The shame from sin blankets the human race including much of the church. Our natural inclination is a feeble attempt to cover it with a self-designed remedy. Adam chose a fig leaf because his self-perception was that he was “naked and ashamed and afraid” (Genesis 3:10).

Prior to his fall only ten verses earlier (2:25), he was aware of his nakedness yet unashamed in the presence of his wife and God. The entrance of sin into the earth released fear and shame and continues its ravaging affects by distorting the image of God and man.

Our “fig leaves” are just a little more sophisticated today. They occur in the form of material possessions, occupations, and many other things that mask our true identity. The creation that we have been mandated to steward through Adam’s original responsibility in the garden has completely dominated us as we peer through the trees at each other all the while hoping no one discovers us for who we really are. We are even afraid of God, (as if He doesn’t know the real us) and doubt His intentions to restore us.

The greatest provision in scripture is presented in the form of a garment. Not one formed out of any natural substance as that would make it insufficient to cover us. Adam had to trade his fig leaf for a garment that God fashioned for him in the form of skin and that subsequently required the “shedding of blood.”

In the New Covenant our full provision for fear and shame has been made through the blood of Jesus Christ. Nothing can cover us like the glorious “robe of righteousness” that He freely offers all men. It is time to come out from the twilight of the trees and into the Light and learn how to live in His presence.

“For you have stripped off the old unregenerate self with its evil practices, and have clothed yourselves with the new spiritual self, which is ever in the process of being renewed and remolded into fuller and more perfect knowledge upon knowledge after the image the likeness of Him Who created it.” (Colossians 3:9, 10)

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