There’s a familiar Christmas carol which has a fourth verse we don’t often sing. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” concludes with these incredible words:
Come, Desire of nations, come! Fix in us Thy humble home:
Rise, the woman’s conquering Seed, bruise in us the serpent’s head;
Adam’s likeness now efface, stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above, reinstate us in Thy love.
I trust those last two lines strike you as especially meaningful after Tim’s sermon on Sunday. They are a direct echo of 1 Corinthians 15:45, 47 & 49: “Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit… The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven… Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
This Sunday, we’ll be considering how Christ is the serpent-crushing offspring of Eve. As we prepare our hearts to hear that word, let’s ponder and pray that second line from this verse: “Rise, the woman’s conquering Seed [Offspring], bruise [crush] in us the serpent’s head.”
I’m looking forward to Sunday, and trusting you are as well!
