We have seen that the seed of the woman is Christ. This Christ was born of a woman, even of a virgin (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23; Gal. 4:4). When this seed of the woman was on earth, Satan, the serpent, was the strong man, and the Lord exercised His authority to bind him (Matt. 12:29). Jesus, as the seed of the woman, bound the serpent and plundered all his wealth. In John 14:30 He told His disciples that the serpent, as the prince of the world, had nothing in Him. Although the serpent tried his best, he could find nothing for himself in the seed of the woman. When the Lord Jesus went to the cross, He bruised the head of the serpent, destroying him entirely. Thus, Hebrews 2:14 says that through death Christ destroyed the Devil who holds the power of death. Christ has destroyed the works of the Devil (1 John 3:8). In the future Christ will rule over the nations with a rod of iron (Psa. 2:8-9; Rev. 12:5).
All of this concerning Christ as the seed of the woman is wonderful, but it is still outside of us. He has not yet come into us. Nevertheless, after Jesus was born, had bound the strong man, had given no ground to the prince of the world, and had destroyed the enemy on the cross, He was resurrected and in resurrection became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Whenever and wherever a person will say, "Lord Jesus," this life-giving Spirit will immediately come into him. This is a mystery, yet it is a fact. By coming into His believers as the life-giving Spirit, Christ works Himself as the conquering seed into them.
Christ has been sown into us as the seed. The parable of the sower in Matthew 13 shows that Christ has sown Himself as the seed into our hearts. As a result, we have been regenerated. Peter says that we were regenerated, not by a corrupted or a corrupting seed, but by an incorruptible seed, the living and abiding Word of God (1 Pet. 1:23). This living Word is Christ, and Christ is the seed. Furthermore, the Apostle John says, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1 John 3:9). The seed here is Christ the seed of the woman. The seed of the conqueror, the seed of the overcomer, is this very seed. The foremost overcomer is the seed. We have a conquering seed within us. If we let this seed grow, it will be victorious. We all must shout, "Hallelujah, we have the conquering seed within us!"
One day I was surprised to see the last stanza of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," a hymn written by Charles Wesley over two hundred years ago. In this stanza we see a clear reference to the conquering seed of the woman:
Come, Desire of nations, come!
Fix in us Thy humble home:
Rise, the woman's conqu'ring seed,
Bruise in us the serpent's head;
Adam's likeness now efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Final Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
This stanza opens with an appeal for the "Desire of nations" to come, an allusion to Haggai 2:7. Christ is the desire of all nations. The writer does not ask Christ, the Desire of nations, to come to die on the cross for us, but to "Fix in us Thy humble home." The next line does not say, "Rise Emmanuel, rise Jesus Christ, the Son of God." It says, "Rise, the woman's conqu'ring seed." I like this line. The writer then beseeches this "conqu'ring seed" to "bruise in us the serpent's head." Although He bruised the serpent on the cross, He must now bruise the serpent's head within us. Furthermore, Adam's likeness must be effaced because it has been filled with the serpentine nature. Then Wesley says, "Stamp Thine image in its place," which means to transform us into the image of the Lord. The hymn ends with a prayer that the "Final Adam" would reinstate us in His love. We all must praise the Lord that He has fixed His humble home in us and that He is now bruising the head of the serpent within us. He is "the woman's conqu'ring seed."