Theology for Everyone: Protoevangelium

By Zach Chronley

This article is the fourth in a new series called Theology for Everyone. We believe that theology is inherently practical, so in this series, we will be taking a deep dive into some doctrines of faith and discuss how they apply to our everyday lives. You can read our other articles here.

Genesis 3:14-16-

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

First Good News

In Genesis 3, we see the fallout of humanity disobeying God. With God as the judge, humanity is put on trial. But instead of a long and drawn-out case with twists and turns, we see God approached Adam and Eve as a father to his children, giving the equivalent of, “tell me what you did wrong.” God does punish the man, the woman, and interestingly, first the snake that tempted Eve. However, in the middle of this, God shares a word of hope that ultimately finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Here we see the first prophecy of a wounded Savior in the Bible. What scholars call the Protoevangelium (proto = first, Evangelium = good news). God had made himself clear what would happen if Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree. However, instead of immediate death as one would expect, God covers them.

Walter Brueggemann commenting on this passage, “Since chapter 2 (v.17), everyone has known that death follows guilt that violates the boundary. Perhaps the sentence of 3:8–19 is heavy. But it is less than promised, less than legitimate. The miracle is not that they are punished, but that they live. Graciousness in this narrative is not just in verse 21, after the sentence. God’s grace is given in the very sentence itself.”

Immediately before God has proclaimed the consequences for man’s sinful rebellion, he adds a message of hope. We see that God is already concerned with the restoration of humankind. This is an important reminder for us that God never abandons his people. While he may discipline us, he does so that he may save us. Do you believe that this is the character of God?

Adam and Eve did not need God to condemn them, they knew they stood condemned already. Before God pronounced any judgment, they were already experiencing the destructive power of guilt. They felt shame and tried to hide from a God they only ever knew to be loving. We don’t die as a result of God’s punishment. We die because of sin.

Descendant of Eve

The Bible declares that the wounded savior will be a descendant of the woman. Sometimes we take for granted that Jesus was thoroughly human. He spent thirty years of his life in obscurity. Eating meals, cleaning the house, and working a day job in manual labor. He had body odor, as well as bad hair days, stomach aches, and he even probably stubbed his toes.

More than that, Jesus experienced pain and evil firsthand, and though he never sinned, he still was tempted and experienced the emotional toll of fear, anger, and grief. He was confronted by the forces of evil more directly than anyone else ever will and was victorious. He obediently laid down his life and overcame death itself.  

Because of his humanity, we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb 4:15). He knows the pain of loss and he chose to lay down his own will before the Father. “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). Later, Jesus prays to the Father, “Not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:39).

The first human failed his temptation, but the true human, Jesus, overcame temptation and actually defeated it! Humanity’s original purpose was to co-rule with God over creation, and Jesus, despite everything working against him, was still exercising rule during his earthly ministry. He is the true king over all creation.

The Human vs the Snakes

If you were reading the Bible with no previous experience or awareness of where the narrative was going, verse 15 might make you believe that the Bible story is about human descendants fighting snakes. In a sense, it is, but maybe in a way you haven’t considered. Jesus revealed this truth when he called the unrepentant Pharisees’ a “brood of vipers” (Matt 12:34). He goes on to be more specific when he says in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.” When we were enemies of God, we were the “seed of the snake.”

Instead of literal snakes fighting humans, we see a beastly humanity failing to live up to its image-bearing status. And when the first worthy human is revealed, the “brood of vipers” crucified him. When considered this way, the storyline of the Bible is about humans versus snakes, but what we may have failed to realize is that before we were saved by Jesus, we all were snakes. Until Jesus showed up on the world’s scene, no one had ever lived up to the original purpose of humanity, but because of Jesus’ obedience through his death and resurrection on the cross, we all have access to join with Jesus in the new redeemed humanity.

And now the new life that Jesus brings restores us to humanity’s original calling, to co-rule God’s creation and to live forever with him. And now that we have been restored into the new humanity along with Christ and so we also are called to bring his kingdom here on earth.

The Good News

God gave us from the very beginning a message of hope that was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. It’s important as we continue the biblical narrative, that we see that God always had our salvation in mind. His purpose was from the very beginning, and that purpose was to create for himself a people. Sometimes it is the very worst things that happen to us that God uses to bring us back to him.

Jesus our savior was fully human as well as fully God. And his life and ministry show us the new way to be human. He alone fulfilled humanity’s original vocation of imaging God perfectly on this earth. Jesus has taught us a new way to be human, returning us to God’s rule and showing others that God restores his image in those who draw near to him.

And because of all this, whatever you may feel about having failed in the past, God is calling you into a new humanity of which he is the head. We can let go of our old sinful ways, as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:22-24). God is greater than your past and has given you hope and a future.