Yesterday I shared the story about an employee at one of the largest modern art museums in Europe. He drilled holes in the wall and hung one of his own paintings. He was hoping to become somebody rich and famous, but instead he was fired.
Our first parents, Adam and Eve, decided to create their own image and display their best identity as an improvement over the one God gave to them. They failed miserably when they ate the forbidden fruit. Then “the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves … and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:7,8).
Naked and afraid, they ran and hid. God came looking for them (cue the ominous music to produce eerie feelings of horror and violence, and blood curdling screams). After a heart-to-heart chat, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).
God doesn’t want to stay away from them, or want them to stay away from him, so he comes close enough to cover their shame, their blame, their pretending and hiding, their fake identity. But to do that, he must pay a price.
God sacrificed an innocent animal, not at fault, and took its life so that Adam and Eve could live. This was the first shedding of blood in God’s world, and it happened at the hand of God—for the love of sinners—at the price of death for a substitute victim.
Adam and Eve are forgiven. Their shame is covered by mercy. Their God-given identity is restored. They are forgiven. Nothing fake about it. Blood happened. This is real.
As real as all the animal sacrifices God commanded in future centuries at the tabernacle and the temple, a promise of God-given identity that happens at the hands of God for the love of sinners at the price of death for a substitute victim.
As real as God’s Son Jesus dying on the cross for you, a promise of God-given identity that happens at the hands of God for the love of sinners at the price of death for a substitute victim.
You don’t need to be ashamed. You don’t need to become somebody else. Jesus covers you with his holiness, his grace, his forgiveness, his everything.
PRAYER: Dear God, thank you for your mercy and forgiveness. Cover me with Christ. Amen.
MEMORIZE: At CrossLife Church we remember, repeat, and rejoice in our CrossLife identity statement. A mirror hangs in the lobby so we can see it and say it while standing in line for coffee. We bring out the mirror when we confirm new members in the faith that we share, and we say it: “I am a perfectly made child of God. Connected to Jesus. All the time.”