Genesis 3:21
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
Adam was made a living soul and afterward put in a garden eastward in Eden (Gen. 2:8). He was set in an environment of mortality, and as beautiful as everything was, the natural cycle of life Adam witnessed contained plants and animals that were being consumed, and some were dying. Adam knew the facts of death, so there was no need for God to instruct Adam what that word meant.
And Adam himself was created a mortal being, and he could only live so long, except God had provided The Tree of Life (Gen. 2:9). He was thus a candidate for immortality; he was being tested to see whether he would obey his Creator or not.
Adam was instructed that he would certainly die if he disobeyed God's one and only commandment for him. And that death was to happen on the very same day that he transgressed (Gen. 2:16-17).
Adam willfully sinned (Gen. 3:6), but he did not die on the day he sinned. Why? Some teach he did die; they say he died spiritually. The Scriptures do not agree; Genesis 2:7 says, "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Adams' was formed from 'dust,' then 'the breath of life,' which is the Hebrew word neshâmâh = spirit of breath life. Then 'man became a living soul.' The soul is the Hebrew word nephesh which means living creature or individual. So a soul is a body and spirit combined to make a third thing an individual or, as Scripture says, 'soul.' All of Scripture bears this out, and even to this day, we speak of souls on a ship or plane, etc. So if Adam died that day, God would need to have taken his spirit or body, and then his soul would have died. This did not happen, so why did Adam not die as God had said he would? The answer is MERCY. God had mercy on them and found another way which is hardly ever taught, for Gen. 3:21 says God covered their sin by the shedding of blood and made a sacrifice for His children, thus pointing toward the day when He would shed His Precious Blood for them and for all mankind on The Cross.
There was a sacrifice, a substitute. One ultimately came and died in Adams' stead, and He was identified and signified by that victim, which shed its blood and gave provided its skin so that Adam might be covered. That One Who was signified by that victim animal and came and died for Adam and all of us is Jesus Christ, The Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15).
Adam knew that this innocent victim stood as a representative of himself, who should have died that day. It had died a death from which there was no return and for which there was no remedy. This was what was threatened to him, and he realized that it was what he deserved.
Coupled with the promise in Gen 3:15, this sacrifice was a picture story of what was to happen in the future. But it was not yet time for God Himself to take the place of Adam and die in his stead. That was to come later. But Adam had The Promise and could by faith obtain everlasting life and resurrection in a sure and efficacious sacrifice to be made for him in the future, even as you and I can look back to it and be identified with that True Sacrifice when The Seed of the woman came and has His Heel bruised on The Cross.
Adam did die 930 years later, but not the death that was threatened to him in Eden. He "fell on sleep" and awaits the call for resurrection. After the sacrifice was made, Adam again was a candidate for immortality, but on different conditions.
When Adam fell, he not only brought death upon himself and the forfeiture of immortality but brought the same upon countless billions of his children. They, too, can only have resurrection and immortality by being identified with or baptized into the death and Resurrection of The Redeemer, The One Great Sacrifice. They must follow their father, Adam, in this respect. Most of them follow something they need not do. Most men at some time try the fig leaves to cover themselves, but they soon discover that their own works are not sufficient; they soon wither away and drop off or turn their eyes to The Son of God.
When Adam and Eve made the aprons of fig leaves and then hid themselves, they fully expected God to appear and carry out the sentence of death. How surprised they must have been when He provided a way of escape. Maybe it was hard to believe, but they and now we learn a great lesson in The Love of God.
The record leads us to believe that Adam failed in many ways, yet his children have been taught The Sacrifice and the reason for it. The place were it occurred was where The Cherubim were placed at the entrance to the garden (Gen. 3:24).
