Genesis 3:15 — The Promised Seed

What it means

Spoken by God in the garden after Adam and Eve sinned, this verse is part of the curse pronounced on the serpent, yet for fallen humanity it is the first ray of hope in the whole Bible, rightly called the protoevangelium, the Gospel before the Gospel. God declares lasting enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between their two lines of offspring, promising that a coming seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head while the serpent strikes only His heel, a mortal wound to the tempter against a wound that does not destroy the Deliverer. The whole drama of redemption now moves forward as a contest between two seeds, traced through Seth, Abraham, Judah, and David toward the One who would finally come. It reveals a God who, even in the moment of judgment, binds Himself to rescue the people who have rebelled against Him.