THE SCARLET THREAD OF REDEMPTION
Part 1 – THE SEED OF THE WOMAN
“All of the Bible is about Jesus and about His blood redemption. There are two threads that run all the way through the Bible. One is the scarlet thread of blood redemption; the other is the golden thread of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how wonderful it is to trace both of these all the way through the Bible.”
– Adrian Rogers
In the course of the next two months, we will trace the red river of redemption through the Scriptures from the Old Testament into the New Testament. You will see a few of the many prophecies of a Messiah – a Redeemer. Who would pay for the sins of fallen man – and their fulfilment centuries later in Jesus Christ. Beginning in the Garden of Eden with the first prophecy and continuing through Revelation, the blood of Jesus is revealed over and over to be our Scarlet Thread of Redemption
There are so many prophecies and their fulfilment that we could fill
volumes. But the one thing they all have in common is that they are all about Jesus. Indeed, the entire Bible is about Jesus. The Old Testament says, “Behold, He comes. The Gospels say, “Behold, He dies.” The book of Acts says, “Behold, He lives.” The Epistles say, “Behold, He saves.” The Revelation says, “Behold, He reigns.”
That’s Jesus! The entire Bible, Old and New, is about the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, Jesus is the Last Adam, whom the first Adam prefigured. Jesus is a Prophet like Moses, a Priest like Aaron, a Champion like Joshua, an Offering like Isaac, a King like David, and a Counsellor like Solomon, Jesus is Heaven’s Bread Supplier – a beloved, rejected, exalted Son like Joseph.
Jesus is the Arc of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat, and the Sanctuary. He is the Water from the rock, the Manna from the sky, the Brazen Serpent lifted up for our sins. He is the Passover Lamb, the Scapegoat that carries away our sins. He is the Lion of Judah, the Good Shepherd, and the Lily of the Valley. He is the One without form or comeliness and yet altogether lovely. His name is Jesus.
As you read these prophecies and their fulfilment along with Dr. Rogers’ explanations, we want to encourage you to not only see Jesus from Genesis to Revelation, but to know Him. If you read the Bible and don’t see Jesus, read it again, because you missed the message. Without Him all these things become a dead-end road, leading to nowhere.
SEED OF A WOMAN – Prophecy Proclaimed: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise His heel (Genesis 3:15).” Prophecy Fulfilled: “But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Galatians 4:4a).”
Do you know where to find the first prophecy in the Bible? It’s found in the book of Genesis, there on the threshold of the Bible. It is called by theologians the proto evangelium, which means the first evangelistic message. A battle is prophesied here. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent will battle throughout all history. Not only is a battle prophesied, but also a birth is prophesied. In the Bible the word “seed” is used more than 100 times, and it always refers to the offspring of a male. But in this passage, God speaks concerning the woman, “the seed of the woman.”
This strange passage used to puzzle the old rabbis. They would scratch their heads and wonder why the Scripture said it was the seed of the woman. The seed comes from the man, not the woman. But in Genesis 3:15 it’s called the seed of the woman, and it is a prophecy of the virgin birth.
Not only are a battle and a birth prophesied, but also a bruising is prophesied. The seed of the serpent is going to bruise His heel, Messiah’s heel; but Messiah is going to crush his head. He’s going to put His heel on the serpent’s head and crush it. A virgin-born Child, a little Baby, the Seed of the woman is going to crush the serpent’s head.
Friend, when you have received that Child into your life, the victorious, risen Son of God, you have a power in you that is awesome. Praise God that the virgin-born Son of God, the Seed of a woman, has won the victory.
SON OF GOD – Prophecy Proclaimed: “I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son, This day I have begotten Thee (Psalm 2:7).” Jesus did not have His beginning in Bethlehem. You will find that John 1:1 explains that He was with God in the beginning. He merely came in the flesh at Bethlehem. Prophecy Fulfilled: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth…. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 1:14, 3:16).”
The Baby of Luke chapter one is the great God of Genesis chapter one. When He was born, He was as old as His Father and older than His mother. Had Jesus been born of earthly parents, He would have been a sinner as we are sinners. But He was not. Jesus was the sinless Son of God. Since the father gives the bloodline, we inherit our sin nature by Adam and from Adam. Some mistakenly believe that the bloodline is received from the mother, but that is not so. Often, people believe that the mother’s blood circulates throughout the baby’s body in the mother’s womb, but that is not so either. Not one drop of blood circulates between the mother and the child. It is the father who determines the bloodline, and it is the father who gives characteristics to that blood.
So, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? God is His father. I want to tell you, the blood that courses through the veins of the Lord Jesus Christ is the royal, sinless, pure blood of God. However, even though
this little Baby was/is God does not diminish His humanity one bit. He is as much man as if He were not God at all, and as much God as if He were not man at all. He is not half-God and half-man. He is not all God and no man nor all man and no God. He is the God-man, fully God and fully man.
And thank God for loving us enough to send His own Son, the very Son of God, to this world that we might know Him.
Oscar