When Adam & Eve sinned in the Garden, and God made skins to cover their nakedness, this was a foreshadowing of the death of Christ to cover our sin. I realise as early as Genesis 3, the Bible pointed to the need for a coming Messiah, the Lamb of God. Indeed, the whole word of Truth tells from early on the need for redemption, which only God can initiate, and fully provide for. Thank you Father! Thank you Lord Jesus!
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves loincloths. (Gen 3:6-7)
"And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins of clothed them." (Gen 3:21)
Lessons:
1. From Genesis 3, we see the first sacrifice in the Bible. This followed man's disobedience. Adam and Eve tried a poor cover-up for their guilt and shame (fig leaves) but God, even in chastising them and before chasing them out of Eden, chose skins to cover them.
2. In the Scripture, garments are symbols of righteousness, either God's all-sufficient righteousness or man's self-made righteousness.
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." (Isaiah 64:6)
The coats of skin which the Lord clothed Adam and Eve in represent righteousness provided by Him which allowed them to stand in His holy presence. This foreshadowed the redemptive work to be done by Christ: only in Christ is a man's nakedness properly covered.
3. To provide the garments of skin, an animal had to be slain. This was a "substitutionary death", an innocent sacrifice. The animal that was killed (probably a lamb) was an innocent victim. This principle of sacrifice and covering of sins is an eternal divine principle from which there is no deviation. This foreshadowed the death of Christ Jesus … which in the fullness of time, God himself provided as a perfect sacrifice to cover our sins and make us perfectly righteous before Him.
The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29)
Jesus Christ was the just dying for the unjust, the innocent Lamb dying for the guilty sinner.
4. There is only one way for a sinner to approach a holy God, and that is through shed blood.
"Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin." (Hebrews 9:22)
"God made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
"Knowing that you were ransomed… not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." (1 Peter 1:18-19)
5. Salvation is a work of grace. The animal was God's gift and not the work of man. The Lord furnished the skins to cover Adam and Eve. They did nothing satisfactorily to cover themselves. The only sacrifice God will accept is His work and His gift.
(Adam's leaf covering was sufficient only to cover his loins. God's provision was sufficient to cover his whole body.)
6. The crimson thread is developed throughout Scriptures until the grand climax in Revelation.
Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." (Genesis 22:8)
Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your house to strike you." (Exodus 12:21-23)
"He (Jesus) was oppressed and he was afflicted,
Yet he opened not his mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
And like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
So he opened not his mouth…
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
He has put him to grief." (Isaiah 53:7-8, 10)
"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29)
And they sang a new song. saying,
"Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood
you ransomed people for God
from every tribe, and language, and
people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom
and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:9-10)
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" (Revelation 5:12)
"And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb." (Rev 21:22)
7. In the fullness of time, God sent His Son Jesus to make atonement for sin once for all. What begins as small ray of light in Genesis shines forth in full noonday sun in the Gospels. Jesus died for our sins, yours and mine. God provided the perfect sacrifice in His Lamb, but man must appropriate it by faith.
"My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus' blood and righteousness."
*Text quoted from Wil Pounds (www.abideinchrist.com)
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