Judgment and Grace
Genesis 3:8–19
He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15

God passes sentence, beginning with the serpent through whom the sin originated: the serpent will crawl on its belly and eat “dust,” i.e., the dust of frustration. We do not know what the serpent looked like before this judgment, though he must have been a beautiful and upright creature. Nor do we know precisely when the judgment here pronounced was executed, though it was probably at this point. What we can know is the horror of Adam and Eve as they heard the voice of God and witnessed the terrifying transformation of this once beautiful creature into the hissing, slithering, dangerous creature we know as a snake today. They must have recoiled in mortal fear, recognizing that God had every right to pronounce this same or even a more terrible judgment on them. They must have expected that he would do so, and the devil must also have expected this judgment. It was for this that he had tempted the man and the woman.

But instead—how unsearchable are the judgments and ways of God—grace intervenes. It is true that there is judgment, of a sort. The woman is given pain in childbearing; the man is to gain a livelihood through the sweat of his brow. But immediate physical death is postponed. And before even these more limited judgments are pronounced, God speaks the promise of a coming one who shall be the deliverer: “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.”

It seems to me that the fact that God does not actually say “guilty” in his words to Adam and Eve is of great importance. Had he declared our two parents to be guilty at that point, judgment in its fullest form must inevitably have followed. The man and woman would have suffered immediate banishment from God to hell, and their torment would have been endless. But God did not pronounce that verdict. He postponed it, as courts sometimes do. And when he pronounced it later, he did so not on Adam and Eve or their descendants, but on Jesus Christ who bore the punishment for all who would believe on him as Savior.

If you are in Christ by saving faith, the verdict of guilty that should have been pronounced on you has been pronounced on Christ. He bore your punishment. He “descended into hell” in your place. If you are not in Christ, that verdict remains to be spoken and indeed will be spoken against you at the final judgment.