15. To whom did Jehovah offer the opportunity to be the woman’s Seed of Genesis 3:15, and what did this entail upon that one?

¹⁵ Away back in the Garden of Eden, at the time when God was pronouncing judgment upon the various ones tied in with man’s rebellion, God said to the Serpent that instigated this rebellion: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Gen. 3:15) In heaven God offered the opportunity to become that Seed of the woman to his only-begotten Son, and his Son accepted the offer. He did so voluntarily, although this meant that he must be bruised in the heel by the Serpent.

19. To be the woman’s Seed of Genesis 3:15, what must be done to him, and for doing what did Jesus apparently, but really, die?

¹⁹ Moreover, as the Seed of God’s “woman,” he must be bruised in the heel by Satan the Great Serpent, and this meant a violent death for Jesus Christ. In view of this, Jesus Christ yielded himself to his enemies and false accusers to be put to death on an execution stake as if he were a blasphemous criminal. That occurred on Passover day at Jerusalem in the year 33 C.E. However, Jesus really died for preaching the kingdom of God, the Messianic kingdom that will serve as the “new heavens” in God’s new order for mankind.​—John 18:36.

20. Why did the matter of reward come into this arrangement, and what was that reward?

²⁰ Jesus Christ did all this of his own free will. Jehovah God his heavenly Father did not force him to do this; he merely presented to his faithful Son the privilege of doing this in support of his Father’s universal sovereignty and in vindication of his Father’s name. But the Father could not arrange for his Son to carry out all this service and go through all this suffering unjustly without giving the Son a reward. And so God set a glorious reward before his Son, that of being the Messianic King in the “new heavens.” As such he would bruise the Serpent, Satan the Devil, in the head, and also wipe out all the seed of the Serpent, the demon angels, and thus destroy the old heavens of this present order of things.