ニューイングランドの母校からアドベントの便り、その28
2016 Gordon-Conwell
Advent Devotional | Day 29 |Primordial Promise
Genesis 3:15
When the Lord addressed the serpent in Eden, he also effectively gave our first mother a great promise: Her offspring would crush the serpent’s head. The serpent was “that ancient serpent, called the Devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray” (Rev. 12:9). The promised offspring would be the incarnate Son, as Scripture later reveals—“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14).
The primordial promise of the Son to be born, then, is also implicitly a promise of the Son in his first and second advents. His victory would come first by way of suffering—by way of Gethsemane, the cross and death (perhaps hinted at by the gift of myrrh), followed by resurrection—and finally in his return as Judge to restore all things.
The promise of Christmas is therefore a twofold promise—a promise of salvation but also of suffering. On this holy day it is good to rejoice, but also good to remember: Jesus was born to suffer and die in our place. The same Jesus invites us to take up our cross and follow him (Matt. 10:38; cf. Rom. 8:17). May we then celebrate this day, as a preacher from long ago once said, “with responsible joy.”
Dr. Jeffrey Niehaus
Professor of Old Testament
