Stuart Robinson on Genesis 3:15

Stuart Robinson, in his biblical-theological work Discourses of Redemption, focused on the eight-fold interpretation of God’s curse on the serpent, when he wrote:

1. The Redeemer would be a man (i.e. the seed of the woman)
2. The Redeemer would be more than a man (i.e. He would be Divine) because He would conquer the one who conquered man (i.e. the devil)
3. The Redeemer would represent a people.
4. The Redeemer would gather a collective group of redeemed individuals to Himself (this is seen in the use of the word ‘seed’ in Scripture. Christ is the “Seed” of the woman, and we are the ‘seed’ of the woman in Him.) This was the beginning of the visible church on earth. There would be a corporate nature of the redeemed.
5. Redemption would involve a new nature. Before this promise men were all hopelessly lost in sin. Man had made himself a slave of sin and Satan, and accordingly had a fallen, corrupt nature. In order for there to be enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, those who would become the seed of the woman would necessarily have to have a different nature.
6. It would be the gracious work of God in giving His people a new nature.
7. The Lord would put the enmity between the devil and those in his kingdom and Christ and those in His Kingdom.
8. The Redeemer would die a vicarious death on behalf of His people. (i.e. His heal would be bruised, not for anything that He had done but because of the sin of others).

The only thing I would add to all this is the fact that God did not require anything of His people except faith in His promise. This first preaching of the Gospel shows that salvation is ALL the work of God and ALL the work of grace. Man contributes nothing to it except his sin.