The Covering

My mind has been on Genesis lately.  If you read my last blog post, you'll know why.  The picture of God's love in the midst of the Garden, after the Fall, has really done a number on my spiritual life. And today, I find myself here again...in Genesis...just as bumfuzzled and bewildered about the love of my Lord and His amazing care for His wayward creation. 

After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, God showed many mercies to them.  One in particular was by clothing them for their life OUTSIDE the Garden.  This wasn't a joyous occasion.  He didn't take them out to the nearest Macy's and say, "Here, find anything you want, and I'll get it for you.  Just make sure it fits well, and I get a good deal for my money."

Instead, God had to do something very sad.  He had to take one of the animals He created...one of the animals Adam and Eve had probably petted and played with...one of the animals which was precious to them all...and He had to kill it.

Death had entered the world.

Adam and Eve, in their shame, had clothed themselves with fresh leaves, but their newly woven garments weren't going to last very long.  Can you imagine how long it would have taken for that type of clothing to be destroyed?  If you're having a hard time picturing it, just think with me about my six year old son playing football in the front yard with his older brother...dressed in a covering of leaves.  No matter how many stitches I had used to perfect the garment, it wouldn't last more than the first tackle! 

God knew this.  He knew their attempt at covering themselves wouldn't work very long outside the Garden.  They would need something else...something a little more suited for the weather...something a little more permanent.  So, in order to remedy this temporary "fix,"  God had to do something drastic. 

He had to kill.

He took one of His creations - we aren't told which animal it was - and He killed it, in order to provide a better covering for His wayward children.  This, in itself, is an act of love.  If He were the angry, vengeful, hateful God that some claim Him to be, He would have kicked the couple out of the Garden right then and there, clothed in their pitiful green leaves.   Yet, instead,  He sadly sacrificed something precious to Him to temporarily cover their sin, until a later time!

Did you get that - UNTIL A LATER TIME!  Fast forward with me a few thousand years.  God's children were still figuratively clothed in their temporary garments of animal skin - skins that wore out - skins that reeked of death - skins that were temporary.  There wasn't a permanent covering for their shame...UNTIL JESUS.

Is. 64:6 says, But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind have taken us away.  Yep, sounds like a covering of rotting leaves to me.  And yet, read on in the New Testament in Romans 4:6,7.  This is where the joyful covering takes place - no more sorrow, no more death:  Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes Righteousness without works saying, Blessed are they whose iniquites are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

Do you see the exchange?  God, in His sorrow, sacrificed an animal to provide a temporary shame covering for His children in the Garden.  And through the sacrifice of Christ, God joyfully provided a permanent and lasting shame covering - His righteousness.

Oh, how our lives would change if we would grasp onto this idea that we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.  Oh, how our lives would change, if we would simply stop trying to cover our shame and allow God to do the work only He can do.

I challenge you.  Every morning as you dress, remember as you put on piece-by-piece - that you, as a Believer, are no longer clothed in shame.  You are no longer clothed in death.  You are, instead, clothed in the righteousness of Christ.  Your pitiful, wilting leaves have been exchanged by Him who knew no sin (made sin for us) that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.  Whew!  Can you hear the Spirit within you agreeing, as I can? 

If we do this, no longer will we get up in the morning, take one look in the mirror and think of what an awful person we are.  Instead, when we remind ourselves continually that we are clothed with the robes of righteousness that God prepared for us through Christ, we will be different.  We will continually be thankful to God, the Father, Who clothed us.  We'll be a humble, grateful people...and the fragrance that we give off to those around us, will be one of Jesus, instead of dead, wilting leaves.

More Genesis to come.  I'm sure of it!!!

Thank You, Father for taking away my stinky garments and providing beautiful, holy, sweet-smelling, precious robes to put on.  Thank You for giving and sacrificing in order for that exchange to take place.  Thank You, Jesus for making that exchange - Your righteousness for my filthy rags.  You are amazing.  Praise You, Jesus.  Praise You!