God’s Word for You
Genesis 3:21 law and gospel in the garments
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, September 24, 2026
21 And the LORD God made garments out of skins for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
How much had Adam lost in the fall? His holy relationship with God was at an end. He showed this by lying to God and by blaming God for his flaws and his sin.
More than this, man’s moral relationship to his neighbor, his fellowman, changed. He throws blame at his wife for his own sin. “He is selfish, pitiless, and cruel.”
And still more, man’s dominion over nature is wrecked. The ground is cursed on his account (Genesis 5:29). Everything in the world, the whole creation, is “subjected to frustration” (Romans 8:20).
Mentally and physically, man has been weakened. Man is subject to pain and to sorrow and to death. He is subject to eternal damnation apart from Christ. And on top of all that, almost as an afterthought, Moses tells us, his body needs protection. He gets cold, he is subject to the harsh effects of weather and storm, he is subject to the harmful ways of thistles and thorns, and of other stinging things.
The meager attempt Adam and Eve had made to hide their shame wasn’t durable, nor practical. So the Lord saw fit to show them another possibility. They could use the hides of animals to make clothing. Of course, this means that animals had to die to cover man’s shame in an ordinary way. The Son of God would die to cover all of man’s sin and remove our shame.
The details of these first garments and their manufacture are not given to us. We could ask, did God do all of this himself, or did he show them what he was doing? Did he also introduce the usefulness of string, or some form of needles, or buttons? What about knives, such as stone knives, or tools to scrape hides? What about frames to stretch hides? We simply don’t have a list even hinted at of the various tools or processes that were involved, nor which animals gave their lives—deer, steer, seal, sheep or goat. Perhaps if we think of the buckskins traditionally worn by many indigenous American peoples, we will not be far off.
As with so many things that God does for us, there was also a clear message of law as well as gospel in this gift. With sin in the world and now a part of their very nature, they needed to be afraid of sin and its effects. So these clothes they were given were to be a reminder of their fall into sin that brought about this change. As Luther says, “This is also why God clothed them, not in foliage or in cotton but in the skins of slain animals, for a sign that they are mortals and that they are living in certain death” (LW 1:221).
But the clothing was also a sign of the gospel. What they attempted by sewing leaves together, God actually accomplished; the temporary had become permanent. The very idea of wearing clothes was changed, from a sign of sin and shame, to a sign of true modesty. This was the point of the ancient pastor’s words: “Let us modestly clothe ourselves with concord and self-control, keeping ourselves away from all gossip and evil speech” (1 Clement 30:3).
Today, clothing is sometimes carried from its original purpose of modesty into strange forms of immodesty and more often vanity. What was supposed to serve a holy purpose has been twisted into something else. But let us remember to thank God for his gifts. When we consider the value of clothing, we must give God first place even here as with everything else. He has blessed us, given us direction, and provided us with everything that we need. In the explanation of the First Article of the creed, Luther teaches us to pray, “I believe that God still preserves me by richly and daily providing clothing and shoes….” Again, in the explanation of the Fourth Article of the Lord’s Prayer, Dr. Luther teaches us to confess: “Daily bread includes everything that we need for our bodily welfare, such as food and drink, clothing and shoes, house and home” and so on. Clothing in the sinful world serves an excellent and godly purpose, reminding us of the law and our sinfulness, and reminding us of God’s grace and good gifts. Just as God covered the bodies of our ancient parents, so also he covered their transgression. And he still blesses us by covering our sins; sins of the spoken word, sins of the sinful body, and sins in our deepest thoughts. “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered” (Psalm 32:1). We are blessed most of all to be covered by our Savior’s blood.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.