In Genesis 3:21, after Adam and Eve had sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, the Bible says that “the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” This verse raises the question: what is the significance of these garments of skin?
Here are a few key points about the meaning and importance of the garments of skin:
1. The garments covered Adam and Eve’s nakedness
Prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve were naked but felt no shame (Genesis 2:25). After they sinned, their eyes were opened, they realized their nakedness, and they felt ashamed (Genesis 3:7). In an act of mercy, God made the garments of skin to cover their nakedness and shame.
The garments provided a solution to the exposure and vulnerability that Adam and Eve experienced after losing their previous innocent state. No longer could they stand freely and unashamed before God and each other. The garments allowed them to be appropriately clothed and protected.
2. The garments required the death of an animal
For God to make garments from animal skin, an animal had to be killed. This foreshadowed the principle of substitutionary atonement – covering sin through the death of an innocent victim. Just as God killed an animal to cover Adam and Eve, He would send Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, to die as a sacrifice to cover the sins of humankind (John 1:29).
The animal’s shed blood paved the way for the atoning blood of Christ on the cross. The animal’s death was the consequence of Adam’s sin, teaching that sin brings death (Romans 6:23).
3. The garments represent salvation by grace
Adam and Eve did nothing to deserve or earn clothing from God. They had rebelled against Him and should have suffered the full consequences for their exposed sin. Yet God acted graciously, sacrificially making them garments to cover their nakedness and shame.
This demonstrates that God saves and covers sinners not based on human effort or merit, but by His own loving grace and mercy (Ephesians 2:8-9). The free gift of clothing foreshadows the free gift of salvation.
4. The garments kept Adam and Eve from the tree of life
In Genesis 3:22-24, after clothing Adam and Eve, God banished them from the Garden of Eden and stationed angels to guard the entrance. This prevented access to the tree of life, whose fruit could make one live forever.
Adam and Eve’s garments marked them as sinners who could no longer freely eat from the tree. The clothing signified their lost innocence and need to be barred from God’s presence. Yet even in judgment there was mercy, protecting them from unending life in their fallen state (Genesis 3:22).
5. The garments prefigured Christ’s righteousness
Scripture teaches that because of sin, all people are naked and exposed before God, devoid of righteousness (Isaiah 64:6). Just as God covered Adam and Eve’s physical nakedness, He covers the spiritual nakedness of believers by clothing them in the righteousness of Christ (Isaiah 61:10).
Whereas the first garments covered external shame, Christ’s righteousness becomes inwardly transferred to believers, covering the shame of their deeply sinful nature (2 Corinthians 5:21). The clothing of salvation is ultimately not external but internal.
6. The garments initiated God’s plan of redemption
The curse of sin unleashed through Adam’s fall ushered in death, pain, and futility (Genesis 3:16-19). Adam and Eve’s covering foreshadowed that God’s plan of redemption had begun to unfold.
What started in a garden would culminate at a cross, where Christ bore sin’s curse, so those who trust in Him could be redeemed, restored, and clothed with righteousness and life eternal.
Though immediately after the Fall, the future seemed bleak, already God was enacting His gracious purposes for salvation. The garments signaled the dawning of redemptive hope.
7. The garments reveal God’s love and care for humanity
Despite Adam and Eve’s rebellion and resulting separation from God, He still cared personally for their needs. His gentle hand clothed what their sin had exposed. The Creator tended lovingly to the creatures made in His image.
Rather than abandon them in their time of shame, God provided them covering and protection. This points profoundly to God’s heart of compassion, His intimacy of care, and the value He places on human dignity and relationship.
8. The garments set a pattern for modesty and decency
Being clothed rather than naked became God’s standard after the Fall. Appropriate coverings distinguished humans, while nakedness was associated with animal instincts. Clothing became integral to living as civilized beings.
Donning apparel was a way of honoring God’s provision of garments in Eden. It declared respect for one’s self and others as people made in God’s image. The need for clothing established God’s model of modesty, decency and propriety.
9. The garments teach about sin and forgiveness
The whole account with the garments teaches important lessons about human sinfulness and God’s merciful response. It shows that sin brings shame and exposure of one’s inner flaws. Yet God graciously provides covering for sin, through the sacrifice of an innocent substitute.
Additionally, it displays God’s dislike of sin alongside His enduring love for the sinner. Understanding the garment’s meaning helps illuminate God’s view of sin, the meaning of forgiveness, and the wonder of divine grace.
10. The garments begin the biblical theme of clothing
Remarkably, clothing images continue through Scripture, where God is seen covering the spiritual nakedness and shame of His people. Believers are said to be clothed in Christ’s righteousness (Galatians 3:27), to wear garments of salvation (Isaiah 61:10), and to be arrayed in holiness and purity (Revelation 3:5).
Adam and Eve’s physical covering launches this biblical theme of clothing for holiness, protection, beautification and sanctification. Outward coverings point to the spiritual covering God gives to make sinners acceptable and presentable before Him.
In summary, the garments of skin given by God to Adam and Eve were profoundly significant. They provided physical covering, foreshadowed salvation by grace through Christ’s sacrifice, highlighted God’s mercy and care for fallen humanity, and began the biblical theme of clothing for righteousness, holiness and redemption.
The account offers great insight into human sin, divine forgiveness, and God’s loving grace. It initiates the story of restoration and salvation that culminates with believers in heaven, dressed in fine, white linen – Christ’s righteousness forever (Revelation 19:8).
How meaningful that God’s plan of redemption starts by clothing with physical garments those whose sin left them naked and ashamed. For out of Eden’s garden, God continued working to cover spiritually all who trust in Him.