"And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them." - Genesis 3:21
I've seen some good Halloween costumes in my years.
There was the year that my sweet daughters, about six and four at the time, were dressed as Dorothy and Toto from "The Wizard of Oz." They were absolutely adorable.
There was the year that I'm sure that I saw both Jabba the Hutt and Herman Munster. Whew!
And then there was yesterday, the day before Halloween, mind you. I was sitting in my car, finishing a call in a parking lot, when this guy walked by me in a "pants-on-the-ground" costume. The strange thing was that this guy had a 3-inch Ace elastic bandage wrapped around the outside of his right, blue jean, pant leg from his shin to his thigh. I'm sure. I am absolutely sure that if it hadn't been for the Ace bandage that I would've been hearing Ray Stevens sing "The Streak." But even with the Ace bandage, the poor guy's "costume" was totally, uuuuuh, shall we say, inadequate.
Kinda like, the first man and woman who ever lived.
That first man and woman were doing just fine living "un-costumed" until they decided that they knew more than Almighty God himself, who made them, and they decided to eat the forbidden fruit, which was the fruit of wanting to be their own God. Their tragic decision exposed them. And, unable to find a Walmart or ToysRUs in those days, they put together a costume of fig leaves so as to hide themselves, which is what a costume is for, is it not?
But their fig-leaves costumes were altogether inadequate, not because the costume didn't cover their bodies, but because the costume didn't cover their shame.
Shame, mind you, is feeling bad about who you are, which is altogether distinct from embarrassment, which is feeling bad about what you've done. Embarrassment always eventually wears off because it's only on the outside, like an invisible costume. But shame? Oooooo! Shame goes deep within our soul and challenges our very self-worth, along with challenging our will to even continue on in life since shame whispers to us that we're worthless and no one would even notice if we were gone.
Shame cannot be covered with a costume.
Shame can only be truly covered in blood. That's why "the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them." (Genesis 3:21) In essence, God covered the first people with animal skins, which were the first blood sacrifices. But even those animal-blood sacrifices and coverings were inadequate and had to be repeated year after year.
That's why God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us. Jesus's death was an everlasting blood sacrifice. That's why God's Word, in Romans 13:14, says, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ." All who put on the Lord Jesus Christ will truly be covered forever and have their shame removed.
Everything else is just a costume.
"And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them." - Genesis 3:21
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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