Leading With A Limp

In Genesis 3:15, we see the first mention of the atonement where God proclaims of the seed of the woman, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is a contrast of the Cross of Christ and the suffering of Satan, ordained by God. In other words, Jesus crushed the head of Satan, as Satan bruised Christ’s heel. The bruised heel of Jesus happened at the Cross in contrast to the utter defeat of Satan at the Cross (1 John 3:8).

It says in Hebrews 2:14 that through the Holy Spirit we share in the flesh and blood.  That is, we now share in this same atoning victory, with Christ, of the defeat of the Devil (2 Corinthians 1:7, Romans 8:17). Additionally, we see in Luke 19, “God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit has given us the authority of treading on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt us.” My point is, we cannot receive more destruction than what happened to Jesus on the Cross, and the bible clearly states that it was a bruised heel. In other words, we are not going to suffer more than what Christ suffered. Although people can hurt our bodies, they cannot touch our souls. A 16th century puritan William Gurnall puts it like this: “ ‘Upon thy belly shalt thou go’ (Genesis 3:14). This prostrate condition of Satan assures believers that the devil can never lift his head – his wily schemes – higher than the saints’ heels. He may make you limp, but cannot take your life. And the bruise which he gives will be rewarded with the breaking of his own head – the utter ruin of him and his cause.”

What an awesome truth! The reward of a bruised heel is a crushed head, and I believe our reward is the comfort of God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 shows us that because we share in the sufferings in Christ, we also share in the comfort of God in the midst of our affliction, trials, and pain. It gives us an imagery of resting in the victory of God. In addition, 2 Corinthians 4:7, shows us that we are “afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed,” again, showing that us that these are bruised heels. I will never tell someone who is suffering “it will get better” because that means I am saying that God is NOT enough right now in their pain.

I want to be very clear here. I am in no way minimizing someone’s pain. Some of the sins that are committed against the saints are horrific. But we want to maximize the glory of God in the midst of their pain, revealing the bigness of God that outweighs the bigness of their pain.  I believe that God calls us to suffer well, and suffering well is allowing God’s comfort in the midst of our pain and sorrow. In other words, pain and suffering is revealing our need for God in a greater way. We spend a lot of time running away from our sufferings or bruised heels when we need to run to them because that is where we will find God and our dependence on Him is most realized. So that, when we are at our worst, God is at His best.