A Matter Of Life And Death Series

But I’d read the story about Adam, and it tells me in the book of Genesis that we’re not animals. We’ve been made in the image of God. We have a choice. We can decide our fate. And no matter how messed up your life is now, if you admit you’ve sinned, God can fix you.

ILLUS: I remember hearing the story about a woman who was talking to psychiatrist. She told him how unhappy she was with her life and then she said … she hoped her suffering was all her own fault. The psychiatrist was shocked: “Why on earth would you want this to be YOUR fault?” She responded: If it was her fault she could do something about it. She couldn’t change everything in life, but she could change herself. (Jordan Peterson in a video at PragerU “Don’t Blame Others. Fix Yourself.”)

You can change your life. You just have to decide that that’s what you WANT to do. But you have to want to change. And you have the Free Will to make that choice to make that change. That’s what the story of Adam teaches us.

But now… there’s one last part of Adam’s story we need to understand. Adam wanted to fix what he'd damaged, but he personally couldn't get it done. I mean, he WANTED to fix it… and he TRIED to fix it. But he just couldn't undo the damage of what he'd broken. Genesis 3:6-7 tells us that “(Eve) 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.”

Their sin made them self-conscious. Now, they’d been naked BEFORE they’d sinned… but now it seemed immoral. Their nakedness was a mark of their immorality and they were ashamed. So they tried covering themselves with a garment of leaves.

Now, I’ve seen lots of different leaves in my lifetime, but I have yet to see a garment made of leaves that could keep out a good stiff breeze. And the Bible tells us that no matter how much we do to “cover our sin” - no matter how many good deeds you do, no matter how nice you are, or how much money you give away - none of that stuff can cover our past. God sees right through it.

And so, when God came to visit, Adam & Eve realized that their hand-made clothing was inadequate. So… THEY HID! The clothing they had made DIDN’T cover their nakedness. So God made them clothes that would cover their sin. “The LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” Genesis 3:21

Garments of skins? Where would you get garments of skins? Well, from dead animals. Something had to die to cover the sins of Adam and Eve. This was the first sacrifice recorded in Scripture. It was a sacrifice made by God Himself. And Adam & Eve were clothed with God’s SACRIFICE!

That was the first recorded sacrifice for sins. Do you know what the last sacrifice in Scripture was? It was when Jesus’ death on the cross, and God made that sacrifice as well.

But how does God cover our nakedness in the sacrifice of Christ? That answer is found in Galatians 3:27 “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have CLOTHED yourselves with Christ.” When we were buried in the waters of baptism we were literally wrapped in Jesus. His righteousness covers us like a garment. And that – of course – was the genius of God’s design, for when we go down into the waters of baptism we are literally wrapped in the waters, enveloped as in a garment.