Covered by the Blood of Jesus :: Genesis 3:1-21

And Yahweh Elohim ... (the LORD God) ... made for Adam and his wife tunics of skin, and he clothed them (v 21).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, forgiveness is not easy. It never is. Not for you, me, or God. Forgiveness is gross. Forgiveness is a bloody mess. We don’t want this to be true. We want forgiveness to be clean and neat. No muss. No fuss. No blood. No death. Just cover it. Just say a word. Say I am forgiven because of something I call faith. Make it that simple. Act like it never happened. But forgiveness is a bloody mess. It is not easy. It is not delightful. 

The forgiveness of sins requires the shedding of blood (Hb 9:22). It has been that way from the beginning. Where else do you think that Yahweh Elohim got the skin for the tunics that covered Adam and his wife in the garden for their sin that not only brought death to themselves but to all of creation? God was at rest in creation. How else could Yahweh Elohim clothe ... you know, cover the shame of ... Adam and his wife? How else would God Almighty deliver to you the forgiveness of sins? By just forgetting? By acting like it never happened? 

Forgiveness is a bloody mess.

What happened in the Garden of Eden is quite shocking. Adam and his wife gave us a bloody mess that we can never clean up. You may not have recognized the truth of that before today. But look at Adam and Eve here in Genesis 3. They are dressed in tunics of skin. The hunters and butchers among us know exactly what that means. Forevermore, when they would look at each other, they would see these tunics of skin and be reminded of the bloody mess they caused ... not only to themselves ... not only to each other ... but to all of creation. Before the fall, they knew only good. Now they know evil ... evil in the most intimate way. 

Their sin brought death not only to an animal ... perhaps a Lamb ... but it brought death to themselves ... it created separation between God and man. No longer would they have intimate fellowship with God, walking with God, talking with God, eating with God. The tunics of skin should have always reminded them of their wretched fall from supreme happiness into the pain and misery ... sickness and death. It should have reminded them that Yahweh Elohim ... the Creator of Heaven and Earth ... the Creator of all things good ... clothed the man and the woman not in foliage that would dry up and die ... he clothed them not in soft, comfortable cotton ... He clothed them in the skin of a slain animal ... a covering that became a sign that we are mortal and we are living in the face of certain death. 

We need such reminders because we too quickly forget why we have the forgiveness of sins. God gives it to us ... not because we are worthy, so that no one can boast. We need such a reminder because too quickly we forget the price that was paid to deliver the forgiveness of sins. 

1.

God shed blood for us. Today’s Old Testament reading takes us back to the day this first happened. It was the day the woman tried to be the man and the day the man tried to be God. It was the day Lent began ... the day we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return because the wages of sin is death and the forgiveness of sins requires blood to be poured out.

The account of the fall of man is an account of rebellion, immorality, and sin that still afflicts us. It is an account of man wanting to be more than God wanted him to be. This is NOT the story of the origin of evil. After all, the serpent ... which already was evil ... was in the garden. This is an account of man’s capitulation to temptation ... 1) man’s failure to fear, love, and trust in God above all things ... 2) man’s failure in not misusing the name of God ... 3) man’s failure in despising preaching and God’s Word ... 4) man’s failure to honor his father ... 5) man’s failure in not hating ... 6) man’s failure in not staying sexually pure ... 7) man’s failure in not stealing ... 8) man’s failure in not improving and protecting his neighbor’s reputation ... 9, 10) man’s failure in not lusting for more. 

While it is true that none of these commandments had been expressly stated ... and they wouldn’t be until Exodus chapter 20, thousands of years later ... you should still be able to see how all of these commandments fell that day in the garden AND how all of these commandments are still falling today in your life. You should be able to see how we continue to do what we don’t want to do and fail to do what we know we should do. One action ... the woman trying to outsmart the serpent by adding to the Word of God ... and the man standing by and letting it all happen ... upset the entire structure of God’s will for man. 

And now the wage of sin is death. Your sin continues to create a bloody mess.

2.

Please now open your service book to page 322 and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine on the close of the commandments. What does God say about all these commandments? ... What does this mean? ... 

3.

This begins by not passing the buck. 

Moses writes ... When they heard the voice of Yahweh Elohim walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh Elohim in the midst of the trees of the garden. And Yahweh Elohim called to the man and said to him, Where are you? And [Adam] said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I became afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. And [God] said, who declared to you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat? 

The man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me [the fruit] from the tree, and I ate. Then Yahweh Elohim said to the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent led me into deception, and I ate (vv 8-13).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, you know the truth and the truth will set you free. If we say we have to sin, we cause ourselves to wander and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn 1:8-9). So in the name of Jesus, repent every one of you ... that is, mourn the fact that you are a sinner and you always need the forgiveness of sins. And then believe the Gospel. 

GOD COVERS ALL SIN THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB

The forgiveness that God offers to you is not clean and neat ... but it is sure and certain. It comes on account of holy bloodshed. God does not desire the death of a sinner. He desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tm 2:4) ... that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hb 9:22). 

So that is exactly what he did ... first in the garden, and then on the cross ... for you. 

After cursing the serpent, declaring to the serpent that upon [his] belly [he] shall go, and dust [he] shall eat all the days of [his] life (vv 14-15) ... after multiplying the pain of the woman for the birth of her sons (v 16) ... after cursing the earth because Adam listened to the voice of his wife instead of listening to the voice of God ... after condemning us to toil in sweat all the days until we die (vv 17-19) ... Yahweh Elohim made for Adam and his wife tunics of skins, and clothed them (v 21). He covered them. He took away their shame. He shed blood.

God has provided a magnificent covering for you ... a covering to hide your shame ... a covering that shows you are innocent ... not because you deserved it ... but because God loved you in this way, he gave his only begotten son, our Lord Jesus, to stand in your place, shedding his blood on a cross, suffering and dying there. The blood of Jesus continues to flow into the cup of salvation that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of your sins (Mt 26:28). Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves (Jn 6:53). Our Lord Jesus laid down his life to give you his. Though he was without sin, though he deserved life, he humbled himself, and became one with you, so that God could save you. Jesus shed his blood for you. Jesus gives his blood for your forgiveness. 

More than that, Jesus clothes you in the most magnificent tunic of all. This tunic exceeds the one in the garden. It exceeds the tunic Jacob gave to his son Joseph (Gen 37:3). It is more glorious and beautiful than the priests wore for service in the temple (Ex 29) and on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16). As Isaiah says, He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness (Is 61:10).

This covering came to you first in Holy Baptism, where God himself washed you, sanctified you, set you apart, to do the work he prepared for you. For as many as were baptized into Christ, have been clothed in Christ (Gal 3:27) ... who now lives in you and you in him. God has covered you in the blood of Jesus, which cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn 1:7). ... And [God] has given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls (Lv 17:11). ... For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sanctify (with the result being) the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb 9:13-14).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on account of the covering of sin God has provided ... on account of the blood of Jesus ... you can be sure ... trust ... rest in faith ... knowing that through the blood of Jesus, you are forgiven and free ... in his name.