Genesis 3:21. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
You probably remember that, immediately after sinning, Adam and Eve made coverings for themselves out of fig leaves in order to cover their nakedness and shame. But those temporary coverings will never do practically speaking. Clothes made from foliage will never last in the harsh conditions awaiting them east of Eden. And so God makes for them garments of animal skins.
Many see in this act of kindness by God much more than the meeting of a practical need. They see the meeting of our ultimate need – atonement. Is this clothing of the cursed sinners a glimpse into what is to come through Christ? Christ who was predicted moments earlier in Genesis 3:15.
Genesis 3:15. I (God) will put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
This protoevangelium (first gospel) promises mankind that God will make a way to defeat the offspring of Satan. How? Through the offspring of the woman. We will be set free from the curse of sin and death one day through the bruised heel of the righteous one. This man, the human offspring of a woman, will cover over our sin and shame by the giving of his own life.
Are the skin garments a picture of this coming salvation? A picture of our restoration to what we were meant to be from the beginning – king-priests in the presence of God. Might these garments be the first priestly garments used to cover over the shame of the servants of God just as future garments would cover the shame of priests in God’s Tabernacle.
Exodus 28:42-43. 42You shall make for [the priests] linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs; 43and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him.
God is not done with Adam and Eve. In light of the good news of the coming Savior, the head crusher of the serpent, and by the power of God’s mercy and grace, Adam and Eve are restored to their position as priests and their mandate to both rule over and serve creation.
And let’s be perfectly clear – fig leaves won’t do. We cannot clothe ourselves for this sacred duty. Only God can make for us the garments we need. Only a covering that required sacrifice and death would work. For now, and for thousands of years to come, that would be the death of an animal, sacrificed before God to cover over the sins of God’s people by the blood of the sacrifice – “For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22).”
If Genesis 3:21 is the first sacrifice for sin, then Christ’s death on the cross is the last. By faith in Christ we are clothed in his righteousness. His life is our priestly garment. We wear Jesus as our royal robe.
Galatians 3:26-27. 26for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Just as the Old Testament priests had to wear purified clothes that covered their nakedness and shame, we have now been clothed in Christ Jesus with the white linen of his eternal love for us. Because Jesus went to the cross for us naked and ashamed, we can live our lives clothed in the glory of his grace. Now our life in Christ requires daily putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. His robes of righteousness. His linen of love. His headdress of holiness. His armor of God.
Romans 13:14. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Questions: How does knowing you are eternally clothed and covered in Christ allow you to pursue his righteousness? What specifically should the daily putting on of Christ look like in your life?
To Live is Christ 