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The Big Cover Up
"And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them." - Gen 3:21
We don't know if Adam and Eve had even seen an animal die at this point in their lives, but we do know that they hadn't killed for clothing. It must have been sobering to consider that because of their own sin and shame animals had to die to cover that shame.
Note, also, that it was just that: a covering. It didn't really solve the problem. They were barred from the tree of life, and they had wrecked their perfect communion with their Creator. God had promised the ultimate solution a few verses earlier when He told the serpent that the seed of woman would bruise (or crush) his head, but that would happen long after their lives were over.
Too often we, too, fall short of God's plan for us. We content ourselves by "covering up" our sins with moral living or good works, and we don't look for the ultimate solution that God has provided. We become occupied with trying to outweigh the "bad" things with "good" things, and we fail to understand that our sin MUST be dealt with.
The covering for Adam and Eve was a good thing, even provided by God, though it didn't solve the problem of the sin they had committed. God has created good works for His children to walk in, and, while doing those good works is "good", that doesn't solve the problem of sin any more than the covering did for Adam and Eve. Our sin MUST be dealt with.
Thousands of years later, when the Jews in Jerusalem understood that their sin MUST be dealt with, they didn't go about trying to earn their way into heaven by doing good works to outweigh the bad. They knew they were helpless. They asked Peter what they MUST do in Acts 2:37. Now, read for yourself exactly what Peter commanded in the next verse. Have you dealt with your sin, or are you still trying to outweigh the "bad" with the "good"?
