The Abrahamic Reversal of the Adamic Curse Fulfilled In the Messiah Jesus

I was totally caught off guard starting my NT Theology class in the OT since it is a class about the NT in general. In a Spirit led way, my first lecture ministered to me as I closely analyze the OT historical-salvation timeline through the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12) and its promised reversal of the Adamic curse (Gen. 3) which is fulfilled in the Messiah Jesus. I find this fascinating, and cannot wait to read up on it more in Thomas Schreiner's new theology book this summer called, The King and His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of Old & New Testaments. Another great book that makes these connections is T. Desmond Alexander's theology book called, From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch, which provides a great picture of how God fulfills his saving promises in the Pentateuch through the Messiah in the NT. Below are some thoughts on this topic that I had to post in a forum for my course.

The Adamic Curse
In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sin. They violated the creation covenant God made with him in the garden and ate what was forbidden. They were cursed and ushered out of the Garden of Eden (i.e. removed from God's presence). The Fall of Adam and Eve brought distinct curses upon the earth:

1. The Curse of the serpent (Gen. 3:14-15)

2. The Curse of the woman (Gen. 3:16)

3. The Curse of the man (Gen. 3:17-19)

Three so-called battles emerged because of the Fall. These conflicts are revisited throughout the rest of the OT meta-narrative of Scripture until the fulfillment of the Jesus the Messiah in the NT:

A. The battle of the seed beginning with the curse against the serpent. God promised to put enmity between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman. Thus, from the offspring of the woman will be "one" who will rise up and crush the serpent. The relationship between man and woman is stressful now because of their shame. There is tension between the male and female relationship both physically and spiritually. The loss of harmony between the man and the woman started because of the Fall, which is ironic because only through a relationship of one man and one woman could a seed exist. This conflict intensifies through the barrenness of many women in the Scriptures, from which offspring were suppose to come through them to reverse the curse and bring harmony for Israel and all nations.

B. The battle of the land beginning with the curse of the ground against Adam. God's presence was associated with sacred space throughout the Bible, and began in the Garden of Eden. Man was suppose to manage it, but instead dishonored the garden by not subduing the serpent. God ushered man out of the garden to authorize their removal from his presence because of sin. This theme is revisited also as God promises land to Abraham-Israelites called the Promised Land of Canaan, where God will rule and his people will follow him. The land is blessed and preserved wherever God's presence is among his people as along as they are without allowing wickedness to reign in the land. Israel rebels multiple times and God removes his presence from them because of their sinfulness. God's people are called to rule the land with him, but the curse distorted that reality.

C. The battle of the blessing beginning with the curse of childbearing against Eve. The offspring of the woman is in constant distress throughout the OT narratives. All of the Patriarchs face the death of their firstborn. Moses faced death as an infant just as Jesus did when he was born. The prophetic nature of this curse is continuously revisited through the generations of Adam-to-Abraham-to-David. The prophetic fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 speaks of victory and utter defeat over the serpent to relieve all suffering, pain, and anguish for all nations who bless Abraham's descendants.

The Abrahamic Covenant

Abraham was promised three things: seed, land, and blessing. From Genesis 12-17 the covenant is outlined and defined. Nevertheless, the initial unconditional promises evoke a reversal of the Adamic curse. The Covenant was given to Abraham unconditionally, but it was to obeyed conditionally by him and his descendants.

Abrahamic covenant is revealed and is promises are ready to be fulfilled. The promises consistently faces tension during the Patriarchal narratives and is revisited throughout the OT because of disobedience (e.g. Israel, Saul, David, Solomon, wicked kings, etc.). All of the failures mimic the same failure and curse of Adam and Eve all over again in which the covenant would reverse if fulfilled. Sometimes in the OT only two of the promises are partially fulfilled, but disobedience enters the narrative and breaks the covenant in order to fulfill all that was promised to Abraham.

Seed, Land, Blessing 
The promise of seed overcomes the cursed difficulty of childbearing and the loss of harmony between the man and the woman. The promise of land hints at a place where God will once again dwell with his people. The promise of blessing heralds the triumph of the seed of the woman over the seed of the serpent, which would result in salvation. None of these promises were realized until the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ the Lord!

What Are the Reversals of the Adamic Curses of Seed, Land, and Blessing?

1. The reversal of the curse of seed between serpent and woman is promised to end the conflict and disunity between the relationships between man and woman and eventually God - this is realized in the Messiah. The defeat of the seed of the serpent preserves a nation of many people who are of the same seed of promise.

2. The reversal of the curse of land is promised to Abraham and realized in the Messiah. Jesus, who was God in the flesh, dwelt among his people in the land, and signified the eschatological meaning of land as the final and new restoration of the Edenic state through the second coming of Jesus Christ. This promised grants all believers to once again reign and dwell with God in the garden (i.e. heaven, paradise, eternal life).

3. The reversal of curse of childbearing is promised to Abraham and realized in the Messiah. The battle of seed is victorious and triumphant in the birth of Jesus Christ, who came to forgive sin, reconcile sinners, relieve pain and suffering, redeem lives, and reign over all things as the Savior of all nations as the seed of Abraham (the seed of promise).

The NT Showcases the Reversal of the Abrahamic Covenant Fulfilled in the Messiah Jesus 

Jim Hamilton, author of God's Glory In Salvation Through Judgement: A Biblical Theology, does a great job explaining the NT perspective on the Abrahamic reversal of the Adamic curse fulfilled in the Messiah Jesus:

"Paul interprets what has taken place in Jesus as the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham given in Genesis 12:3. He writes in Galatians 3:8, ‘But the Scripture, having foreseen that God would justify the nations from faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham that "all the nations will be blessed in you.”’ Paul returns to this idea in 3:14, making the connection between Jesus and the promise to Abraham explicit with the words, ‘in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Messiah Jesus, in order that we might receive the promise through faith.’ It would seem, then, Paul interpreted the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 that all nations of the earth would be blessed in him as being fulfilled in Jesus. 

The many statements in the NT that the enemies of Jesus will be placed under his feet might also reflect imagery from Genesis 3:15 through the lens of Psalm 110 [Jesus crushes the serpent/Satan, blesses all who are in him, and rules as Savior and Lord of all nations] (Matt. 22:44 and parallels; Acts 2:35; 1 Cor. 15:25; Eph. 1:20-22; Heb. 2:5-9, 14-15; 10:13)."

I also like the way Walter Kaiser, Jr. put it in his biblical theology called, The Promise-Plan of God: A Biblical Theology of Old & New Testaments, regarding Abraham's covenant and the realized fulfillment in the Messiah Jesus:

"[The Promise-Plan of God] The Promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say 'and to seeds,' meaning many people, but 'and to your seed,' meaning one person, who is Christ' (Gal. 3:16). Paul's gospel, as it turns out, was no different than what God had originally given for persons to be saved in the OT. Paul was not introducing something that was brand-new! God's promise-plan was the same original plan still be advocated by Paul [and fulfilled in the Messiah, Jesus Christ]."

Jesus is the true seed of Abraham who crushes and defeats the serpent. As the Abrahamic covenant was intentional to reverse the Adamic curse, the new Adam came to fulfill the reversal with finality. Jesus as the seed harmonies all relationships through his dominion over the seed of the serpent. He grants future dominion over a new promised land that is not of this world, and blesses all nations in him with eternal life. God fulfills his saving promises through Jesus Christ!

"Promise-Plan of God" In Romans

How did the Christian church originate in Rome? The most popular answer is based on Acts 2.  On the Day of Pentecost, Luke records that people traveled from all over Asia Minor to meet in Jerusalem:

"Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." (Acts 2:5-11)

The "visitors from Rome" were Jews coming to Jerusalem for the Pentecost festival, which was "a sacred festival of the Jews observed 50 days after the Passover." Luke later records after the preaching of Peter, the Holy Spirit was poured out on these visitors and some three thousand souls were saved (Acts 2:41). Within these three thousand souls were now Jewish Christians who must of journeyed back to Rome and started Jewish Christian groups where they would repeat the preaching of Peter about "the promise-plan
of God" they learned in Jerusalem:

"Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing." (Acts 2:33) 

"For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:39)

It is very possible this is why Paul decided to begin Romans with a theological affirmation of the promise-plan of God throughout the Scriptures:

"Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 1:1-4)

I have been teaching on Romans for several months for the The Group Bible study at church. Recently, I read about the Promise-Plan of God in Romans. Throughout Paul's letters he references the "promise-plan of God" as the covenant given to Abraham fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Rom. 4:1-3, 9, 12-13, 16; 9:7; 11:1). This promise is from the seed of Abraham (cf. Gen. 12), and thus all who are of that seed are blessed. Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham, and all those in Christ are blessed. Therefore, Paul wants to make sure his gospel is based on the "promise-plan of God" because it is upon that promise is the power of God for salvation to the Jew and the Greek (Note: Paul wanted to make sure that his gospel was not mistaken because the word "gospel" occurs six times in chapter one, Rom. 1:1, 2, 9, 15, 16, 17).


From the beginning of Romans, Paul began teaching his readers the promise-plan of God is based on OT truth, "Which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures" (Rom. 1:2), and seemingly ended his letter affirming that truth, "For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs" (Rom.15:8). Below is four ways the book of Romans reveals the promise-promise plan of God.

The book of Romans reveals to us the gospel as the promise-plan of God in several ways:
1. The gospel as the promised positional righteousness of God (Rom. 1-4)
(This is a result of the covenant and faith of Abraham that is fulfilled in Christ)

2. The gospel as the promised redemption/renewal of God (Rom. 5-8)
(This is a result of the work of righteousness fulfilled in the new Adam)

3. The gospel as the promised reconciliation of God (Rom. 9-11)
(This is a result of the unifying faith of Jews and Gentiles in message from the beginning)

4. The gospel as the promised practical righteousness of God (Rom. 12-16)

(This is the result of the transformed life by the power of the Holy Spirit)

This is awesome! The gospel is "the promise," and in no other book is "the promise" so magnificently outlined. Paul wanted the gospel to be understood correctly. He explains the gospel as the promised positional righteousness, redemption/renewal, reconciliation, an practical righteousness. The Roman believers did not seem to understand the implications of the gospel. Paul dug down deep and taught these believers as if he was there in a Roman synagogue, and in doing so, he explained how "the promise" was fulfilled in Christ and has brought a new ethical, moral, theological, and practical lifestyle that must correspond to that message. Therefore, I think the "Promise-Plan of God in Romans" can be understood as an in depth scriptural analysis of "the promise" fulfilled through Jesus Christ with past-present-future soteriological and ecclesiological effects. The heart of the promise is saving and changing societal lives for the glory of God.

The Promise-Plan of God

During Cyber Monday, I was looking for good deals online for some books that I have been wanting to get as resources. Since I am trying to save some money, I looked for used books on Amazon and found some good copies that were in "just-like-new" condition! One of those books was by Walter Kasier Jr. called, The Promised-Plan of God: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments. The book is a very easy to read biblical theology of every book in the Bible. It breaks up the OT and NT and lists them in the canonical order to showcase the "unity of Scripture." I love this book, and the more I read it, I end up loving it more and more because of its academic approach and simple explanations so all readers can understand the content. The thesis of the book reveals how Scripture needs to be hermeneutically interpreted and read with an overarching and unifying promise-plan of God. The book argues for a textually derived "center" of Scripture that simultaneously parallels the case for the "unity of the Bible" (i.e. all 66  books), and how this case was the rubric of studying the Bible during the Reformation era, but was disengaged during the Enlightenment era. Therefore, this book aims at restoring the study of biblical theology as it once was in the Reformation, yet at the same time reveal how their is a promise-plan of God that needs to be taught in our world today.

At the beginning of the book, Kaiser defines the promise-plan of God:

"The promise-plan is God's word of declaration, beginning with Eve and continuing on through history, especially in the patriarchs and the Davidic line, that God would continually be in his person and do in his deeds and works (in and through Israel, and later the church) his redemptive plan as his means of keeping that promised word alive for Israel, and thereby for all the nations so that all the families of the earth might come to faith and to new life in the Messiah" (p.19).

I believe Kaiser correctly identifies the harmonious "scarlet thread" of the gospel throughout the OT and NT. However, he further and more accurately explains how to interpret and read the Bible through God's covenant to Abraham originating in Genesis and eschatologically fulfilled by Jesus Christ. His main point is to interpret and read the Bible with "this covenant" in mind because it all stems from it: "God gave a promise to Abraham, and through him to mankind; a promise eternally fulfilled and fulfilling in the history of Israel; and chiefly fulfilled in Jesus Christ, he being that which is principal in the history of Israel."

Kaiser presents scriptural generalizations to defend his purpose of the book. I think they are pretty simple and healthy generalizations, knowing there are some really confusing and unhealthy generalizations about the Bible. Here are ten characteristics of the Promise-Plan of God Kaiser wants reads to consider:

1. The doctrine of the Promised Messiah is found throughout all the Scriptures and not just in isolated or selected passages as understood by the Promise-Fulfillment Scheme (cf. Luke 24:44).

2. The Old Testament Messianic teaching was regarded as the development of a single promise (Greek word, "epangelia"), repeated and unfolded through the centuries with numerous specifications and in multiple forms but always with the same essential core. (cf. Acts 26:6-7)

3. The New Testament writers equate this single, definite promise as the one made to Abraham when god called him from Ur of the Chaldeans. (cf. Rom. 4:13-14, 20; Heb. 6:13-14, 17; 11:9, 39-40; Gen. 22:17)

4. While the New Testament writers occasionally speak of promises, using the plural form of the word, the manner in which they do so does not weaken the case for a single definite promise in the Scriptures. (cf. Rom. 9:4, 15:8-9).

5. The New Testament writers regard this single, definite promise, composed of many specifications, to be the theme of both the Old and New Testaments. (cf. Acts. 7:2-3, 17)

6. The promise made to Abraham is represented as both being partially fulfilled in the events of the exodus and yet still to be fully fulfilled in the distant future. (cf. Acts 13:22-23; Luke 1:69, 73)

7. The New Testament writers not only declare that the promise-plan of God is seen through the whole Old Testament, but they adopt the Old Testament phraseology as part of their own way of expressing God's revelation to them. (cf. Gal. 3:29; Eph. 2:12)

8. The New Testament writers teach that the promise of God is operating eternally and is irrevocable. (cf. Rom. 11:29; Gal. 3:15-18; Heb. 6:13, 17-18)

9. The New Testament writers make a strong connection between the promise and a number of other doctrines. (cf. Gal. 3:6-8, 14; Eph. 1:13, 3:6; Heb. 9:15; 2 Pet. 3:10)

10. The culmination of all the specifications (i.e., the individual predicted doctrines that support the one unifying promise-plan) are wrapped up in the one promise doctrine, or promise-plan, which focuses on Jesus Christ. (cf. Matt. 5:17; Rom. 1:1-6)

With all of these scriptural generalizations, I think it proper to suggest the NT use and reference of the OT "promise" is undeniable. I appreciate Kaiser's his approach to show how all of the Bible works together to theologically disclose Christ as the Messiah (as he goes genre-by genre and book-by-book to show how it unfolds). I wrote on this because I am always interested how the NT uses the OT in order to point to Jesus as God and Savior of all nations, and at the same time point to the Word of God as truth. What a perfect topic to reflect upon during Christmas!