A WAY back in the garden of Eden, the grace of God met the need of fallen man; and because it is God’s grace, man’s works are set aside.
Listening to the lie of Satan, and distrusting the God Who had made them, Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit. Troubled with a guilty conscience, they now seek to remedy it. “They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Gen. 3:7). Then they hear the voice of the Lord God, seeking them. In spite of their covering, they feel exposed in their sin and shame, and are afraid; foolishly they attempt to hide.” Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord” (Jer. 23:24).
Truly, all this speaks with a loud voice even to-day. How many there are, seeking to quiet an uneasy conscience by their good deeds and religious works. Are you such a one, my reader? In God’s presence, you will find all such works as worthless as fig leaves. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13). “Not of works lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:9). Take warning; rest no longer in your own works. At the great white throne, there will be a judgment of works; and there is but one issue, an awful one―the lake of fire! (Rev. 20:11-15).
But God Himself provided for the guilty man and woman in Eden, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). God clothed them with what He had made. The skin involved the death of a victim. Since it was God’s own work, their consciences might well be at peace. Not with leaves, but coats of skin. That is, they were clothed by God in virtue of another’s death; a foreshadowing of the atoning death of Jesus, the Son of God. Not a man can stand before God in his own righteousness. “As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10).
But a Saviour-God has sent glad tidings into the world of what He has accomplished in Christ, for sinners. It brings God’s righteousness, as a gift, for sinners who have none. “Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God has set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood” (Rom. 3:22-25).
The vital question is, Do you stand naked before God, or clothed by Him? Have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour? Redemption is found in Christ Jesus―not in ourselves.
The blood of Christ has met the throne of God. Every claim in righteousness and holiness against sin, the death of Christ has answered. So that God declares His righteousness; “that He might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).
Again we ask, are you clothed by what God has provided for you? Is “the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ” upon you? Thus only can you have “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1). S. P. F.