The Seed (Part One)

There are two communities of humanity: the first are the righteous who love God, and the second, those who are evil and love self. Many of you who just read this first sentence are throwing your arms up in disgust and are in total disagreement. Stay with me. Jesus speaks of these two communities in John 8:31-32 speaking first to those who believed in Him, "If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Then in verse 44 he confronts the other camp, "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him." Then in 1 John 3:8-9 (see vv. 10-13 for further study) this idea is more clearly developed, "the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."

This is not a new concept to the New Testament, rather this is something that occurred from the very beginning of humanity when mankind fell in the garden. Even if you did not grow up in church, most are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and how the serpent tempted them to eat of the forbidden fruit and they caved. Both Adam and Eve gave into this temptation of the serpent and sinned because they wanted to be like God (selfishness). In Genesis 3:15 God confronts the serpent (Satan/Devil), and says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." Wow, prophecy already in the life of humanity? But this is more than a mere prophecy, this is the foretelling of the coming Messiah who will come from the seed of the woman and save all of her seeds to come (in a Spiritual sense). The word enmity means to go after with hostile intent. To murder. This is some harsh language and sets up a conflict in the life to come for the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (more to come on that in part 2).

This seed in which God is speaking means descendants. This is not in a bloodline sense, although Jesus birth can be traced back to Adam (Luke 3:23-32). After all, how could the serpent give birth to humans? This is speaking in a Spiritual sense in which even direct descendants from this bloodline are in different communities under different fathers. One will have spiritual inclinations toward God and the other reproduces unbelief. One will follow God and the other will not. You can follow this throughout all of the Bible, in fact, some would go so far as to say that the rest of the Bible after Genesis 3:15 is the unfolding of this very prophecy. The greater question for you today is "whose seed are you?"