The Gospel & Salvation: The Religion of Divine Accomplishment

The Religion of Divine Accomplishment

Genesis 3:15, 21

 We are still in a series we started right after the first of the year. It is a series focused on the gospel and salvation. This series is taking us through the basics of the gospel and salvation. There isn’t a more important topic. The gospel is the good news of God’s offer of salvation. The gospel is also Satan’s favorite topic to distort. The deceiver knows that if he can alter the gospel, and remove the truth of man’s need for rescue from sin, he can lead people to hell. Personally, as the pastor of this church, I tremble at the thought of standing before God and giving an account for how I did as the shepherd of this flock and finding out that there were some of you were not truly saved because you did not know the true gospel.

The gospel is good news for sinners. We are all sinners because we all sin. Paul makes it clear in Romans 3:10, “There is none righteous, not even one.” We spent several weeks looking at the passage that tells us where sin began. We have looked at Genesis 3 to understand the cause of sin and the consequences of sin. All those messages are on the church’s website and I would encourage you to go and listen to any you may have missed. I cannot emphasize too much the need to plug into this study and give it your undivided attention.

After having spent several weeks understanding the sin problem, we turned last week to begin to look at the solutions to the problem. I said “solutions” in the plural, but the reality is that there is only one solution. Last week we looked at the solutions that don’t work. There are many man-made solutions to the sin problems that do not save us from sin. We called them “fig leaf solutions.” We went back to Genesis 3 to see what the first couple did immediately after they sinned. They knew they were naked so they sewed fig leaves together to make loin coverings for themselves. Fig leaf solutions fall under the category of religions that all embrace the possibility of salvation through human achievement. 

We said last week that there are basically only two religions in the world. The false religions are all religions of human achievement. They teach that man can earn a right standing before God through some avenue of human effort. We looked at Luke 18 last week at a really good example of the failure of all religions of human achievement. If the Jews could not achieve a solution to the sin problem through the keeping of the Law of God, what other religion would have a better chance? Among the Jews there was a rich young ruler who came to Jesus asked, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” His question reveals the fact that he knew he did not have eternal life. It also reveals the fact that he genuinely believed that eternal life was achieved by what he did. He mistakenly believed it was dependent upon what he achieved. The rich young ruler could not do enough to appease the wrath of God that will fall on all sinners. The Jews had distorted the salvation of Abraham, which was salvation by faith. They distorted the truth of the Old Testament and made their religion just another of the many religions of human achievement.

All false religions are religions of human achievement. They are fig leaf solutions that do not save. We know they don’t work any better than the first couple’s attempts with the fig leaves. Even after the first couple covered themselves with fig leaves they still hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. They really had no other choice because their effort had not solved the sin problem. It could not solve the sin problem.

This morning I want us to go back to Genesis 3 one more time. I want to go there again because in this remarkable chapter we not only have the record of the origins of sin and the devastating consequences of sin, and the record of the first human attempt to solve the sin problem, we also find the first promise of the solution for sin. God intervened quickly in the history of sinners. He didn’t wait until Jesus came to begin to save sinners. God began the work of redemption immediately after the man and woman fell into sin.

This work is found in Genesis 3. This work began with a promise of a solution. Not only is there the promise of the solution, there is evidence regarding the first participants, or those who believed the promise and were rescued from sin. Finally, there is a picture of what the solution would look like. There is a picture that shows vividly how the solution is applied. So, for our edification and to set the context for the message, let’s read the first 21 verses of Genesis 3 together. Stand with me please as we read God’s word once again.

We find the promise of a solution in verse 15. “And 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.” We need to understand the promise. We will also see the evidence of the first participants who believed in the promised solution. This is found in verse 20. “Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.” And then we get the picture of the solution in verses 21. “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” Let’s first seek to understand the promise of the solution. For this we will focus on verse 15.

During the time of temptation in the first seven verses, there was something that transpired that became a critical factor in the Fall of the woman to Satan’s scheme. Satan, through the serpent, sowed seeds of doubt in her mind about God. By twisting God’s word and through subtle suggestions, Satan slowly but surely turned her heart away from trusting God and brought her to the point of trusting him. She went from trusting only in God, to distrusting God, to trusting in Satan.

This happened because Satan convinced the woman that God had lied to her. He said, “You surely will not die!” “God lied to you.” He was working to destroy her trust in God and to convince her that really, only he could be trusted. Satan reinforces his argument by accusing God of being an unreasonable tyrant. In verse 5 he tells her, “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Satan is undermining and ultimately destroying her trust in God. God doesn’t want anyone to be like Him because He doesn’t want any competition. As long as He alone is God He can keep you suppressed and in bondage. God is hold you back. But if you will eat of the fruit you will be like God. So she ate, and she fell into sin.

The woman’s devotion and loyalty was now to Satan. She had turned from devotion and loyalty to God and had chosen to become the friend of Satan. She is now following Satan. This makes her the enemy of God. No one can be the friend of Satan without becoming the enemy of God. Satan knew he now had the woman’s heart. She was his. If she permanently maintains loyalty to Satan she would lead even her offspring to pursue loyalty to Satan. If she and all her offspring follow the same path, there would never be any hope of a solution to sin’s problem. 

Satan hoped that the consequences of mankind’s fall into sin would have the same permanent results as his own fall from glory. Satan and the angels who fell with him will never have any hope of redemption. Their fate has been forever sealed. Satan hoped that this would be the same result for the woman and the man who he had deceived and led to rebel against God. God makes it clear immediately that this would not be the case. Mankind would have the hope of redemption that would never be available to the fallen angels. The first indication of the hope of redemption was that God put enmity between the woman and Satan.

The enmity between God and the woman would not stand as a permanent reality because God intervened. The first aspect of the divine solution was the creation of a deep animosity between the woman and Satan. God would sovereignly overrule her decision to choose loyalty to Satan. God would ultimately prevent the plan of Satan from working. The woman had turned from God to become loyal to Satan but God reversed this decision and put enmity between Satan and the woman. This is an act of grace.

This is the first promise of conversion. This is the first promise that the woman will experience salvation. This is the promise that she would repent, and that redemption would come to her and that a Redeemer would come through her seed. She would repent by turning away from her loyalty to Satan. Rather than loyalty to Satan there would be enmity. This is the first step of salvation according to the true religion of divine accomplishment. God intervened and changed the nature of the fallen woman’s relationship to her new master, Satan.

But it didn’t stop with the woman only. This enmity is between Satan and the woman, and between Satan’s seed and her seed. What does it mean when God speaks of “your seed?” He was speaking to Satan, so he was referring to Satan’s seed. This doesn’t mean that Satan will be fathering children. However, the unregenerate of humanity would be his seed. The unregenerate are the children of Satan. Remember the words of Jesus in John 8:44. He said to the disbelieving Jews, “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.”

The reality is that all who are not the redeemed children of God are the children of Satan. Satan is the god of this world and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Ephesians 2 describes him as the prince of the power of the air. The spirit of Satan is the spirit working in the sons of disobedience. This makes them, by nature, children of wrath. Satan’s seed includes all who will not bow the knee and come to Christ and receive the offer of salvation through repentance and faith.

Look now at the end of verse 15. “He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Who is “he?” He will be One from the line of the woman. This narrows it down to one individual. This special One from her seed was going to deliver a fatal blow – a bruise to the head, while Satan would be able to do no more than bruise Him on the heel. 

This is none other than Jesus Christ. Jesus is uniquely from the seed of the woman. No earthly man contributed anything at the time of the conception of Jesus. He is uniquely the offspring of only the woman because He was born of a virgin who was found to be with child by the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us that we are all sinners as the descendants of the man, Adam. If a sinful man had contributed, then Jesus would have been sinful. Jesus is the virgin born sinless Son of God. He was the seed of the woman. This is the promise of a virgin born descendant who would come and crush the head of Satan.

It was through Christ’s sacrificial death for sinners that the heel of the woman’s seed was bruised and where the head of Satan was crushed. The sacrifice of Christ on the Cross for sinners was the death blow to Satan.

Verse 15 gives us the promise of a solution to the problem of sin. This is clearly a solution that is consistent with the true religion of divine accomplishment, not human achievement. The woman did nothing to deserve this divine intervention that turned her heart from being loyal to Satan to believing in the promised seed. This is redemption initiated by God and accomplished by God. This is the earliest manifestations of the true religion of divine accomplishment.

Now let’s look at the second part of this. We have seen the promise of a solution. Now let’s look at the participants in the solution. The man and the woman who first fell into sin were the first partakers of the solution. They were the first beneficiaries of God’s promised solution. They were the first to experience redemption as true believers in the religion of divine accomplishment. We see this in verse 20. “Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.”

This verse is so much more important and significant than simply giving us the name of the woman. Adam gave his wife the name Eve. Up to this point she has been “woman.” After the curse and the promises of the solution God gave in the middle of the curse, Adam embraced the hope of that promise. He believed in the promise of God to bring the solution from the offspring of the woman. The name he gave her means “life.” Eve means “life.” At the time he gave her that name there had been no offspring. It was just the two of them. By naming his wife “Eve”, or “life,” Adam affirms his faith in the promise of the solution. Adam named her Eve because he believed in the promise of God to bring from her the One who would deal the crushing death blow to the head of Satan.

This is an indication of faith on Adam’s part. I believe this is evidence of his conversion. He had trusted and believed God up until the time his wife disbelieved and disobeyed. His subsequent disobedience was evidence that he no longer believed and trusted God. But now we have evidence that Adam does believe and trust in the promise of God regarding the solution to come from Eve. He names her life because she was to be the mother of all the living. Giving her this name testifies to the reality of his faith. 

Salvation in the true religion of divine accomplishment has always been according to faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Adam heard God’s words of promise and he believed. He has been saved. He is now a redeemed believer. He has repented of his sin and turned away from Satan to God.

The only true religion is the religion of divine accomplishment. The religion of divine accomplishment, even from the earliest pages of Genesis, has been the religion of what God does to save sinners and man’s faith in God’s promised solution. It never involves man’s contribution. It is accepted by faith. As you move forward in Genesis you come to Abraham. Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:3 tell us that “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Here in Genesis 3:20 is the evidence that Adam believed God. It was also credited to him as righteousness. James tells us that genuine saving faith will be accompanied by good works. The first evidence of Adam’s genuine saving faith is the naming of his wife “Eve” because he believed she would bring life, not death.

So there was the promise of a solution. The man and the woman were the first partakers, or participants who believed in the solution. As we come to verse 21 we come to the first picture of the solution to sin. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture is priceless. This is a picture of the work of salvation provided in the true religion of divine accomplishment. 

God clothed the first couple. This is an act of grace. He had told them that in the day they ate from the forbidden tree, they would die. God extends grace. They were not killed, but they were clothed. They were covered. God accomplished what they had so inadequately attempted with the fig leaves.

The work of salvation is pictured here. This introduces us to the doctrine of atonement. In order to cover the guilty sinner, an innocent substitute had to die. God made garments, not of cotton, not of wool. God didn’t simply shear the sheep and weave the fabric for the clothing that covered the sinners. That would not adequately picture what man needed to understand about the promised solution. To clothe the sinners God made garments of skin. This means that an innocent animal was killed and it was skinned. This required the shedding of innocent blood to provide a covering that would be adequate.

This is a picture of the work of salvation. Salvation is not achieved through fig leaf solutions, or anything man achieves through human effort. Salvation is accomplished through the sovereign work of God, who sacrifices a blood sacrifice as a substitute. Something dies in the place of the deserving sinner. That which dies provides the covering for man’s sin. The blood of the innocent atones for the sin of man.

Adam and Eve believed in the promise of a solution through the seed of the woman. They believed this would deal the death blow to the head of Satan. The evidence of this faith is seen in the naming of the woman a name that means “life.” Because they believed, God atoned for their sin and sacrificed a substitute. Adam and Eve have been restored, regenerated, redeemed. They are again friends of God, no longer allies of Satan. They have repented and believed and their sin has been forgiven. They have been the beneficiaries of the atonement provided through an innocent substitute.

This was the couple’s first experience with death. Up until this point nothing had died. The very first death was the death of the innocent animals that were slain to provide their clothing. The first death was a perfect picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was God’s perfect Lamb, slain from before the foundations of the world. Jesus is the ultimate and only perfect atoning sacrifice adequate to cover the sins of those who come to faith in Him.

Animal sacrifice became the standard. In Genesis 4, both brothers brought a sacrifice. Only Abel’s was acceptable to God. Only Able brought a blood sacrifice. He brought the firstling of the flock. Abel offered the blood of an innocent substitute. He knew this was what was required to atone for his own sin. Able is called “Righteous Abel” in Matthew 23:35. He believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.  He was a sinner who understood his need for atonement. He offered the sacrifice in faith. He had been taught by his father Adam the principles of faith in the shedding of the blood of an innocent substitute. 

All through the Old Testament there is the constant slaughter of innocent animals. These are all designed to picture the salvation promised and provided in the true religion of divine accomplishment. The Old Testament sacrifices pictured the necessity of an innocent substitute that had to die to take the place of guilty sinners. Those sacrifices bore the wrath of God which otherwise would have been poured out on the sinner. The innocent sacrifice died in the place of the guilty sinner. But these innocent substitutes, being animals, could not perfectly or permanently solve the sin problem.

Let’s turn to Hebrews 10. Here we have New Testament commentary which explains the limitations of an animal sacrifice as a substitute. Read Hebrews 10:1-18.

In the weeks ahead we will learn more of the promise, and we will see more of the picture. Our goal is to make sure we are all partakers, participants by faith in the promise that was pictured. Are you a true child of God through faith in Christ? Have you truly repented and trusted Christ alone? Are you still trusting in your own goodness as a person to earn you a right standing before God? If so, you still embrace the false religion of human achievement. It never saves. It cannot save. You need Christ alone. He is embraced through faith alone.

Let’s pray.