The Seed of the woman has covered our shame.

 

Sermon for Invocavit, February 22, 2026

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The Seed of the woman has covered our shame.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            Our sermon text this morning is the first fifteen verses of our Old Testament reading from Genesis 3.  I reread just two verses at this time: “The Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal.  You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.  I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.  He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.“ (Genesis 3:14-15)

            For the past weeks, we have been reviewing the Ten Commandments as included in Luther’s Small Catechism.  This morning, we consider, The Conclusion of the Law.  When Luther wrote his catechism for the instruction of the people in the basic doctrines of Christianity, he used a passage as the conclusion of the law that is actually part of God’s explanation of the First Commandment, of which you are all familiar.  Therefore, what does God say about these commandments?  “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who also hate Me, and showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Exodus 20:5-6)

Luther then asked, “What does this mean?”  And he answered, “God threatens to punish all who transgress these commandments.  Therefore, we should fear his wrath and do nothing against these commandments. But he promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments.  Therefore we should also love and trust in Him and willingly do according to His commandments.”

We can rightly say that breaking any commandment also breaks the First Commandment.  Truly, to disregard God’s commands in any way is to distrust God.  It is putting our own desires and ideas above what God tells us is good and best for us and for our relationships with other people.

That brings us back to our sermon text, the account of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin in the Garden of Eden.  Our first parents were given one command by which they could honor their Creator: Do not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  This was the altar whereby Adam and Eve could worship the Lord God in faithfulness.  No other sacrifice was required.

That was by no means a burdensome command, nor did Adam and Eve have any desire to disregard God’s instruction at that point.  Still, we heard how the Tempter deceived first Eve, but also Adam with her.  Thus, in the devil’s deception, sin entered our world and death came with the sin.  That affliction of sin has carried down through every generation of mankind to this very day and will continue until the last child is born before Christ returns on Judgment Day.

Now, although most people might not be inclined to agree, the Law is a good thing for us.  It shows our sin and need for the Savior, shows the way for us to walk in order to live according to God’s will, and the natural law remaining in the hearts of almost all people does limit sin somewhat in society.  At the same time, we recognize that the law can do nothing to save us, for it always condemns, because we never fully obey it. 

Think about it, this morning we baptized a little girl barely a month old, and many people would consider this little baby girl to be innocent and incapable of sinning.  However, we love babies, so we will not deceive anyone about them.  King David wrote, “Certainly, I was guilty when I was born.  I was sinful when my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5)  I mentioned the natural knowledge of the law, and that does incline us to believe that there is a God and that we sin against Him, but we are born with no knowledge of who God is, or of how we might be reconciled with Him.  Therefore, everyone ever born, little babies no less, must have God intervene on their behalf in order to be saved.

Again, it is time to return to the account in our sermon text.  Not only did God declare the consequences that would befall man and woman because they listened to the Deceiver, but God began His just judgment there by speaking directly to that lying serpent, and in that statement of consequences God said, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed.  He will crush your head, and you will crush His heel.“  The law by itself could not reconcile us with God, but God didn’t abandon us when our first parents sinned.  Instead, God gave them the first hint of the Gospel.  You see, the Law tells us what we should do to please God, but it always condemns.  The Gospel on the other hand, tells us what God has done and will do to reconcile us with Himself through Jesus.  St. Paul wrote, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16)

In all honesty, none of us, including Adam and Eve, has any excuse for listening to the devil’s lies.  At the same time, since Adam and Eve fell, none of us has been able to be holy and at peace with God on our own.  We were each born infected with sin and therefore selfish, self-serving, self-centered rebels looking to do things how we want to do them.  If she hasn’t already, little Adalyn will soon be showing these tendencies, just like her brothers, and just like all the rest of us.

Therefore, there really is no substitute for the Savior God planned to send.  The ironic part is that the Holy, innocent Son of God entered our world as the Seed of the woman God promised in the Garden of Eden.  He came precisely to be our Substitute both in living a holy life in obedience of every last dot and tittle of the law, and in taking the death we each had earned for our rebellions against God.

Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Likewise, we might say that every action has consequences.  The consequences of sin are many: hurt feelings, broken relationships, certain diseases, wars, poverty, and ultimately death.  Especially, eternal death is the real consequence of sin that God warned Adam about.  Eternal separation from God in hell is what all people deserved because we all sin.

Thanks be to God, that is not a consequence God was willing to impose on His dear children, except for One.  As I already said, Jesus became our Substitute.  Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, innocent from conception until He breathed His last breath on the cross, had no cause to suffer hell, but He willingly gave His life on the cross and received in our place the torment of being forsaken by the Father which is hell’s torment.  Jesus did that all for you and me.  St. Paul later wrote, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

Dear friends, we come by sin naturally because we inherit a sinful nature from our parents.  Holiness needs to come to us through the gift of God.  On the great day of Pentecost, as Peter preached law to the crowds, and they cried out in their guilt, Peter told them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39) 

That is why her parents brought Adalyn to be baptized this morning, for they know that no one can believe without the work of the Holy Spirit and no one truly repents of sin, either, without the Holy Spirit first working faith in the heart.  And, contrary to what the natural mind might guess, faith is not a decision we make, but it is the gift of the Holy Spirit that brings forgiveness and salvation to poor sinners like you and me.  Forgiveness and salvation are given to us through faith as St. Paul so eloquently explained, “God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. … Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith―and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God―not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:4,5,8 & 9)

All of this goes back to God’s promise in the Garden when Adam and Eve first sinned.  God promised a Savior who would destroy Satan’s power over us, a Savior who would be born of a woman, a Savior who would suffer grievously to win our freedom from the curse of sin.  That Savior is Jesus, born of Mary, conceived of the Holy Spirit, who suffered, died, and rose again on the third day so that we might be redeemed from eternal condemnation and then adopted into God’s family through faith and the power of Baptism.  Talk about everlasting Good News, that “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  Truly, it is Good News that The Seed of the woman has covered our shame.  Amen.

May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and in His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.  Amen.