“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.” (Genesis 3:15 ESV)
Anticipation is simultaneously pleasant and painful. When we’re looking forward to something, we grow increasingly excited as the circled date approaches but also feel the angst of not yet having that which we so passionately desire. The hours cannot pass quickly enough until we reach the desired destination, but at the same time, the destination would seem anticlimactic without the anticipation that marked the path to its arrival.
There is perhaps no season in which this is truer than Christmas. The gifts, the tree, the lights, the snow, and the family gatherings arouse a uniquely acute excitement that lasts for weeks, if not months. For Christians, Christmas is more than a holiday from work and an opportunity to check some items off our gift wish list. It is, in a deeper sense, an Advent season. The word “advent” means arrival, and a moment of arrival necessitates a preceding period of anticipation. As German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Celebrating Advent means being able to wait.”
As people who struggle to wait even a few weeks for the arrival of Christmas Day, it is helpful to consider the weight of the millennia of waiting and anticipation which were consummated in the advent of Christ as the Messiah.
Genesis 3:15 is often called the protoevangelium, meaning “the first gospel.” It carries such a designation because it is the first mention of the redemptive work of God after the fall of mankind. These words, directed to the serpent, are God’s proclamation that he would initiate and complete the work of reconciliation to draw the elect out of the estate of sin and misery into which they had fallen. When we think of the gospel as the good news of salvation for sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, our minds should naturally be drawn not only to the cross and to the manger but also to the garden.
The redemption that was accomplished through the work of Christ is not an isolated event but exists within the providential work of God from eternity past to eternity future. In eternity past, the Father, Son, and Spirit covenanted together to save those given to Christ as his inheritance (John 17:9). That redemptive work was proclaimed in the garden, accomplished at the cross, and will be consummated at the eschaton.
Advent gives us an opportunity to remember the first coming of Christ and to look forward to the second coming of Christ, but it also gives us an opportunity to recognize the unity we have with all of God’s people at all times and in all places who have similarly waited for God’s promises to be fulfilled. Each has his or her own story of salvation which is rooted in the messianic work of Christ. However, each of us is equally united to the corporate body of Christ which will worship at the throne of the Lamb in glory. Advent is about waiting, and it reminds us that waiting has been a defining characteristic of God’s people from the beginning.
When Adam and Eve heard God pronounce the first gospel in Genesis 3:15, they were at the beginning of the line of God’s people who would wait roughly 4,000 years to see that promise fulfilled. We are roughly 2,000 years removed from the promise of Christ’s return, and we are still waiting. Among the many truths we remember at Advent, one of the most important is that God keeps his promises. Just as God fulfilled his promise to send his Son as the serpent crusher, he will fulfill his promise to send his Son as the rider on the white horse (Revelation 19:11).
The world often ridicules Christians for their extended waiting as if it is foolish. Peter said that in these last days false teachers would scoff by saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). Perhaps you have even doubted at times if indeed Christ would return as he said he would. To weather such mocking and doubts, look back to Genesis 3:15 and take comfort in seeing that promise fulfilled in the first coming of Christ. Advent serves as a resolute reminder that the hope on which we hang our faith is not vain. The Messiah came as God promised in Eden, and he will return as God promised at Christ’s ascension (Acts 1:11).
Christ came in the flesh, and he will come again in glory. Of this we can be assured. But for now, we wait.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
The life of faith is one of waiting. Teach us to wait patiently, trusting that your promise will prove true in your time. Give us keen anticipation of the glory that is coming, and may that anticipation give vigor to our faith as that day draws near.
In your Son’s name, amen.
Prayer Requests:
- Tuesday: Pray for and consider supporting missionaries serving with the South Asia Ministry Center.
- Wednesday: Pray for missionaries serving in the rural north bank of The Gambia River at the Ndungu Kebbeh Health Center.
- Thursday: Pray for missionaries serving with the Philippines Association of Baptists for World Evangelism.
- Friday: Pray for missionaries engaged in church leadership and pastoral training with Reaching Africa’s Unreached in Uganda.
- Saturday: Pray for fundraising efforts in the west-central Brazilian city of Sorriso that will provide missionaries with property to build a church building.
- Sunday: Pray for Live Global partners Aquila and Priscilla as they lead discipleship efforts in North Africa.
- Monday: Pray for teachers and students at the William Carey Academy in South Asia.
