Harry Martinez, a resident of Albany, is a retired minister who served a nondenominational congregation in Florida. His weekly column appears in several South Georgia newspapers.

The birth of a child is always an exciting time even when challenges present themselves. One can only imagine the excitement of that first couple in human history as their child was to be born. Scripture records Eve’s words upon the birth of Cain … “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man” (Gen 4:1 NIV)). The Hebrew text actually offers a stronger rendering as she speaks of her newborn with the words “I have gotten the man.”

Eve had remembered the Divine curse pronounced on the serpent by the pre-incarnate Christ. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:15 NIV). Could it be that Cain was “the man” promised to bring salvation to all mankind?

However, Scripture reveals that something drastically had changed when sin entered into the human race. “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. and when they were created, he called them “man.” When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image” (Gen 5:1-3a NIV). No, Cain could not be the Savior for, in him was the sin nature passed on from Adam.

Note three remarkably definitive clauses in the Genesis passage. First, God created man in His own image, that is, in a state of perfection and innocence. Secondly, God created only two genders, male and female. Thirdly, after the Fall, the child was born rather than created, and most important of all, in the likeness of Adam. No longer was Adam in a state of innocence, for he had acquired a sin nature that would be inherent in his progeny and the entire human race.

Some six thousand years would transpire from the time of the Garden to another pronouncement concerning “the man.” During those passing millennia, God expanded the revelation of the coming Savior. So explicit was that revelation that the nation chosen by God to bring Messiah into the world would be able to recognize Him and know that He was their Messiah. “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2 NIV).

Exactly as prophesied by Micah, Christ [God’s Anointed] came into the world, born of Mary and conceived by the spoken Word of the Holy Spirit. Thus, this uniquely born One would not possess a sin nature and be free from Adam’s original sin. Only God could design and execute such a Plan that would fulfill the promise to crush the serpent’s head and redeem mankind from the clutches of sin.

The Apostle Paul described the God-Man who would accomplish salvation. “Who, [Jesus] being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6-8 NIV)!

For some thirty-three years, the Jewish nation had the opportunity to see and hear their Messiah. Though knowing the Hebrew Scriptures and being eye witness of his miracles, the Jewish people rejected Him. God had a wicked, cowardly politician tell the nation the Truth concerning the Person of Christ. “And Pilate came out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him [Jesus] out to you, that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.” Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. and Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man” (John 19:4-5 NASB). It was as another grace opportunity for the Jews to believe in Christ as their Savior. Sadly … “As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify” (John 19:6 NIV)!