“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15).
Some refer to Genesis 3:15 as the gospel in embryo or embryonic form (similarly Genesis 3:15 is a true gospel mustard seed or acorn). True gospel simplicity is seen, not only in its seed form, but also in its growth and progress into a great tree, spreading out and multiplying all of its magnificent branches. But — and this is of infinite importance — this growth and progress proceeds from a TRUE, PURE, and INCORRUPTIBLE seed, NOT from a CORRUPTIBLE seed; the outgrowth or outworking is from the Seed of the woman, not the seed of the serpent (Galatians 3:16).
“But the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his Seed. It does not say, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to your Seed, which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16).
“being regenerated, not by corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the living Word of God, and remaining forever” (1 Peter 2:23).
“Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know [these things] before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace and [in] the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him [be] glory both now and for ever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:17-18).
True believers are NOT regenerated through that corruptible seed which, to Paul, was accursed (Galatians 1:8-9); they do NOT begin with a corrupt seed and then “grow into” an incorruptible seed. They begin with the incorruptible seed and then branch out from there (cf. 2 Peter 3:17-18). True Christians DO grow in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18), but this growth results from first having been called “out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Their growth flows from the regenerating LIGHT of the knowledge of Christ’s redemptive glory, NOT from the pitch black darkness of blindness and ignorance of the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel (Romans 10:1-4).
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:3-7).
“Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, I am the Light of the world. The [one] following Me will in no way walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
True believers follow the Light of the world from the outset — that is, they follow Jesus as an immediate and inevitable result of having the regenerating “light of life” (John 8:12; 2 Corinthians 4:6). They do NOT begin their Lighted-lives believing in the false christ of 2 Corinthians 11:4 (e.g., Unitarianism, Arminianism, Calvinism) and then progress or “grow into” the true Jesus of 2 Corinthians 4:6.
To quote again:
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15).
Arminians and most Calvinist-Reformed have taught that Jesus Christ “made satisfaction” (in one sense or other) for everyone without exception. The necessary implication of this damnable scheme is that the seed of the serpent triumphs over the seed of the woman; this fashionable, pervasive, and pernicious doctrine among Arminians and Calvinists alike is of antichrist — these false religionists deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh to establish an everlasting righteousness that ensures and demands the salvation of ALL WHOM CHRIST REPRESENTED. The CCF states:
“Immediately upon the first sin of Adam and Eve, God gave out this gospel as a promise to the serpent (for the benefit of the Church) that He would cause one of Eve’s descendants to destroy the work of the devil. From the first giving of this promise until its consummation in Jesus Christ, God has given no new gospel. All the saints from the beginning of creation have believed this gospel.” (Christian Confession of Faith, V.B.2.)
As even an unbelieving poet has writ:
“Nor did the Articles of Faith therefore increase according to the succession of times in respect to their ESSENCE, but only in respect to their EXPLICATION” (William Ames, The Marrow of Theology; emphasis mine).
Genesis 3:15 presents the true gospel in seed or embryonic form. Indeed it can (and should) be unpacked, expounded, expanded, explicated. However — and this is of crucial and eternal weight — in true gospel expounding the essence of the embryo remains incorruptible and unadulterated and true.
But in false gospel expounding (e.g., tolerant Calvinism) the embryonic essence remains what it always has been — which is evil corruption, deceitfully transforming itself and masquerading as the incorruptible and true (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
From the Christian Confession of Faith (CCF):
“The gospel is God’s promise to save His people, giving them all the blessings of salvation from regeneration to final glory, conditioned exclusively on the atoning blood and imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, totally apart from the sinner’s works and efforts. It reveals the righteousness of God — how God is just to justify the ungodly based on the work of Jesus Christ alone. The gospel is not merely the fact that Jesus lived, died, and rose again, considered apart from the purpose of these truths, which were accomplished to establish a righteousness for all whom Jesus represented” (CCF, V.B.1.).
Agrammatos 