Why fig leaves?

Why fig leaves? The coverings we try to provide for ourselves will never do. We need God's covering. 

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Have you ever wondered why fig leaves? You see, in Genesis chapter 3, beginning at verse 7, it says, Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Adam and Eve, when they sinned against God, they knew that they were naked. And so out of all the things they could have done, they took fig leaves, sewed those together, and tried to make some kind of fig leaf kelt thing, I guess. I don't know. But what happened is as God came and he saw their covering, he said, The covering you've provided for yourself will not do. See, they had sinned against God. They had not heeded his word, they had doubted his character, they had done what they wanted to do, they had listened to Satan's word. And then when that guilt came in, when the fear came in, when the consequences of sin came in, they tried to provide their own covering for their sin, their guilt and their shame. And that is basically through the whole rest of human history is that we rebel against God and then we try to figure out how to cover over our own sin, our own shame. We try to make our own atonement. And God says, your covering simply will not do. In fact, in verse 31, it says, Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. We believe that most likely this tunic of skin that God made for Adam and then one for Eve came from an animal or animals. And so this would have been the first death in that sense, where they saw that their sin physically brought death into the world. An animal died. There was a sacrifice made because of sin, and then they were clothed in that. They had to be clothed in the covering that God provided. Their covering for themselves would not do. So fast forward to the cross. That is what the cross is all about, is that God knows we can't provide our own atonement, which is just a theological word for saying covering. So Jesus came as the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus, having no sin of his own, went to the cross. And on the cross, so much was happening. But in relation to what we're talking about today, he was providing a covering for us. Jesus took our sins upon himself. He died in our place on the cross, the death that we owe God. He rose again from the grave three days later. He offers the gift of the forgiveness of sins, everlasting life, to all who will repent, turn of their way, and believe upon him. And what God sees when he sees us in Christ is not our sin, but to those again who have trusted Christ, he sees the covering of Christ. We have been covered with the blood of Christ. We have been made righteous in him. I remember there was a guy one time I was talking to that was just really struggling with his faith, and I explained this concept to him. And I was talking with him about Adam and Eve and sin and just the beginning of creation, the fall, all of that, the coverings. We went to the cross, we were talking about the cross, and he realized that he had basically spent his entire life trying to provide his own covering, his good works, trying to measure up, going to church, uh, trying to be good enough, comparing himself to other people. And he realized he had spent his own life trying to hit this mark where he thought, if I have enough, if I do enough, if I achieve enough morality, then I'll have a covering that is sufficient for me. When he realized as he looked at his life, man, nothing I've done has ever worked. It's never been good enough. I'm at this place in my life where he was having a lot of trouble. And he's saying, I'm at this place because I've been trying to provide my own covering. And he was ready to receive the covering God had provided in Jesus. And he prayed and trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior with me. And I remember we were driving in my truck, just talking, and he prayed with me right there in my truck. And as he got out to leave, he started walking through this parking lot and he turned back. He's like, I've got the covering. I've got the covering. And his whole life had changed. His whole perspective on things had changed because he knew it wasn't about him providing for himself. It was about him receiving what God the Father had provided for him in God the Son. And he knew that now as he had trusted in that covering, also God the Spirit was with him, that God had come to dwell with him because of what Jesus had done as he responded by faith. So remember today, does God want us to bear good fruit? Yes. Does God want us to be about good works? Yes. But not in order to be saved, but because we are saved, because we have been covered. Jesus has forgiven us. We've been washed in the blood of the Lamb. We are covered in His righteousness. And now because of Jesus and the power of His Spirit in us, we can do the things that are pleasing unto God. Not because we're sufficient, but because He is sufficient and He now dwells in us. I hope this has been a blessing to you today. Thank you for joining me, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.