Following the sin of Adam and Eve, God made the first promise of the coming Messiah. To the serpent, God said, “And 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) Immediately after their transgression, God announced a plan to bring about man’s and woman’s redemption from sin.  “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal. 4:4). Jesus was “her seed” and He came to crush the serpent. 

            1.         The Defeat of the Devil.  How did this “seed of woman” bruise the head of Satan? Conservative scholars have generally believed that the reference to Satan bruising Jesus’ heel was a reference to Christ’s death on the cross, while the reference to Christ bruising the head of Satan was a reference to His resurrection. In other words, the death of Christ was orchestrated by Satan, but compared to the death blow which Jesus delivered to the devil by His resurrection, it was like a heel wound. The devil was defeated by the empty tomb (Heb. 2:14, 15).

            2.         The Defeat of Darkness.  The Bible makes it clear that it was through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that Satan and his system was defeated. Christ has worked for us an astounding victory over the forces of evil. The curse of sin and the penalty of the law—death—was against us. God redeemed us from the Father’s judgment by His death, and from Satan’s power by His resurrection. Not only did He defeat the powers of darkness, but He made an open show of them, to the heavenly host and the earthly family(Col. 2:15). Through the word of the gospel, the whole world can know that Jesus has conquered Satan. 

            3.         The Defeat of Death.  “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”  (Heb. 2:14-15).  The death and resurrection of Christ accomplished for us a state of life where we do not have to be afraid. Every power which Satan held over us was defeated by Christ in His victorious resurrection. Through our faith in Christ’s death and resurrection, and our baptism into Christ, we take part in and benefit from the work which He did (Rom. 4:25; 6:3-4; Col. 2:11-12), and therefore we gain our victory through His accomplishments.

            We do not live in fear of the devil, of darkness, or of death—all because of the work that Jesus did. History is His story!  May our lips and lives forever proclaim His praises.