Genesis 3:21. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Have you ever played “dress up?” I have young grandchildren who love to dress up like Disney characters and superheroes. In a very real way what they are wearing becomes who they are. Or think about people who wear a uniform to work. What jobs can you think of that require wearing a special uniform? For example, when a police officer puts on their uniform they become the thing that they are wearing – someone we all need to listen to and obey.
Do you remember what Adam and Eve wore right after they sinned? They made coverings for themselves out of fig leaves in order to cover their nakedness and shame. But clothes made out of leaves will never do. Especially since they will have to leave the Garden of Eden and go live in the harsh world outside the garden. So God makes for them garments of animal skins.
Think about what it takes to make clothes out of animal skins. That’s right, an animal had to die for their sins. When God made them clothes from an animal he wasn’t just making them better clothes, he was giving us a preview of what it will take for our sins to be covered.
Just before making Adam and Eve these clothes from animal skin, God promise that one day a hero would come and destroy sin and Satan. This promise about Jesus came 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 can be a really difficult verse to understand. It promises that God will make a way to defeat Satan, the offspring of the serpent. How? Through the offspring of the woman. Her baby boy. All humanity will be set free from the curse of sin and death one day through the bruised heel of a righteous person. This man will cover over our sin and shame by the giving of his own life. If all of this is confusing, that’s OK. Just know that God has promised that one day a savior would come to rescue us all from our sin and death. The clothes God made for Adam and Eve, the animal skin garments, are a picture of this coming salvation.
God makes it clear – fig leaves won’t do. We cannot clothe ourselves with our good deeds. Only God can make the clothes we need. Only garments that required sacrifice and death would work. For thousands of years the Israelites would sacrifice animals before God to cover over their sins by the blood of the sacrifice. Like the Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22).”
God is not done with Adam and Eve. He not only forgives them, but he covers them with clothes so that they can keep being what they were created to be, his servants. Just like the Old Testament priests wore special robes to serve God, Adam and Eve will now wear special robes to serve God too.
And so do we! Jesus promises to not only forgive us of our sins, but to also clothe us in his own garments of righteousness. His own perfection and holiness. Like Adam and Eve and the priests in the Old Testament, we wear robes that show who we are. Of course, our robes are invisible. They are spiritual robes. The clothes of God’s glory and grace, his kindness and love. When God looks at us he sees that we are wearing Jesus, and that tells him who we are – we are his children just like Jesus is.
And when other people see us they should see us wearing Jesus too. Just like when a child plays dress up, we should act like the one we are wearing. If we are wearing Jesus, then we should act like him. We should look like him. His kindness. His forgiveness. His respect. His love.
Questions: What do you think it means that we are wearing Jesus like clothes? What will “dressing up” like Jesus look like for you today?
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