Archives for February 2025

“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.” (Genesis 3:15)

This verse is generally recognized as the proto evangelium (first gospel). It is a promise by God that someday Satan will be crushed. It comprises a cursing and promise. The cursing is enmity and the promise is bruising. The concepts of promise and cursing are related to the idea of covenant. Christians should not be confused by or afraid to think in covenantal terms. It is biblical to think in such a way. Yet most Christians seem unable to define what a covenant means in Scripture.

The Bible indicates over and over again that God has entered into covenant relationships with people. God made a covenant with Noah (Gen. 6:18), with Abraham (Gen. 15:18), with Israel (Ex. 24:8), and with David (Ps. 89:3). Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant (Jer. 31:31–34). Our Lord expressed himself at the last supper in covenant language (Luke 22:20). O. Palmer Robertson defines a covenant as “a bond in blood sovereignly administered” (The Christ of the Covenants, p. 4). He means a life and death relationship. When God enters into a covenant, it has to do with life and death. A covenant is all about relationship—between God and man. To break a covenant with God is to disregard with impunity what God has deemed sacred or inviolable. We speak of marriage in this way because God has defined marriage as between one man and one woman without any divorce (Gen. 2:24; Mark 10:6–9). Marriage is defined by God as binding because it is God who does the joining. This covenant idea in marriage today is disregarded, not only by unbelievers, but also by believers. Marriage is thus viewed by God in terms of life and death. It is death only that breaks a marriage (Rom. 7:2, 3; 1 Cor. 7:10, 11, 27, 39). [Read more…] about You Shall Bruise His Heel…He Shall Bruise Your Head

“…but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)

There is a matchless wonder and beauty in the first two chapters of Genesis. The glorious powerful creation of God is manifestly displayed with the creation of man as the height and pinnacle of that creation. The focus on God as Creator cannot and must not be missed. But in Genesis 2:17 God introduces a negative, a prohibition. It is a warning with dire consequences. Those consequences are “you shall surely die.” 

I do not know if Adam truly grasped what that meant. The deception of Eve and the willingness by Adam to eat and thus disobey God suggest that they had not really probed or fully understood the ramifications of disobedience. This is true, of course, of all of us. It is simply a manifestation of unbelief. We just do not believe God. Sin always is painted as so attractive and beautiful in temptation that we are blinded to the ugliness and darkness and death inherent in it.

You would think that since we are on this side of the Fall we might know ourselves, but the reverse is true. We do not know ourselves. The only way we can know ourselves is through divine intervention. [Read more…] about In The Day That You Eat…You Shall Surely Die

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

The first three chapters of Genesis are absolutely foundational to the Christian faith. But for the past 160 years or so they have been under increasing attack and denial. These chapters are so critical and important that every Christian should make a serious study of them in order to be fully convinced in his or her mind. But convinced of what is the question. Convinced of the truth. Genesis 1 posits the belief that God made all things—everything that exists came from God. The entire universe was made by God. All animals, all plant life, and all humanity find their origin in God as their Creator and Sustainer. On Day 6, God created man (Gen. 1:26–29). He is called Adam. God also created Eve and gave her to Adam; she became his wife (Gen 2:23–25). Adam was given dominion over all animal and plant life (1:29, 30; 2:19, 20). He was to work the garden in which he was placed and was forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death (2:15, 16). When God had completed his creation he exclaimed that it was very good (1:31). These are the bare facts of the Genesis record (1:1–2:25). [Read more…] about Let Us Make Man In Our Own Image