And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Genesis 3:21
The covenant of creation God made with man was a covenant of works, if Adam worked the Garden of Eden, he would be blessed and, if Adam disobeyed God’s command to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. In this covenant, God promised eternal life (blessing) to Adam, and all those who come after him, on the condition of perfect obedience. The judgment on our first parents demonstrated their failure to meet this obligation and guarantees eternal death for Adam and all those who come after him. However, though physical death was promised on the day the fruit was eaten, God did not end Adam’s life immediately. Scripture shows us that God mercifully delayed the full realization of the curse upon Adam; he lived 930 years. God did promise that life will continue, but, with great difficulty, and, that His people will defeat Satan whose temptation resulted in the rift between God and man. These facts point to the second covenant made with man: the covenant of grace. The Westminster Confession of Faith says God “was pleased to make a second covenant, commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein God freely offers to sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ.” This covenant is unfolded in a series of successive covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Christ. Our verse today alludes to the covenant of grace that comes through Messiah in God’s making clothing to cover Adam and Eve. Adam expresses his faith in God’s promise that life will continue, not die completely, by calling his wife Eve “because she was the mother of all living.” The New Testament clearly teaches that the promises of the covenant of grace are ours through faith alone. The covenant of grace is fulfilled by God Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is Jesus whose works are perfect in every way to satisfy God’s requirements that no human can meet. God’s holiness demands that our sin receive His wrath, and it is this wrath against which we need protection. In clothing Adam and Eve, the Lord shows us He will meet this need ultimately through a death, the death of the Lamb of God, whose perfect obedience to the Father clothes us when we trust in Him alone. Through the covenant of grace, God mercifully reckons Jesus’ perfect obedience to the Father to our account when we trust in Jesus. Though our justification is by faith alone, we are foolish to imagine that we have true faith if we do not demonstrate our faith in works and obey God with our entire lives as James 2:14-26 teaches. Consider how you have habitually disobeyed God in certain ways and resolve to obey Him in faith today.
Source: S C Ball December 13, 2023
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