The
Tenth Sunday after Trinity.
The
Collect.
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L
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ET thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble
servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such
things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
9 And
the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And
he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was
naked; and I hid myself………….
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins,
and clothed them. (Gen 3: 9-10, 21)
In
reading this verse from Genesis 3:21, we must bear in mind that which has
transpired most recently in the Garden at Eden. A full reading of the third
chapter reveals Eve was beguiled (deluded) by Satan (in the form of a serpent).
She convinced Adam to share of the forbidden fruit from the cursed tree.
Suddenly, Adam and Eve realized they were naked. Such a consciousness had never
occurred to them prior to partaking of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil. So why were their eyes opened to their nakedness at this
point? Disobedience is sin, and sin opens our eyes to our nakedness and depravity.
But the answer to our hopelessness, sin tells us, is to cover ourselves with
our own good works. "Go ahead, Adam, and sin. You can always cover your
sins from the eyes of God!" But Adam could not cover his nakedness before
God. It was a permanent condition, and only a temporary remedy, through the
first death on earth, could be obtained from God.
A
fig leaf is bloodless and inadequate, for there is no remission of sin without
the shedding of blood. "….without shedding of blood is no remission.
(Heb 9:22). The visions of labor made by Adam and Eve made for the covering of
their nakedness (sin) fell far short of the serious and bloody sacrifice
necessary. If the wages of sin is death, the sacrifice must be by death of one
not guilty of the sin if a covering is to be provided. At the very moment of
Adam's Fall, it became necessary for Christ to come unto us and die a
humiliating and painful death on the cross at Calvary. The loving heart of God
was crushed at that moment of Adam's Fall. Of course, the provision had already
been made, for all who would accept it, in the Councils of Heaven long before
the Creation, yet, the actual event of Adam's careless sin, leading to the
necessary sacrifice of Christ, must have been a moment of great despondency in
Heaven. It is doubtful that Adam was aware of the great price that his sin
would entail, but his disobedience of a direct Commandment of God was gravely
serious and one which Adam should have realized….and he did! Despite their
every cunning effort to cover their nakedness with the flimsy inadequacies of a
fig leaf, their labors were futile and hopeless. Hiding in the bushes availed
no cover, either, from the penetrating eye of the Lord. We, too, often feel
that we can sin more freely once we are outside the Garden Enclosed (the
physical structure of the Church), but the Church is everywhere the people of
God go, and there is no hiding from God.
Adam
had proven his inability to remain faithful to God. Now, God must teach Adam
the terrible consequences of sin. He did it so that hope could be consummated
thousands of years in the sending of a Savior. But there must be a school of
learning to be attended before that salvation could be understood and realized.
Just as God had commanded the sacrifice of that first Passover Lamb in old
Goshen, He would now teach Adam that a blood sacrifice was necessary to cover
his nakedness. God found it necessary to sacrifice the first animal
to die upon the earth (probably a lamb) to cover the nakedness of
the two backslidden progenitors of the race.
21 Unto
Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed
them Here begins the bloody sacrifices that would foreshadow and
typify that once-and-for-all blood sacrifice of the Son of God upon a cross. If
Adam could not keep ONE Commandment, God would give him TEN more, plus many
entangling ordinances, to cause him to know that he was incapable of
righteousness and needed a Savior to redeem him. That law of God, laid down in
the Old Testament, became our school teacher to show us that we cannot be
righteous – that we need a redeemer. That Law, owing to its demands of
perfection, is a curse to all men. In fact, the very last word of the Old
Testament (Books of the Law) is the word CURSE! We, like Adam, can never cover
our own nakedness (sin). Someone guiltless of the smallest sin must be found to
pay the sin penalty, which is death. That One and Only Person was Jesus Christ.
He was the only One who was perfect in all of His ways, pure and sinless. Only
such a One could bear our sins on the cross – and He did! Will you now turn in
your fig leaf for that priceless Robe of Righteousness which Christ purchased
for you at Calvary?
