The Covering for Sin
Genesis 3:20-21
Rev. Brian Bill
March 25-26, 2023
An aptronym is a compound word consisting of the adjective “apt,” meaning aptitude, and the Greek word for “name.” An aptronym is when someone’s name and occupation line up perfectly, when what they’re called describes what they do. Here are some real-life examples:
• Dr. Bowser Veterinarian
• Dr. Whack Chiropractor
• Dan Druff Barber
• Dr. Payne Dentist
• Otto Nogo Mechanic
• Dr. Slaughter Surgeon
• Sonia Shears Beautician
• Dr. Whitehead Dermatologist
• Rose Flowers Florist
• Dr. Smellsey Podiatrist
Names are very important to God. From the very beginning of the Bible, we read: “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night…God called the expanse Heaven…God called the dry land ‘Earth’” (Genesis 1:5, 8, 10). He also gave names to different people, with the meaning of the name often characterizing their character. For instance, Isaac implies “laughter,” Jacob means “deceiver,” and Moses refers to being “drawn out.”
Parents spend a lot of time figuring out what to name their children. I have some relatives who were very intentional about naming their kids (and I’m not making this up): Bob Bill, Bonnie Bill, Bernie Bill, Brenda Bill, Bruce Bill, and Blain Bill…and their bunny named Bertha (OK, I made that last one up!).
While names are important in our culture, they were even more so in biblical times. Proverbs 22:1 says a good name is more to be desired than great riches. Names didn’t just distinguish or label a person; they often revealed the very nature of an individual. For example, Nabal, whose name means “fool,” lived out his name according to 1 Samuel 25:25: “Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.”
The term for name in the Old Testament means “individual mark” and communicated an individual’s essence. In the New Testament, the word for name comes from a verb which means “to know.”
A change of name indicated a deliberate and decisive redirection in a person’s life, like when Abram (exalted father) became Abraham (father of a multitude), when Sarai (my princess) became Sarah (princess of a multitude), when Jacob (deceiver) became Israel (God contends), and when Simon (one who hears) was given the name Peter (rock). A change of name in the Bible referred to a change within a person’s nature.
In the Bible to know someone’s name was to really know the person. Conversely, if you didn’t know someone’s name you didn’t really know that individual. We could say that a person was somehow present in his or her name. That’s one reason we’re encouraging everyone to greet people they don’t know after the service. To the extent we get to know each other’s names, we’ll also move toward each other in relationship. It’s been a minute since I learned that hormones, such as dopamine and serotonin, are released into your brain when someone says your name out loud.
Last weekend, we discovered how the curse of Adam’s sin brings suffering to everyone. As part of Eve’s consequence, she would experience pain in motherhood and problems in her marriage. Adam would be penalized by the futility of labor and the finality of life. Today, we’re going to learn about the purpose of a new name and the provision of new clothes. Next week we’ll focus on a new place for Adam and Eve after they were evicted from Eden.
Here’s our main idea: God gives us a new name and a new nature when we receive His Son as our sacrificial substitute.
Our text is just two verses from Genesis 3:20-21: “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”
1. The purpose of a new name. By way of reminder, Adam had just been told by God that his destiny would be death in verse 19: “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” With that in mind, it’s amazing what Adam does next in the first half of verse 20: “The man called his wife’s name Eve...” The word “called” means, “to announce, to be named.”
With the sentence of death ringing in his ears, he gave a new name to his wife. Before this she was known as a female (1:27), helper (2:18), woman (2:23), and wife (2:24-25). These are descriptive terms, but not names. But from now on, her name would be “Eve.” Surprisingly, this is the first time she is called Eve in the Genesis account, even though I’ve referred to her by that name in previous sermons.
The name “Eve” means, “living one, life-giver, making alive, life-spring.” Her name reflected her nature. After hearing about his destiny of dust and death in verse 19, you’d think Adam might name his wife the Grim Reaper but instead he named her life-giver.
When Adam named his wife “life,” he valued her, fulfilled his role, and made a statement of faith. Though they would die, God would grant life to their offspring. Because of sin, the woman would have pain in childbearing (that’s justice) but would also have the promise of children (that’s mercy). Here are seven observations:
1) Adam had once blamed Eve for her past sin and now he named her in light of future promises. He didn’t seem to resent her for her rebellious act of sin, but gave her a fresh start, just as God does with us. He chose to focus on life, not death. The commentator Delitzsch calls this “grace in the midst of wrath.” Every time someone spoke Eve’s name, it would signify life. Adam’s name meant dust or dirt, while Eve’s name meant life.
2) Adam affirmed Eve’s personhood, and the unique role God had given to her. She doesn’t remain nameless, nor does she name herself. By giving her a personal and proper name, he affirmed how valuable she was as one personally made in the image of God.
3) This act of naming counteracts the alienation that had taken place between the couple. Naming Eve reinforced that they were in relationship with each other, and they had a mission to accomplish together.
4) Adam stepped up by exercising his leadership. The act of naming was the prerogative of his role as the humble head of their family. As my friend Ben says, “We must not skim too quickly over the fact that Adam is once again naming…having abdicated the authority of guarding the Garden, Adam is filling that role and standing up for what is right.”
5) Adam demonstrated faith and held on to hope when he called her life-giver. At this point, Adam didn’t even know what pregnancy and labor looked like. In other words, he named her Eve before she was a mother. To pick up on the themes of Jeremiah 29:11, Adam and Eve had “a hope and a future.” BTW, our theme for our four Easter services is “Resurrecting Hope.” Biblical hope can be defined as, “The confident expectation of what God has already promised.”
6) Adam locked into the promise of offspring. Genesis 3:16 says Eve will “bring forth children.” Even though Adam and Eve were destined to die, they would “be fruitful and multiply” and leave a legacy of life for generations to follow. To counteract death, Eve would be the mother of all the living. One application of this is that we’re all part of one race – the human race. While we tend to divide people into different races, and lean toward racism and prejudicial behaviors, the Bible tells us we have one common mother and father.
7) Adam was demonstrating his bold faith that out of Eve’s offspring will come the promised Messiah. I like how Nancy Guthrie says it: “Faced with certain death and inevitable suffering, Adam put his hope in the promise of the offspring who would crush the head of the one who led him into sin…we can stare the curse of death in the face and celebrate the promise that this curse is not God’s final word.”
It is for these reasons Adam labeled “Eve” life-giver. We see this in the use of “because” in the second part of verse 20: “…because she was the mother of all living.” Notice the use of the past tense: “she was the mother.” Adam was so certain this would happen that it’s written as if it had already taken place. It’s as good as done before it’s done. Though death was coming, life was also on the way. This could be the first profession of faith in the Bible.
Ray Pritchard points out that Adam knew there was no going back and there was no covering up what he had done. Ray calls this the “First Law of Spiritual Progress” and believes every follower of Christ must grasp these three truths:
• I can’t go back.
• I can’t stay here.
• I must go forward.
“Adam could not go back and undo the original sin. And he could not stay forever in paradise. The deed was done, and the wreckage was all around him. The only option left for him was to go forward.”
God gives us a new name and a new nature when we receive His Son as our sacrificial substitute.
2. The provision of new clothes. We see this in verse 21: “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” Once again, we see two of God’s names used in tandem: “Lord God” in the Hebrew is Yahweh Elohim. This compound name for God is used 20 times in Genesis 2-3. When these two names are used together, we’re reminded how God is powerful and personal. He is the creator who makes, and He is the covenant-maker who keeps, His promises. He is transcendentally holy and tender hearted. He is mighty and merciful. He is immanent and intimate. He is sovereign and Savior. He is majestic and I can say He’s mine.
We see the Lord God’s compassion on display when He made clothes for Adam and Eve. God is the world’s first clothing designer as He gave His final gift to Adam and Eve in the garden. The word “made” means, “To accomplish a distinct purpose, to complete a goal.” This is the same word used in Genesis 3:7 when the first couple made themselves hastily sewn loincloths in a futile attempt to cover up their sin.
The word “garments” refers to a long undergarment, which was a full-length gown of grace worn next to the skin, like a long shirt from the wrists to ankles. What a contrast to the loose-fitting fig leaf loincloths! Fig leaves were scratchy and sticky and didn’t hold up well. Ray’s insight makes me smile: “There are so many problems with fig leaves. They fall apart easily, they itch, it’s hard to find the right size, and every day or two you’ve got to get a new outfit. Plus, you can’t do much plowing or planting or serious cooking if you’re wearing fig leaves.”
As I reflected on why God clothed Adam and Eve, I wrote down 10 observations.
1) To help them face the elements in the harsh environment they would live in after they were expelled from Eden (more about that next weekend).
2) To demonstrate how God always takes care of our necessities. This is stated in Matthew 6:31: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’”
3) To establish the importance of modesty and protect them from embarrassment. To be naked in ancient Israel was deeply shameful and no one could approach God unclothed. This was especially the case when priests approached the altar according to Exodus 20:26: “And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.” BTW, we need to reclaim and reassert the importance of modesty in how we dress as a way to protect the purity of our brothers and sisters. Our clothing should remind us of what we lost because of sin.
4) To show acceptance and belonging. In Luke 15:22, the first thing the father did when the prodigal son returned was to clothe him with the “best robe.” This was a demonstration of complete approval, love, and mercy and was evidence of a restored relationship.
5) To picture the need for atonement. This comes through the shedding of blood, the suffering of death, and the substitutionary sacrifice of another.
6) To demonstrate how serious sin is. It cost the innocent animals their lives.
7) To show how their feeble attempts at covering up the shame of their sin did not work. Their clothing was inadequate and insufficient. They took leaves from an inanimate, unfeeling tree; God took the life of animals. One commentator said it like this: “Adam had to learn that sin could be covered not by a bunch of leaves snatched from a bush as he passed by and that would grow again next year, but only by pain and blood.”
8) To show how God must provide what was needed. He didn’t add to what Adam and Eve had begun but started over by ripping off the loincloths and giving them new outfits. God killed the animals. God made the skins. God covered them with clothing.
9) To show the mercy of God. Adam and Eve deserved death because of their disobedience but God made a way for their sins to be put away.
10) To show the grace of God. God also gave them what they didn’t deserve as He moved toward them to restore the relationship.
These garments were made from the “skins” of animals. Though it doesn’t say specifically, it’s likely God would have slaughtered animals in front of Adam and Eve to make their long leather garments. I wonder what that was like for them to see all the blood spilled from innocent animals who were sacrificed to provide covering for them. They were probably horrified as they saw the animals Adam had named and nurtured butchered before their eyes. Their sin cost these innocent animals their lives.
With the sacrifice of another’s life, God clothed Adam and Eve. Because of their sin, Adam and Eve should have been the first to die but God provided substitute sacrifices for them. This foreshadows the necessity of suffering, sacrifice, and substitution. Years later, God’s people were told to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and apply its blood to their doorposts so the angel of death would “pass over” them (see Exodus 12).
This is more fully developed in the Mosaic Law in Leviticus 4:28-31: “He shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering in the place of burnt offering. And the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. And all its fat he shall remove, as the fat is removed from the peace offerings, and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a pleasing aroma to the LORD. And the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.”
This passage describes the doctrine of atonement. Every time an animal was sacrificially slaughtered as their substitute and its skin given to the priests, the people would be reminded of their sins and the necessity of someone paying the price for those sins.
This all culminated in the final sacrifice of Jesus Christ as our sin substitute on the cross. The covering of clothing was a picture of how God provided atonement through the blood sacrifice of the seed of Eve. Hebrews 9:22: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Let’s worship together as we consider these promises:
Psalm 32:1-2: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity…”
Isaiah 61:10: “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
Thinking of how God clothed Adam and Eve took me back to a letter I wrote to the Dispatch-Argus in 2019 called, “Keeping Your Clothes On.” I wrote this after the newspaper put a picture of a naked man on the front page. Underneath the indecent image was this headline: “We just like to have our clothes off.” Wrapped around a photo of an unclothed woman riding a lawnmower was a long article with two more provocative pictures, celebrating and promoting a nudist campground about 30 miles from the QCA. Unbelievably, the article claimed the resort was “family-friendly” and their golden rule was “tolerance.”
Here’s what I wrote:
I believe the Bible is instructive for us on this topic. Before Adam and Eve sinned, Genesis 2:25 says they walked with God in Eden, “naked and not ashamed.” However, after sinning they were exposed and filled with shame so they “sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (Genesis 3:7).
In Genesis 3:21 God took the initiative and graciously sought out the hiding couple and “made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” God provided a cover for them, not to punish, but to protect. He did so through the sacrifice of animals, showing them that covering sin comes at the expense of life. In addition, these garments of grace were necessary for their own modesty in a fallen world.
In Genesis 9:21-23, we read about Noah’s nakedness. One son saw his nudity while two other sons “laid a garment on, walking backward and covered the nakedness of their father” so they would not see him in this state. These two sons knew nudity is not family-friendly. According to Jesus, the golden rule is not tolerance but rather to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12).
In contrast to our culture’s ubiquitous sensuality, our clothing reminds us of God’s sweet mercy. While modesty has become an outdated term, we’re to keep private those things that are most precious. Only within the context of biblical marriage are we to be naked and unashamed.
The best I can do to cover my guilt is as inadequate and temporary as an ill-fitted fig leaf. God sent His Son to clothe me with forgiveness. Jesus Christ is my perfect covering because He paid the penalty for my sins by dying in my place.
While I wish the newspaper wouldn’t promote nudity, my greater hope is for each of us to be covered by what Jesus did on the cross for us.
In the last book of the Bible we read, “Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed” (Revelation 16:15).
Let’s keep our clothes on and stories like this off the front page.
Friends, our souls are naked before a holy God. James Montgomery Boice makes four summary statements:
• We need a covering for our sin.
• Our attempts at covering ourselves are inadequate.
• Only God can provide the covering we need for our sin.
• The covering God provided required the death of an innocent substitute.
Just as Adam renamed his wife, so God re-clothed the couple. Eve became the life-giver and fig leaves gave way to full-length garments of grace. Both of these actions indicate there is hope and a future after the fall.
Self-salvation projects don’t work. We need new names and new clothes. You are either standing before God clothed in the fig leaves of your own imperfect intentions, or you are clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ through the new birth.
Isaiah 62:2: “And you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give.” In literal terms, the Christian concept of “vicarious atonement” is that Jesus was substituted for humanity and was punished for our faults in order to pay for the sins we had committed so we can be reconciled to God.
Hebrews 10:4: “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” We don’t need a covering made from animals, we need cleansing that comes from Christ.
Hebrews 10:11-12: “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.”
God gives us a new name and a new nature when we receive His Son as our sacrificial substitute.
God is the one who killed the animals and God ordained the sacrificial death of His Son. Acts 2:23: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” Isaiah 53:10: “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him; He has put Him to grief; when His soul makes an offering for guilt.” I’m really looking forward to our Good Friday Reflection time as we focus on the three hours Jesus was on the cross.
I close with some insight from Pastor Justin Smith…
Notice here that this is only one of two sacrifices God has ever performed. God provided the [first] sacrifice with the first Adam, and then with Jesus as the “Last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45). God provided the [final] sacrifice…the first sacrifice pointed towards the second one much later. All the animal sacrifices in between…pointed towards the sacrifice of Jesus. They all “anticipated” and foreshadowed His once-for-all-time sacrifice on the cross.
You might say in doing the first and the “last” sacrifice, God was displaying again that He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning, and the End, the First and the Last.
The first sacrifice in the Garden was to clothe sinful man. It made “atonement,” meaning to “cover.” Adam and Eve were covered in shame, and they needed [their] shame to be covered. BUT, the other sacrifice, the Sacrifice of All Sacrifices that Jesus made with His own body, is the sacrifice that went beyond merely “covering,” it brings cleansing. The sacrifice of Jesus cleanses us of sin, not merely “covering over” our sin.
Do not try to “cover” your sins by your “good works.” God sees right through them and sees your sin still. They can’t wash you. And they can’t hide you from God. What you need is to stop trying yourself to do something about your sins and instead turn to Jesus who has already done something about them. He died for your sins on the cross. Stop “working off” your sins by trying to cover them up and instead let Jesus cleanse you and purify you of all your sins.
God gives us a new name and a new nature when we receive His Son as our sacrificial substitute.
Gospel Invitation
