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Grounded-In-Biblical-Truth |
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Adam and Eve violated the law of God. Having sinned, they realized that they were naked. They attempted to cover their nakedness and shame with garments made by their own hands. But garments of human manufacture are unsuitable for standing before God. God therefore Himself, in free and sovereign grace, remedied their plight. "Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:22).
In this text (which many might consider somewhat insignificant) is found a very glorious foreshadow of Jesus Christ in the following particulars.
I. The innocent died in the place of the guilty. If God clothed Adam and Eve in tunics of skin, the animal whence those skins came had to have died.
Why did it die? It did not die as the result of any guilt of its own. It was innocent, not having violated God's law. It did not die at the hands of another animal. There was no violence in the world until this very incident. It did not die on its own. Death is the result of sin (James 1:15), and there was no sin in the world until this very incident. It did not die at the hand of man for meat. Man lived on a non-meat diet until the day of Noah many centuries later (Genesis 9:3).
Rather, this innocent animal died at the hand of God and as a sacrifice for the sin of the guilty. Its skin was removed for their covering. Therefore its blood was shed as a sacrifice for the guilty.
The sacrificial death of this animal is a glorious foreshadow of Jesus Christ. He is "the Lamb of God" (John 1:36). Like that first sacrificial animal, Christ also is innocent: "as ... a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19). Like that first sacrificial animal, Christ also was killed, being in the eternal decree of God "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). Like that first sacrificial animal which was killed in its innocence for the sin of Adam and Eve, Christ is "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). He has taken away the sin of the world by shedding His own blood for the guilty.
II. The sacrifice provided a covering for the guilty. The guilty pair were clothed in the skin of the sacrifice.
Here also is a glorious foreshadow of Jesus Christ. As the skin of that first sacrificial animal covered the physical nakedness of the guilty, even so has the righteousness of Christ covered the spiritual nakedness of sinners. The people of God shall be "clothed with righteousness" (Psalm 132:9). This righteousness is not their own, but that of Jesus Christ which they receive through faith alone in Him, apart from any works of their own. They therefore delight to "be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Philippians 3:9). Such believers may exclaim, "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).
Sadly, self-righteous sinners refuse the righteousness which God provides. They prefer to follow the example of fallen Adam and Eve by covering themselves in garments of their own manufacture. They deceive themselves into supposing that they are fit to stand before God because they are clothed in such things as their good works, their law-observance, their baptism, their sabbath-keeping, their church membership and sectarian relationship. But when they stand before God they will have to acknowledge that "all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6).
We exhort you to be clothed in the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ which is received from God alone through faith alone in Christ alone, totally apart from any works of our own (Romans 3:21-26). Then you too can sing with the saints:
Your servant for Jesus' sake.
Address all questions to pastor
Daniel E. Parks (2 Corinthians 4:5) e-mail RedeemerBC@aol.com
Pastor, Redeemer Baptist Church
2801 Cleveland Boulevard, Louisville, KY 40206 / 502.899-9205
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