A Strange Battle
“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3:15)
This seems a rather strange hostility. That’s what enmity means, “openly hostile.” We should know an enemy when we see one. We should understand what needs to be done against him. If World War 2 taught us anything, it was how to spot a terrible foe. Yet, in this battle, we love and hate our enemy at the same time. So how much enmity is there, really?
Satan comes and allures us with things enticing to the flesh. And we reach, we take, we eat. Only to find it was rotten at its core, laced with an awful aftertaste. (Heb. 11:25) Now, not only sick, but fatally poisoned, Satan comes again. And we fall for it. Again. Why? Because there’s something addictive about that poison. And the pleasure it gives must somehow exceed the bitterness it brings because we willingly go deeper into it. (Jer. 17:9) Fallen humanity is an abused spouse. We hate the pain the devil brings but love to go back for his pleasures. Sin is the soul’s opium. And natural man is an abuser of it. We’re twisted. (Habk. 2:4)
However, there’s a difference, a distinction made in the Word of God between the believer and the unbeliever. Paul tells us in Romans 7 that by a new principle within (v.22), a standard has been raised against the enemy (Isa. 9:19), and the new man is now actively warring against the old. He now loves his sin in a new and glorious way. He loves to hate it. (Rom. 8:13)
So, there’s true enmity now between Satan’s old ways and the believer’s new. A war has begun. A war to end all wars, so to speak. Enabled by the indwelling Spirit, the Christian wages numberless conflict in the greater battle. Even though his hands droop at times, his feet often falter, and a scrimmage or two is lost, the believer marches forward, staggeringly at times, leaning on his Savior’s arm. (Song 8:5)
Sin was the separating element. But Christ came in between. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim. 2:5) Therefore, He is the head-bruiser of our text. He is the enmity ender, (Col. 2:14), the peace maker, (Eph. 2:14), and the grand-reconciler (Col. 1:22) between God and man.
Has he made a difference for you?