The Gospel, Part Eight

A Devotional Series from Genesis

Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)

4/1 Reading Portions: Leviticus 4; Psalm 1-2; Proverbs 19; Colossians 2

Genesis 3:15

“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.”

JUDGMENT

Today’s devotional thought is not an April Fool’s joke. Moreover, I would be remiss in my joy as a Christian and as a retired pastor to write seven devotional thoughts concerning the gospel of Christ without touching upon judgment. Here we focus upon the Hebrew root שׁוּף (shoof), translated “bruise” in our English Bibles. As I mentioned in an earlier devotional thought (3/29/26, “The Gospel, Part Five”), shoof is a primitive root that means “to gape,” “to snap at,” or “to overwhelm,” and has been translated into English as “break,” “bruise,” or “cover.”

The bruise of Satan is not merely a curse upon his authority. It is also God’s judgment upon Satan’s person as a rebellious, self-absorbed fallen angel. We have already meditated upon his current curse. Let us now consider his ultimate judgment. One of the best ways to describe shoof as it relates to judgment is the English word “overwhelm.” Every human being since and including Adam have at least an inkling of our holy God’s wrath and judgment. It is written,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:18-20

Although we inherently possess a knowledge and understanding of God’s wrath and judgment, we cannot know the full extent of it. It is overwhelming to us. We are limited in being, and the Infinite God and His workings are far beyond our finite comprehension (Rom 11:33). The overwhelming judgment of Satan cannot be conceived in our puny minds, and simply described by the Lord Jesus as an eternal fire prepared by the tri-une God for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). This will also be the final disposition of all those who have opposed God, whether actively or passively in unholiness (Rev 19:20; 20:10, 14-15; 21:8).

Some of judgement’s overwhelming characteristics are illustrated in God’s judgment upon the earth during the days of Noah (Gen 6-9). The floodwaters covered the entire earth about 25 feet above the highest mountain (Gen 7:20). Yet, this was only a glimpse of God’s judgment. There is a great tribulation that will precede the Lord’s return that will be a time the world had never seen nor will ever see again, according to the Lord Jesus (Matt 24:21). Nevertheless, neither of these two events will sufficiently capture God’s wrath and judgment. For the greatest and most severe display of God’s wrath and judgment was seen upon the earth when it was poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, the same Hebrew root, shoof, was not only used for Satan in Genesis 3:15, but also for the promised Messiah, “her Seed” (KJV); that is, the virgin-birth incarnation of God’s Son.

No, we cannot conceive of the full sufferings of Christ Jesus when He hung upon the cross. Jesus, as the sinless, perfect Son of God upon the earth, had complete, unbroken, and intimate fellowship with the heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit; such that when He suffered God’s wrath for sins He did not commit, paying a debt He did not owe for a debt we owe and cannot possibly pay, no human being on earth, before or since, including Adam before his fall, could never know the disparity between the love of God and the wrath of God as what Jesus experienced on the cross. Our minds cannot conceive of how He suffered the infinite and eternal justice of God for three hours upon a tree, except to know—by God’s grace through the Holy Spirit—that He was indeed the God-Man. Were all of humanity, and all devilish angels who followed Satan in his rebellion, to suffer for our individual sins committed against a holy God, the combined torment for all eternity could not compare with what Jesus suffered before His death as a Man followed by a spear piercing His side for the shedding of blood to forgive sins.

This is the true and eternal act of divine love, as it is written,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

And again,

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:32-39

Hallelujah! What a Savior!