“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” – Genesis 3:21

 

In the beginning, Adam and Eve walked with God. They enjoyed all of the Lord’s great bounty and they were satisfied.  Then, along came the old serpent, the devil, and he tempted Eve into having her and Adam eat of the forbidden fruit. They sinned and disobeyed God’s one rule. The Bible says that their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked.  They first tried to hide their nakedness with leaves, but that didn’t work, so God made clothes for them out of animal skins.

 

The importance of that exchange can’t be stressed enough. Adam and Eve sinned, so they hid from God. When that didn’t work, they tried to cover up their own faults by themselves. That didn’t work either. It was only God that could cover their shame. Incidentally, for those of you who didn’t pick up on it, this was the first recorded animal sacrifice in the Bible. Since then, God had required a payment for all sins, and He still does.

 

We all fall short of the Glory of God. We all sin. We may try to do whatever good that we can, but as the Apostle Paul said, our good works are like dirty rags to God. That’s not saying that He doesn’t want us to do good things whenever we can, it’s just that we will never be good enough or do enough good things to earn the Kingdom of God. We still sin now and then and we expect those sins to go unnoticed to everyone because of our supposed good works. We may try to hide things and we might actually get away with it for a little while, but nothing stays hidden forever.

 

Only God can blot out our sins and wrongdoings. There was an animal that lost its life to clothe Adam and Eve, and there was another animal who lost its life for you and me. The Bible calls that animal “a lamb without blemish.” It was Jesus Christ. Only God in a man would ever be enough to take away the sins of the whole world, past, present, and future. It was a once and for all payment for our sins, and through the blood of the Holy Lamb, we are now clothed in righteousness. Before our garments were red as crimson, but when we accept Jesus, they are made white as snow.

 

This is the most glorious news there could ever be. All of what we owe for our sin was paid in full on the cross, but we must accept the payment that Christ has put forth or else it is made of no effect on our eternal lives. I hear people say, “Why would any loving God send someone to hell?” The truth is that God never sent anyone to hell, they sent themselves. If you are at a restaurant and someone wants to pay for your meal, you have the right to either accept that payment or turn it away. If you chose not to accept their payment, then it’s you who will have to pay for it. Either way, someone has to pay. The same thing goes for your sins. You can accept God’s grace or you can reject it. Just know that there are consequences for your choices one way or another.

 

If you have accepted Jesus into your life, wonderful. However, if you or a loved one do not know Jesus Christ, then I encourage you, in fact beg you, to please take a moment and make Jesus your Lord and Savior. Accept Him into your heart today and know that you never have to be ashamed anymore for what sin has done to you. You may feel dirty from the evils of this world, but you are now a member of the royal family of God. Through the precious blood of Jesus, you have a new change of clothes that will never be dirty again.

 

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

 

DH