Who is the Seed—the precious Seed—that God promised to send into the world to save it from perishing? Have you read the text which tells us, of which we spoke last week, Galatians 3:16? “Thy Seed, which is Christ.” Yes, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Jesus is the Seed that God promised should bruise the serpent’s head, should cast Satan out of this earth and destroy him, and make it again God’s kingdom where only His own plants should bloom for ever.

From the very beginning, when the promise was first made, those who believed it watched eagerly for the coming of the promised Seed. When Cain, the first little baby, was born, and his mother Eve said, “I have gotten a man from the Lord,” she earnestly hoped that she held in her arms the One who was to be her Saviour. But, alas, how sadly disappointed she must have been when, as he grew up, his pride and jealousy and hatred of his brother showed all too plainly that he “was of that wicked one.” Instead of the Son of God, they had got a son in their own image; for we learned how they themselves became “the children of the wicked one,” through receiving his word in the place of the Word of God.

Many years passed before the promise of God was fulfilled, and no doubt many a mother, like Eve, longed that the precious Seed might he given to her care. So that His people should not lose hope, God often repeated through His prophets the promise of the Seed. And at last, “when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son; born of a woman.” You all know the story, how the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, and told her that she should have son, and the Holy Child “the Son of God.”

Think of the wonder of His love, not only that God should give His only begotten son, but that Jesus, who was “in the form of God,” and had all the riches and glory of heaven, should give it all up for our sakes, and come into this world of sorrow and take the form of sinful man.

You will remember one lesson that we learned from the seed was that each thing must grow “after its kind.” And so Jesus, the son of God, although He no longer had the form of God, but “was made in the likeness of men,” grew up in this earth just as perfect, pure and holy, as He was in heaven. And as “the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was, upon Him,” His loving mother and those who watched Him knew that He was indeed the Son of God, so God-like was He, so loving, gentle, kind, and obedient.

But oh, it will not do us any good to know that Jesus once came and lived in this earth, unless this precious Seed be sown in our own hearts. Jesus, the Word of God “was made flesh and dwelt among us;” He lived here as a little child like you, just to show what you may be, what sort of plant you will become, if you let Him, the Word of God, the good seed, dwell in your heart. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

The Spirit of life, the Spirit of Jesus, is in the precious seed of the Word, just as it is in the seed that is sown in the earth. And so when you listen to the Word of God, and believe it, and receive it into your heart, the power which makes the seed spring up out of the earth, each “after its kind,” will “form Christ within you,” and fill you with His pure and holy life, just as naturally as roses grow on rose trees, and apples on apple trees, and grapes on the vine.

The Present Truth – October 20, 1898
E. J. Waggoner

Story in pdf  The Promised Seed