God, in speaking to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, gave fallen mankind their first promise of grace.
In Genesis 3:15, He said this, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall strike his heel.”
God speaks of the perpetual warfare, the division, and the enmity that will exist between the people of God and the children of the serpent. We see the world in vastly different ways – the children of God wish to follow the Lord, and the children of the serpent want to be gods themselves. We have vastly divergent perceptions of the world; different world-views. There is no common or middle ground, no possible compromise between the two warring humanities and their competing visions for life. So, they are at odds, over everything.
And God wanted it this way. He put the enmity, the division, between them. There is a great difference between the Children of God and the Children of the Serpent, a chasm separates them – and we see that division in the Lord’s Supper.
This Supper is given only to the Children of God, to believers, to those who call Jesus Savior and Lord and really mean it. If you don’t follow Jesus as Lord, you are a Child of the Serpent and you have no place at this table. Don’t come.
But when the Children of God partake of this table we remember two things: the crushed head and the bruised heel.
Jesus has crushed the head of the serpent. Sin has been paid for, death has been defeated, rebellion has been put down. Jesus lived and died to defeat the serpent and his influence on the Children of God. His head is crushed.
We also remember the bruised heel. Jesus suffered. He became sin. He absorbed the full penalty for sin. He bled and died that we might have life.
Jesus speaks life to us at this table. Real life, spiritual life, and eternal life in fellowship with Him. We come to the table to enjoy that fellowship of life.