“Two Women"
Genesis 3 and Luke 2

December 2, 2007
by C.W. Powell

I. Gen. 3:1-7. The first woman is the first woman, Eve.

A. Jesus assumed the historicity of this account, as did the aposles. This is another subject but if this story falls, the entire Bible falls. Thus the attack of Satan upon this story. If you believe that this account is fiction, made up and imposed on the world by the Jews; and that the Virgin Birth is a story made up and imposed on the world by Christians; I feel sorry for you. This would be the mother of all conspiracy theories, and would necessitate you believing that the best Jews before Christ and the best Christians since, have suffered persecution, death, and misery because of made-up tales. How sad to have that view of history!

B. She was created as a gift and blessing.

1. It was not good for man to be alone; man was incomplete without her.
2. She was the image of God; fit to be a companion, a helper, a friend, an equal.

C. Instead, she became the source of the corruption of the human race.

1. She listened to the voice of the serpent.
2. She involved her husband in the crime. This is not to mitigate Adam’s sin; for Adam was the representative of the whole race, and the whole race fell in him.
3. What was the temptation:

a) She saw that it was good for food: the satisfaction of the body, and its desires. Not wrong in itself
b) She saw that it was pleasing to the eye.
c) She saw that it could make her equal with God: in wisdom. She could think for herself.
d) The root of it all: unbelief. She did not believe the words of Scripture.

4. Adam was not deceived in the transgression: relatively, by comparison with Eve. Adam’s sin was greater. Paul explains the results of Adam’s sin in Romans
5. The results of Satan’s work through the first woman are:

a) Legal guilt, punished by death. The proof of men’s guilt is death.
b) Corruption of nature, so that men are born in sin.
c) Actual sins, proceeding from this corrupt nature.
d) Actual guilt, feelings of sin and misery.
e) Increasing personal judgment. The root is Adam, and man can do nothing about his sin and misery.

D. Romans 3:9ff. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is nothing man can do.

II. The Second woman is described in Luke 1:26ff.

A. God had promised to bring salvation through the seed of the woman. It was not that woman would perform some great and mighty deed, that would save the world; no, because she was under a curse, just like the man, and was helpless in the matter.
B. It meant that God would do a wonderful deed through the woman that would result in the destruction of the effects of sin, and bring about the salvation of the race, just as the temptation of Eve had brought about its ruin.
C. Mary was the appointed means for the bringing of salvation to the world.

1. She was a Virgin; man had nothing to do with this salvation. It was the work of God. Man did not bring God into the world; and man’s works cannot save him. Man is not saved because he has raised himself up to God; but because God has come down to man. Her child was by the Holy Spirit. His human nature was from Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit; His divine nature is God of God; Light of Light.
2. Her husband was also involved; What a wonderful figure Joseph is! God would not save without His divinely appointed order; but placed Mary under the authority and protection of Joseph. How submissive Mary is!
3. She believed, although the word of the angel must have been preposterous to her. But she was prepared by God to believe all that God said. Luke 1:55. “As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever.” Faith is the gift of God. How blessed is Mary; She is the work of God. Her task was to believe and obey, just as ours is. She did not create; she did not originate; she did not make it happen; she believed and obeyed. What a great example for us; what a great example for all men, and for all women. What does it take to be a good woman, a good wife: the same faith and submission to God that it takes to be a good husband and a good man. The roles are different, but the faith and the submission are the same.
4. Examination of Mary’s character: a godly Christian character. You will not be called to do the same thing that Mary was called to do, for that could happen only once in the history of the world; but you can have a like spirit:

a) My soul doth magnify the Lord: The Lord is made bigger before men, looking through my spirit.
b) My spirit rejoices in the salvation of God.
c) All generations shall call me blessed: True; the greatest historical blessing that could ever come upon a human being, came upon Mary. If you despise it, it is because you do not value what happened; and you are in bondage to the world.
d) She recognized that God is the one who brings His will to pass: vs. 49-53. He visits his blessings upon those who are poor in spirit; and sends away those who are full of themselves.

(1) The proud in the imaginations of their hearts
(2) The rich in themselves
(3) The mighty in position and power.

e) He has mercy upon those who keep his covenant.

(1) Maintain the confession of their faith.
(2) Repent their sins.
(3) Affirm the holiness and greatness of God. See verse 50. His mercy: they are not without fault; but their sins are forgiven them.
(4) The question is whether your sins are forgiven you. Even Mary does not claim sinlessness, for there is not a man that sins not; but the proud seek to use God to further their own ends; the righteous believe and submit.

5. The results of God’s work through bring Christ into the world through Mary:

a) Removal of guilt, for those for whom Christ died. Christ’s obedience takes away the curse of Adam’s sin, for those who are elect.
b) Implanting of a new nature: they are born again, according to the purpose and plan of God. Christ is born in them.
c) The beginnings of new works; righteous deeds; holy affections; desire to please God, and not to please themselves.
d) Actual sense of God’s favor and grace. Assurance of eternal life: Actual justification.

III. Important Application: Two very different views of womanhood are involve, intimately connected with man’s view of himself.

A. Woman the seductress. Eve is the antitype. Man is weak, a sissy; enslaved to his lusts, following after the feminine seductress, making sorry, feeble excuses for his sin, blaming the woman.

1. This dominated the ancient world, where women were despised, and still exercised great power and control over men. No man can be admired who is enslaved to his lusts, and sees the woman only as a vehicle of lust and desire. In this environment, and with this view of womanhood, pornography abounds, homosexuality increases—This may seem a contradiction, but it is not. For when men allow their lusts to rule them, God gives them over to greater excess of lusts, to perverted and debased desires.

2. Weak man, enslaved to his lusts, breaks out in all directions; his lust consumes him and destroys him, and the woman with him. Some men turn against womanhood; some women turn against men. They begin to attack the fruit of their own bodies, for their children are not the product of their love, but of their lust, and are often seen as obstacles to desire, rather than product of desire. Abortion, perversion, etc. abounds. The entire ancient world was filled with myths, blaming the woman for all the misery in the world, and the woman was held in low esteem, though she enslaved man because of his lusts. Children are in the way and are a nuisance. Sometimes even the children become objects of lust. Marriage and honor and commitment are abandoned, for these things get in the way of desire.

3. Women at times rebel against this image, but become dominating, tyrannical, and abusive, but such rebellions are short-lived because woman is also under the curse of God, along with Adam.

B. Woman the handmaiden of God; wife, mother, godly and holy. This has been the greatest civilizing vision in the history of the world: the family of God, the man, the woman, the children living in the fear of God, performing their assigned roles in the fear of God. Man is strong, for he is not the slave of his lusts; he is dedicated and committed to one woman. Having learned to control his passions, he is able to live in holiness and the fear of God. No great civilization has arisen and endured apart from monogamy, for without monogamy man becomes corrupt in mind and body.

May God bless you.