The First Picture Of Grace In The Bible
Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned they felt...
embarrassed...
guilty...
ashamed.
In an attempt to cover their shame, they clothed themselves in fig leaves.
They were also afraid of God.
So they hid from him.
Yet God, in love, came to them.
He called out to Adam, asking him “Where are you?”
Adam replied, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
Hiding, because we are ashamed and afraid, is what we do when we sin.
We hide our sin from others because we fear their rejection.
We hide from God because we fear his rejection.
We continue to live in silence and in secret.
Then we put on our “fig leaves.”
We try to cover up our sin with good deeds.
We believe by doing good we can earn our way back into good standing with God and others.
But God, in love, comes to us.
In love, he calls out to us.
He knows we need to come out of hiding.
He takes off our fig leaves, forgives our sins, then clothes us in the very righteousness of Jesus.
That is what God did in the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve.
He put an animal to death for the temporary forgiveness of their sins then clothed them in the skin of the slain animal.
Their sin, their guilt, their death was transferred to the animal.
Remember, the result of sin was death for the human race.
Rather than Adam and Eve dying for their sin, God took an innocent animal, more than likely a lamb, put the animal to death in their place and clothed Adam and Eve in its skin.
This is the first picture of grace in the Bible.
Even though an animal’s death covered temporarily Adam and Eve’s sin, it did not permanently remove the sin penalty.
This is because the blood of animal can’t pay for the sin of a human being (Hebrews 10:4).
Only the blood of a human can fully and forever pay for the sin of another human being.
That is what Jesus did for us.
As the Son of Man, meaning Jesus was fully man, he came to give his life for us (Mark 10:45) and to become sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8; Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 4:9-10).
He shed his blood for the forgiveness for our sins (Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 7:27; 9:14).
He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29; Hebrews 7:27-28).
His payment for our sins was not temporary, but it was eternal (Hebrews 9:12; 24-28).
Through his blood, he established the eternal new covenant of grace where God is not counting our sins against us and where he remembers our sins no more (Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:20; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Hebrews 8:12; 10:10-18; 13:20).
God, after clothing Jesus in our sinfulness, clothed us (those who have placed their faith in Jesus) in Jesus’ righteousness.
We have been declared righteous by God (Romans 3:19-25).
No more fig leaves needed.
No more covering our sins, our flaws, or our failures.
No more trying to have a good standing before God by doing good (Galatians 2:21).
No more trying to impress God with our “religious fig leaves” so we can avoid his anger and gain his acceptance.
We are in good standing (righteous) with God by grace through faith in Jesus (Romans 5:1-2).
No more hiding needed.
We are loved by God.
Perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).
We do not need to fear God’s anger, rejection, condemnation, or judgement.
We are free.
We are free to be honest with God about ourselves…
our struggles…
our fears…
our hopes…
our dreams…
our lives.
This is because God loves, accepts, and has forgiven us, and he is now in a love relationship with us that is based completely upon what Jesus has done for us through grace (Romans 3:21-25; Galatians 2:21; Ephesians 1:3-8).
