Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Genesis 3:20-21
From behind them comes the gentle sound of a bleating lamb. He is led before them bound by a scarlet cord. He stood before them so innocent and white, that is until the blood began to pour from the wound suddenly struck at his throat. It happened so quickly they did not have time to fully comprehend what was happening. In the next moment, his spindly knees buckled beneath him as he fell, lifeless into the pooling red around him.
Adam and the woman felt their own breath escape; their own legs threaten to betray them. Burdened by their remorse they watched this innocent one suffer the fate they knew they deserved. Slowly they began to understand what was happening. God had provided a substitute.
Death.
Horrible, wretched and final. They wept as they watched the LORD God fashion garments for them from the lamb’s delicate skin; the scent of his essence lingered on the wool, still warm. Their nakedness was covered once again. It was not completely sufficient in God’s economy, but atonement had been made and it was sufficient for now. That is, until the time the final, ultimate Sacrifice would come.
Today, death will not visit Adam and his wife. Today, another took their place.
Suddenly, the vision of God’s masterful plan begins to dawn in the recesses of Adam’s mind.
Adam looks to his wife, who from the time she had been fashioned from his side has been called “Ishshah”, which simply means woman. But now, he looks to her and calls her by a new name.
“Eve”.
The Serpent takes a step back. He stares in utter disbelief at the two humans who stand living and breathing before him! He too, is trying to process and calculate what he is witnessing. The man has just been given the curse of death, a curse that is attached to him and his seed, and yet has the audacity to give his wife a name that means life!?
He had sorely underestimated the depth of God’s Love for the creatures made in His image. His plan had been wrecked by God’s Grace toward them, a concept altogether foreign to him. And the whole substitutionary sacrifice thing was something he could not have divined had he tried for a millennium. And now THIS! He could feel his rage building. His claws dug nervously into the dust beneath him.
Adam understands that in a spiritual sense, the Serpent has become his “father”. He has fallen, his spirit darkened, the curse of sin and death had been placed upon him, and consequently, to the sons and daughters that would come after him. In this way, Adam’s seed had become “the seed of the serpent”.
But as the light begins to dawn upon Adam, he realizes that none of this is true of Eve.
It is true that Eve herself will face the consequence of death because she partook of the fruit of the forbidden tree, for disobeying the direct command of God and purposefully leading her husband into the same folly. Yes, for this, she will one day suffer physical death as Adam will.
But the curse of sin and death are not attached to her seed!
Her seed holds the hope of man’s Redemption. Her seed carries the promised reckoning for the Serpent. Adam looks to her and calls her by her new name, Eve, which means life, because she will be the mother of all the living. No, the curse of death is not attached to her seed nor to the seed of the daughters that come after her.
This can only mean one thing, for there is only one way a child of Eve could live forever. He could not be the son of Adam…
He would have to be the Son of God.
And Adam starts to see God’s perfect plan of Reconciliation unfold in his mind’s eye. One day, a daughter of Eve will produce another heir for the Kingdom of God, another Son of God who will do what he has failed to do. God Himself will provide the substitute who, with His own human blood, will cover their sins once and for all, who will come to die the death he should have died, who will pay the price he should have paid. A Son of Man and a Son of God who will deliver the crushing blow of vengeance to the Serpent, and who will deliver mankind from sin and death to eternal life once and for all.
“So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:18-19