Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About

ADAM and EVE

One of the most familiar stories in the Bible is that of the first family, Adam and Eve. Whether true fact or allegory does not detract from the lessons involved in the story.

In the garden, both are naked, completely exposed to God and His scrutiny, with no fear or embarrassment because they have nothing to hide or conceal from Him. They are completely at ease in His presence. Just as little children have no inhibitions in front of others,  Adam and Eve had no problems in the presence of God.

But once they knew what evil was and what they had done, that comfort they had initially was lost, the innocence gone and both became aware that they were exposed. And thus they covered themselves with fig leaves in an effort to cover their sins from God’s sight.

So they covered themselves but even with this, they still hid from God and they still were afraid. Genesis 3:9-10, God called to them asking “Where are you?” and Adam replied “I was afraid.”

Even when confronted, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and neither took responsibility nor confessed what they had done. God had to cover them Himself and determine what would happen further.

This is an old and familiar story, but it illustrates right at the beginning of the Bible the entire theme of redemption: That sin puts a barrier between ourselves and God and really makes us afraid to face Him. That we cannot ever cover ourselves properly with our own efforts, whether they be rules, regulations, laws, or religious trappings nothing will be really satisfactory. Nothing will work!

The only true response to sin is to have the covering of God, and since life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11) and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), then it must take blood to restore life. Hence the life eternal is restored by the blood of Christ, which is illustrated initially by the shedding of blood when God covered Adam with the skin of an animal.

So even at the start of the Bible it was shown that man would never be able to solve his sin by his own efforts but that it would take God’s intervention to do so and that occurred at the Cross of Calvary almost 2100 years ago.

That is the primary event we should always keep thinking about.