A garment, and what it covers
The Coats of Skins
Before the first man and woman ever left the garden, God made them clothing. Their own covering of fig leaves could not answer their shame, so the Lord provided coats of skins, and a life was taken to clothe them.
“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”Genesis 3:21
The garment in Scripture
The garment in Scripture. After they had eaten, Adam and Eve knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons (Genesis 3:7). This was the covering of their own hands, and it did not satisfy, for they still hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:8). When God came to them He did not leave them in their coverings of leaves. The Scripture says, Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them (Genesis 3:21). Here the covering was not made by the sinner but provided by God, and it was made of skins, which means that a creature had died. The first death recorded after the fall is this quiet death behind a garment. Adam and Eve were clothed by the hand of God with the skin of another, and their nakedness was covered not by their own effort but by a life laid down in their place.
What it means
What it means. The fig leaves are the picture of every covering we sew for ourselves. They are near at hand, they cost us nothing, and they cannot stand before God. When Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord they still hid, for a covering of our own making never quiets the conscience. God, in mercy, set aside their work and did the covering Himself. The lesson runs through all of Scripture: an acceptable covering is one that God provides, and it comes at the cost of a life. Sin brought death into the world, and the coats of skins show death being borne so that the guilty could be clothed and could stand. It is grace at the very beginning, before any law was given, before any sacrifice was commanded. The God who came seeking those who hid from Him is the same God who clothed them. Our part is to receive what He provides and to let go of the leaves we keep sewing.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. The coats of skins are among the earliest shadows of atonement, for here a life is given that the guilty may be covered. What was pictured in a garden is fulfilled at the cross, where the Lamb of God is slain and the believer is clothed. Isaiah rejoiced, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). That robe is not sewn by us. Paul writes that as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27), and he calls us to put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14). The first covering God ever made was at the cost of another life, and the last and true covering is Christ Himself, in whom our shame is answered and we are welcomed again into the presence of God without hiding.
Questions people ask
Does Genesis 3:21 clearly teach atonement?
It does not use the word atonement, and we should be careful not to claim more than the text says. What it plainly shows is that God rejected their self-made covering and clothed them Himself with skins, which required the death of a creature. That pattern, a life given so the guilty may be covered, is developed all through Scripture and finds its fullness in Christ.
Why were fig leaves not enough?
The leaves were the work of their own hands and could not remove their shame, for they still hid from God after making them (Genesis 3:8). Scripture teaches throughout that a covering acceptable to God is one He provides, not one we produce.