Christmas is such a huge holiday all around the world, but why do we celebrate Christmas? Why do we celebrate the birth of Christ? What is so special about this season? To answer these questions, let’s go back to God’s first promise of the Messiah in Genesis.

Genesis 3:15 (Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible):

And enmity shall I put between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,-

He shall crush thy head, but thou shall crush

his heel.

When it seemed that all was lost and the devil had succeeded in ruining Adam and Eve, God promised a coming Savior, who will redeem mankind from the penalty of sin and crush the devil into oblivion. The coming redeemer would restore everything Adam and Eve lost in the garden. This verse sets forth the fulcrum point of all history and defines the ceaseless battle that has raged since Adam’s fall in the Garden of Eden. This verse is the central theme of all scriptures, as the red thread of the coming Redeemer is interwoven into every book of the Old Testament. Its message is even written in the heavens, as each night the stars proclaim the sufferings and glorious triumph of Christ.

Who is the seed of the woman? In conception the seed comes from the male, but God’s Word clearly refers to the woman’s seed here. Galatians 3:16b “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” The seed of the woman is Christ. He is the Savior, the Redeemer, the Liberator, the Messiah, the Second Adam, and the Conqueror over sin and death. The seed of the woman will “crush the head of the serpent.” The word “crush” in the Hebrew means: to break or smite in pieces and to greatly injure or wound.

E. W. Bullinger, in The Companion Bible, states:

When it is said (v.15), “He shall crush thy head,”

it means something more than a skull of bone, and

brain and hair. It means all Satan’s plans and plots,

policy and purposes, will one day be finally crushed

and ended, never more to mar or to hinder the

purposes of God.

God also states that there will be great enmity between the serpent and the second Adam, Christ. The word “enmity” in the Hebrew means: hatred and hostility with a desire to injure. There is no truce in this battle. There is no peace agreement. Satan has great hostility to everything that Christ represents. Satan wants to keep people in the dark about the great salvation and deliverance available through Jesus Christ. He does everything he can to turn people away from the Lord Jesus Christ.

The devil knew that there was a genealogical Christ line that would pass through Eve, as the seed of the woman would have to be born. Later, the Word of God was more specific that this Christ line would pass through Abraham and King David. The entire Old Testament is a record of the fierce attempts of the devil to wipe out the Christ line, and prevent Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman, from ever being born. Sometimes the survival of the Christ line rested on the faith of one individual like Noah, Joseph, Abraham, and Esther. Read the Old Testament with this truth in mind, and the Word of God will come alive in new and wonderful ways. The salvation and redemption of the human race depended on the preservation of the Christ line.  The devil even tried to genetically corrupt the entire human race with nephilim, or giants of wickedness, (see Genesis 6) so that the Christ line could never come. The devil tried countless schemes throughout the Old Testament to destroy the true knowledge of God and obliterate the genealogical line from which Christ would be born. But Satan was foiled again and again. He even tried to devour the infant Jesus through Herod’s decree of death, but God was always one step ahead of the devil in the preservation of His promise of the Seed of the woman.

The book of Romans sets forth the importance of this one man, the second Adam, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race for all who believe.

Romans 5:15,17,18 (Amplified Bible):

But God’s free gift is not all to be compared

to the trespass [His grace is out of all

proportion to the fall of man]. For if many

died through one man’s falling away (his

lapse, his offense), much more profusely

did God’s grace and the free gift that comes

through the undeserved favor of the one

Man Jesus Christ abound and overflow to

and for the benefit of many.

For if because of one man’s trespass (lapse,

offense) death reigned through that one,

much more surely will those who receive

God’s overflowing grace (unmerited favor)

and the free gift of righteousness [putting

them into right standing with Himself] reign                            

as kings in life through the one Man Jesus

Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One.)

Well then, as one man’s trespass [one man’s

false step and falling away led] to condemnation

for all men, so one Man’s act of righteousness                                          

leads to acquittal and right standing with God

and life for all men.

Jesus Christ by His death and resurrection made available the free gift of righteousness leading to acquittal from the penalty of sin and right standing again with God.  The court of God legally pronounces the declaration of acquittal when a man or woman confesses Jesus Christ as their Lord and believes God raised Jesus from the dead. Sin and death reign in this world because of Adam’s one act of disobedience, but now through the obedience of one man, Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice, we can reign as kings in this life and the one to come. Are you starting to see the true message of Christmas?

Ray Pritchard in his Commentary on Romans explains:

Death reigned. That’s our heritage from Adam.

Death reigns on the earth because of Adam’s

sin…Ah, but that’s only part of the story. There

is a way out. Notice the result of receiving the  .

Those who receive this free gift now reign in life.

We may through Jesus Christ reign as kings…

Only God could take a slave and transform him into a king.

So what Jesus did is far greater than

what Adam did. Greater in its nature. Greater

in its power. Greater in its effect.

What Jesus Christ accomplished at Calvary is so magnificent that it permanently crippled Satan’s kingdom and one day will obliterate every remnant of it from off the face of the earth. The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important event in all human history, because he broke the curse of sin and death that hangs over the world like a dark cloud. He paid the price for the complete redemption and salvation of the soul of every person who comes to Him. Through Jesus Christ, righteousness is restored to a person so that they can stand in the presence of God without any sense of fear, shortcoming, guilt, or unworthiness. The ability to have deep fellowship and communion with the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ has been recovered and given as a gift to all those who confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Colossians further elaborates on this head crushing of the serpent by the Seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 2:14,15 (Message):

When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life,

you were incapable of responding to God. God

brought you alive-right along with Christ! Think

of it! All sins forgive, the slate wiped clean, that

old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s

cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants of the

universe of their sham authority at the Cross and

marched them naked through the streets.

Verse 15 (Phillips):

And having drawn the sting of all powers ranged

against us, he exposed them, shattered, empty

and defeated, in his final glorious triumphant act.

At Calvary, Jesus Christ stripped and disarmed the power and authority of the devil’s kingdom for every born-again believer. No devil spirit in the devil’s kingdom, no matter what its rank, can defeat you when you stand in the strength of the Lord’s redemptive work for you at the cross. In the Roman world, this was the highest honor that could be bestowed upon a victorious Roman general. It was called “the triumph.” It was an awesome display of the power, of the Roman Empire. It was a spectacle that few would forget its images, as the triumph declared to the world that the enemy had been overwhelmed and crushed, now to be publicly humiliated through the streets of the city.

How much greater is the triumph of Christ as the captain of our salvation?  What a triumph on the cross! What a victory against the forces of darkness! What a crushing blow to Satan’s kingdom! What a public display of victory to all those who have eyes to see and ears to hear! You become identified and in vital union with this triumph on the cross and all its glorious effects when you become a new creation in Christ.

Hebrew 2:14,15 (Wuest):

Therefore since the children share in common

with one another blood and flesh, He himself

also partook with them in the same, in order

that through the aforementioned death He might

render inoperative the one having the dominion

of death, that is the devil, and effect the release

of those, as many as who by reason of fear of

death through the entire course of their lives

were held in bondage.

Since the fall of Adam, the devil has wielded the power of death. Part of his dominion over humanity was in the form of death. Death has been an incredible weapon of destruction for Satan. Death is an enemy to every human being on the earth, and with its companion sin, the devil has held the human race in his firm grasp. 

The words “render inoperative” in verse 14 in the Greek mean: to render powerless; to make the force or power of something ineffective, and to nullify. The word “dominion” in the Greek means: strength, might, force, and manifested power. This brutal and horrible dominion of death, utilized so effectively by the devil, was broken at Calvary. The strength and might of death that the devil has used relentlessly as a weapon in every age of history was declared null and void. The major kingpin of his dominion and authority over the earth has been trampled under the feet of the Lord Jesus. God also promises in I Corinthians 15, and in the book of Revelation, that there is a day coming when this last enemy, death, will be destroyed off the face of the earth, and its sorrow, bondage, and destruction will be no more. There will absolutely be no death in the new heavens and earth.

I Timothy 1:10 (Amplified):

It is that purpose and grace which He has

now made known and has fully disclosed

and made real to us through the appearing

of our Savior Christ Jesus, Who annulled

death and made it of no effect and brought

life and immortality (immunity from eternal

death) to light through the Gospel.

The born-again believer who has put his faith in Christ as his Savior cannot be defeated by spiritual or physical death.  We have been reconciled to God in the new birth and made alive spiritually in Christ. We have been given the sure promise of everlasting life and spiritual death has been obliterated by Jesus Christ. Even if we die physically, the Lord has promised that at the Rapture, he will raise us from the dead and give us a new glorious immortal body that is not subject to the jaws of death. The devil’s main tool in the battle between good and evil, the power of death, has been mortally wounded and crushed at the cross. Physical death cannot hold your body in the grave, for there is a day coming when the Lord of glory is coming back; he will break the power of the grave and raise the physical body as incorruptible. Then we will be forever with the Lord throughout all eternity. What a gospel! How good is the truth about the Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ!

Romans 5:21 (Phillips):

The whole outlook changes-sin use to be the

master of men and in the end handed them

over to death: now grace is the ruling factor,

with righteousness as its purpose and

at its end the bringing of men to the eternal

life of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I Corinthians 15:20-28; 51-57 (Message):

But the truth is Christ has been raised up,

the first in a long legacy of those who are

going to leave the cemeteries.

There is a nice symmetry to this: Death

initially came by a man, and resurrection

from death came by a man.

Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes

alive in Christ.

But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first,

then those with him at his Coming, the grand

consummation when, after crushing the                                    

opposition, he hands over his kingdom to

God the Father.

He won’t let up until the last enemy is down-

and the very last enemy is death.

It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code

guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power.

But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three-

Sin, guilt, death are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus

Christ. Thank God!                        

Death cannot be conquered by science; death cannot be overcome by a political decree; death cannot be eradicated by a vaccine, and death cannot be defeated by any earthly power. There will never be a fountain of youth or some magical spell or potion to obtain eternal life. Death is the cruelest, most vicious, brutal, and lethal curse on the human race. Death does not bring you into some higher state of consciousness but throws you into the decay and corruption of the grave. Death does not allow you to float around as a ghost and have free movement while you haunt or help people. Death does not bring you into a reincarnated new life form. This is a most certain truth-death does not bring life in any way, shape, or form. Without the Savior Jesus Christ, death is the end of all humanity.  Death cannot produce, generate, or refine life. Death is the end of life.

Do you see why death is such a curse and lethal enemy according to Scripture? Once you understand the brutal and permanent nature of death, you can really appreciate the total victory that Jesus Christ accomplished with his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ is the master over death and the conqueror of the grave. Immortality only comes with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Death was not the only work of the devil that Jesus Christ destroyed. The purpose of the Son of was to crush the works, policies, purposes, plots, and designs of the devil.

I John 3:8 (b) (New King James):

For this purpose was the Son of God manifested,                                    

that He might destroy the works of the devil.

This is why the devil has such hatred toward Jesus for he came for the express purpose of destroying and bringing to naught the works of the devil. He was sent to restore God’s magnificent purpose for men, women, and children. God wanted to bring children into His family again who would be fully righteous, justified, sanctified, and redeemed and have complete, vital, and intimate communion and fellowship with Him.

The word “destroy” is the Greek word luo, meaning: to loose something bound, to break up that which is compacted together, to dissolve, to sever, to break in pieces and to demolish. The word means “a destruction by undoing or dissolving that which forms the bond of cohesion.” Jesus Christ came to loosen people from the works of the devil and set them free. We all had a bond of cohesion to Satan’s kingdom through sin and death, but Jesus Christ dissolved the bond, and we broke free. 

One of the devil’s main tools in his battle with the Seed of the woman is ignorance. Satan wants to keep people in the dark about the great victory of redemption, wholeness, healing, peace, and everlasting life available in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 10:38 (English Standard Version):

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth

with the Holy Spirit and power. He went

about doing good and healing all that

were oppressed of the devil, for God

was with him.

Every word and work of Jesus Christ upon the earth was good. Jesus Christ’s character, his habitual action, his personality, and manner of life was to do good. He was the Christ, the Anointed One, who lived, moved, and acted in all the authority and power of the Spirit of God. He revealed the truth of God’s goodness, grace, mercy, and love to a degree that had not been known since the Garden of Eden. He also shined a spotlight on the devil and his kingdom, exposing its methods, operation, and existence, which had never been previously known in the history of the world.

During his earthly ministry and even now, Jesus does good by healing all those who were oppressed of the devil. The word “oppressed” in the Greek means: to exercise harsh control over someone, to exploit, to be overpowered, to oppress harshly, to tyrannize, and to dominate someone.  The word “heal” in the Greek means to cure, to make whole, to cause to live, and to revive or recover from illness. It refers to both physical and spiritual healing. Jesus Christ destroyed the works of the devil by healing, reviving, and making whole all those who had been dominated, overpowered, and exploited by the devil. This was all part of his crushing of the head of the serpent. Jesus Christ is the great healer and restorer. 

Jesus Christ did the ultimate act of goodness by giving his life for you and me on the cross. When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross, he was doing good. When Jesus Christ was being savagely beaten, whipped, and crushed, he was doing good, because he was bruised for our iniquities, wounded for our transgressions, and by his stripes we were healed. 

The fatal wound to the head of the serpent was delivered at Calvary and the empty tomb. The death sentence to both the devil and all his works was shouted out to the human race with three words at Calvary and three words at the empty tomb. Jesus Christ cried out, “It is finished” at Calvary, and the angel proclaimed, “He is risen” at the empty tomb. 

Luke 4:18  (Weymouth):

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because

He has anointed me to proclaim Good News

to the poor; He sent me to announce release

to the prisoners of war and recovery of sight

to the blind; to send away free those whose

tyranny has crushed.

Jesus Christ opened the prison door of every tyranny of mind, body, and soul and set us free. He crushed every tyrannical work of the devil that had previously broke our heart and spirit. He delivers all those who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity. He destroyed the devil’s work of separation and deception, and widely opened the door of access to our loving Father. Humanity feels restless, empty, and unfulfilled, without a deep, vibrant, and living relationship with their Creator God Almighty. How exciting to have God as your closest friend, your trusted advisor, your loving parent, and your strong protector. What a message we have in Jesus Christ!

John 1:17,18 (Amplified):

For while the Law was given through Moses,

grace (unearned, undeserved favor and

spiritual blessing) and truth came through

Jesus Christ.

No man has ever seen God at any time,

the only unique Son, or the only begotten

of God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate

presence of] the Father, He has declared

Him [He has revealed Him and brought

Him out where He can been seen; He has

interpreted Him and He has made Him

known].  

The word “declared” in the Greek means:  to unfold, and to make known by expounding.” Jesus Christ unfolded the heart of God to mankind that had never been known before in all of history. He revealed and made known the heart of God as a Father and showed the world His goodness in a way that had not been previously known. Jesus Christ brought the truth about God’s goodness and His character to a sick, dying, and lost world.

How exciting is the adventure of life with God when you really know Him and His character? How thrilling and awesome is living when you begin to understand the depth of His goodness? Jesus Christ made it available that we might be alive to God, in God and for God. Jesus Christ made it available that we can live our lives in a vibrant, living union with God on the most intimate level that you can ever imagine.

The word “seed” also implies that there will be progeny, children, a newly birthed people out of the finished work of Jesus Christ. What  completely blindsided the devil was the new creation that a man or woman becomes in Christ. This truth is an enormous aspect of the goodness Jesus Christ accomplished in His death and resurrection.                

II Corinthians 5:17 (NIV):

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is

a new creation; the old is gone; the new

has come. 

What a breathtaking truth that in Christ we are a new creation; we have a new divine nature; we are new people created in the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are His seed. The word “creation” in the Greek means: to bring something into existence that has not existed before. The word “new” in the Greek means: that which is new in kind or quality, and is something unprecedented, novel, uncommon, and unheard of.  It relates to something not previously present. This word “new” does not mean that something is simply renovated, but something that it is entirely new in species and character. 

By the divine will of God, He built a new spiritual nature in all born again believers. This new creation is of perfect quality and character because it originates from the creative heart of God. It is unprecedented in the nature of a person because it is a divine seed planted by God. We become partakers of the divine nature, and in Christ we have a dynamically powerful new spiritual nature. This is a spiritual birth and the seed of God within us is permanent, incorruptible, and indestructible. Once you are born of your earthly parents, you are always their child because you have their seed within you. The same holds true for the spiritual new birth in Christ, as this incorruptible seed of God is created within you, and you forever become God’s new spiritual son or daughter of God.             

Bullinger, in his article “A New Creation” expounds on this new creation:

What is it to create? Not to change, not to

renovate, not to reform, not to improve,

not the old nature adorned and beautified,

not the flesh with its corruptions and lust                        

trimmed and trained; but it is the new and

Divine nature imparted, with all its spiritual

blessings and holy privileges. It is not the

old Adam made clean or religious, clothed

and adorned. No! It is something altogether

NEW. Therefore in Christ Jesus, I am a partaker

of the Divine nature; I am a partaker of His

Resurrection-life, according to the Father’s

promise…A new Divine nature is not a mere

influence, is not a mere passing religious

feeling induced by ravishing music or pathetic

story, but a real existence in living union with

a crucified, risen, exalted, glorified, coming

Lord. What a glorious union!   

Satan had been the master of the human race from the Fall to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in the resurrected and ascended Christ, a new day dawned for the world. The power of the great enemy, the crafty serpent, and deceitful slanderer has been permanently broken, crushed, and defeated in our wonderful Lord Jesus. We are a new people, a called out mighty seed, a glorious new creation clothed in righteousness. We have a new Lord, who has ushered us into a new age of spiritual, mental, and physical freedom and the crushing of every yoke of bondage that has held us in its grasp. We have a new destiny, as sin and death are no longer our emperors and rulers to whom we must bow and serve.

David Needham, in Birthright, Christian, Do You Know Who You Are?,  states:

When he saved you-a miracle that actually changed you…

by the new birth, I became a brand-new kind of person…

The divine activity re-makes a man. He is born all over

again by the very Spirit of God…Perhaps this “new

personhood” idea seems far away from the daily activity

of your life. That still doesn’t change the basic fact. If

you have received the Savior, you simply are not the same

person you were before.

You may weigh the same, look the same, feel the same

but you are not the same…God has birthed you…children of God….

“Children,” not by adoption, but by birth. Christ… is now

reproducing himself progressively in the lives of the saints…

Now the last Adam [Christ]…is reproducing his very life-his image-in us!…

The believer enters not just into a private relationship with Jesus, but a

new humanity in which he becomes a new kind of man…Jesus Christ

is no less than the inaugurator of a new humanity.

We are the blessed progeny, the new humanity, the new species, the seed of Christ, and the children of the living God.  This is what the human heart has been craving for since the fall of Adam: a new creation, authored by God Almighty, that fundamentally changes who we are, and who we will be in the future. We have passed from death unto life, from sin unto righteousness, from condemnation to justification, from separation to reconciliation, and from enemies to beloved children. The first Adam’s disobedience produced a race of mortal people destined to die and to be ravaged by sin and its consequences. The Last Adam, Jesus Christ, through his obedience, death, and resurrection is producing a race of people who will live forever and be victorious over the terrible twins of sin and death and all their consequences. God’s ultimate plan after the Fall was to restore His original purpose of having birthed children live with Him forever on a perfect, beautiful, and amazing earth. The entire Bible points to Jesus Christ as being the agent, the mediator, the Savior, and the sacrifice that would bring about this restoration. The Last Adam, Jesus Christ, had to face the fierce enemies of sin, death, and the devil and he overwhelmingly conquered them all.

How the Christmas hymn O Holy Night comes alive in its lyrics: “O Holy night! The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.  Long lay the world in sin and error pining ‘Til He appears, and the soul felt its worth A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn, Fall on your knees; O hear the Angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born O night, O Holy night, O night divine! Truly He taught us to love one another. His law is love and His Gospel is Peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother. And in His name, all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we.

Let all within us Praise His Holy name! Christ is the Lord; O praise His name forever! His power and glory evermore proclaim, His power and glory evermore proclaim.”

Thank God for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for the true message of Christmas.