.”

God told these guilty sinners (who were soon to be banished from His presence), that He would open a way of access to Himself for them and the human race, through the suffering of another.

“Having now given vent to his infinite mercy and love in the gracious promise of a Saviour, God does full justice to his holy nature and his holy law in pronouncing a curse upon their sin. The God of all grace becomes the sinner’s Judge. Sweat, suffering and sorrow are the awful consequences of sin. Then comes the sentence of death, for “the wages of sin is death,” and the banishment from God’s presence.

Genesis 3:19

“In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:23-24

²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Paxson, Life on the Highest Plane, p. 47)

God dealt with the sinner in grace, but He will now deal with Satan in wrath. There can be no mercy displayed here. In Eden, Satan had challenged God’s right to the ownership of and the dominion over his own creation. Therefore, the issue between God and Satan was far more serious.

Due to Adam and Eve’s having yielded to sin, God lost His sovereignty over the world and the race. This insult and treachery have to be dealt with according to their deserved punishment. 

War is declared by God Himself against this arch-rebel which He will fight to the finish and in which He will show no mercy! God prophesies an age-long conflict and pronounces an eternal doom.

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.”

There will be no reprieve from this sentence of eternal enmity.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Gracious God, thank You for the promise of a Savior to our sinful parents. We are grateful to live in a time where that promise has been fulfilled. Indeed, Jesus’ heel was bruised but, in that bruising, He was victorious over Your enemy.

In Him

Marion