Adam and Eve knew they had done wrong and they knew that they had to die because of it. Yet God did not put them to death; instead, He put to death an animal in place of Adam and Eve, and then He took the skins of the animal and clothed them, covering them up. God did this because He loved His children. He gave grace to those deserving of punishment.
If you could have been there you would have seen how God lovingly clothed His children with the skins of an animal. Adam and Eve may have watched God kill that animal, and maybe they wondered about it, and were in awe that God did not put them to death, but instead chose to sacrifice a substitute, and then clothe His children with that sacrifice.
Now, whenever God looked at Adam and Eve, He saw the sacrifice.
God saw His children and did not remember their sins but rather remembered that He had already given their punishment to their substitute. So Adam and Eve lived because their substitute died.
Oh yes, they faced consequences for their wrong (they had to leave the Garden of Eden, thorns now grew in the ground, Eve would have pain when giving birth to children, sin came into the world and eventually they would die). But the point of this story is that God actually vented all His anger for their sin on their substitute, not on His children, and that substitute died instead of them.
Now comes the most wonderful part. The story of Adam and Eve is actually our story! Notice this passage:
Romans 5:8-9 NIV But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
Question 5. According to Romans 5:8-9, how did God demonstrate His love for you?
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See the animal in Adam and Eve’s story didn’t really take away their sin, it only pointed forward to the coming Savior Who really did remove their sin, who really did cover their wrongs, who really did protect them from God’s wrath.
We’re out of time for today, but tomorrow we want to really unpack this story of Adam and Eve, and we’ll see the “Treasure” of Jesus very clearly. Studying stories like this is how we start to become captivated by Jesus, for just like the animal that died instead of Adam and Eve, “Christ died for us”. Yes, He loves you so much that He gave up His life for you! Please consider that for a moment just now.
Let’s look at this deeper in the next lesson.