Page 41 - The Divine Unfolding of God's Plan of Redemption

and that these very symbols were present and marred the head of the last Adam when
He hung on the cross to bear the sins of believers and the curse of the cosmos. There
He made reconciliation not only for all believers but for all things, animate and

inanimate (Col. 1:20).

The law of recompense seems to operate somewhat between man and nature. By
man‟s betrayal, nature falls under the curse, but the very symbols of the curse seem to

requite man by making it difficult for him to wrest a living from the ground! We are
happy for the assurance that when the last Adam returns to carry on in the kingdom
that He has redeemed, the marks of the curse in nature will be removed, and “The
creation also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious

liberty of the sons of God (Rom. 8:21).

The Lord God brought the curse on the dragon without ever allowing him to speak
for himself. The shining dragon became a writhing, legless serpent. Satan continues to

present himself as the dragon to symbolize his government. God presents him as the
serpent, the very incarnation of sin.

In the fifteenth verse comes the ray of light to the stricken pair, as God reveals that

as the culmination of an age-long warfare between the seed of the serpent and the seed
of the woman, the woman‟s special Seed should finally be victorious and deal the
death-blow to the head of the serpent. We shall speak in detail in the next chapter of
the deep significance of this important verse.

Adam‟s faith in the Redeemer who would proceed from the seed of the woman is
found in the name that he gave his wife (verse 20). Previously to this time no
procreative process had taken place. But God had said that it would be through the

seed of the woman that ultimate victory over the serpent would be achieved, with the
implication that the divine order would then be restored and his awful blunder
retrieved. In the depths of his humiliation and sorrow, he staked his faith and pinned
his hopes on the naked word of God, and turned to his wife, calling her

“Eve”—“Mother,” “Life-giver.” At that moment Adam was saved—saved by faith in
the Coming One, the same One who saves everyone that cometh to God by Him, the
Lord Jesus Christ.

As a result of this act of faith, we read that Jehovah God gave to Adam and his
wife coats of skins and clothed them. It is after we have trusted Him that the Holy
Spirit gives us the garments of Christ‟s righteousness to wear. “Without shedding of
blood is no remission of sins” is the unalterable principle of redemption. The

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