In Genesis 3:15, God said to Satan, represented by the serpent, that He would put enmity between him and the woman and between their seeds. Most Christians recognize this verse to contains the most ancient promise and prophesy concerning the coming Messiah.
In this short post, I’ll like to share something about the word enmity. Prior to the fall, Adam and Eve were close friends of God and God would come each day to the Garden to have communion and fellowship with them. But that friendship ended when they entered into an unholy alliance with the devil against God by taking of the forbidden fruit. Satan had now become their friend and father (John 8:44, 1 John 3). God had become their enemy, not just outwardly, but inwardly as well. The moment they sinned against God, their natures became totally depraved and their hearts wicked and evil. Romans 8:7 says, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
The only hope for Adam and Eve was for God to save them and a necessary part of that salvation was for their hearts to be changed and transformed. The Lord Jesus calls that the second or new birth (John 3:3). Another term for being born again is regeneration. And this concept of regeneration is included in the term enmity. In order for man to stop being a friend of Satan and to become a friend of God, something has to be done to his sinful nature. By injecting enmity against the serpent into the heart of a man, God essentially breaks up this unholy alliance that a man previously had with the devil and He brings that man once again into a relationship of friendship and communion with Him. What a blessed enmity that is! Enmity with the devil but friendship and peace with God! And so not only does this enmity involve regeneration or a change of heart, it also involves justification as Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The question we need to ask ourselves is whether we are at enmity with God or at enmity with the devil. There is no middle ground. Either a person belongs to God or he belongs to Satan. May God grant us His grace in order to make us enemies of the devil and children of His!
