he, an individual person. This person was not to be the seed of the man,
but of the woman.

The announcing angel said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon
thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also
that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of
God." (Luke i. 35.) The child to be born was to be literally and truly
"_the seed of the woman_," and that was the Messiah, the only person of
the entire human race of whom that could be said.

We are not left, however, to an exegetical statement alone, although
that is absolutely unequivocal. The promise was repeated to Abraham, to
Isaac, to Jacob, and to David. The seed of the woman was to be the
Messiah, the Christ, triumphing over the power of Satan. The race has
not triumphed over Satan, but has been a failure.

The Holy Spirit has settled the question in Paul's Epistle to the
Galatians, iii. 16: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
_He saith not, and to seeds, as of many_ (or, the human race), _but as
of one, and to thy seed which is Christ_." On the human side, our Savior
was of the line of Abraham, and David, but was singularly and literally
"_the seed of the woman_," being the Son of God.

He called himself the Son of man only in the sense that he was born of
her who was of the race of man. He ever claimed God as his Father, and
in a different sense from that in which men can claim God as Father. His
claim to be the Son of God was the claim to be equal with God, which no
created being dare make.

The Holy Spirit further declares, in Hebrews ii. 14; "For as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death (his death on the
cross) he might destroy him (Satan) that had the power of
death"--"bruise the serpent's head." It was Satan that inflicted death.
He was the first higher critic who changed and denied the word of God,
saying to the woman, "Ye shall not die." Through his denial of the word
of God, he deceived the woman and brought spiritual death on the race.
This was the work of Satan, according to the New Testament teaching. He
is the same that God calls the serpent in the third chapter of Genesis.
For the Holy Spirit informs us, in 2 Cor. xi. 3, that "the serpent
beguiled Eve," and states definitely who the serpent is--"that old
serpent called the devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world."
(Rev. xii. 9.)