The Covenant of Works is ended; man is a failure. He had sinned against Almighty God and was destined for death. What can he do to make things right with God. It didn’t take long to find out. “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?'” Gen. 3:8-9 (NLT). What do you do when you are confronted by the person you have just disobeyed? As a child, you try to hide and when discovered you make excuses. That’s what Adam and Eve did, but their excuses were not accepted. They also discovered they were naked, and that discovery made them feel shame, not before each other but before God. Their solution was to sew leaves together to make aprons as if God wouldn’t notice. Now the consequence of their disobedience was death.
There are two forms of death: one is physical and the other is separation from God. Adam could do nothing about either condition. By his sin, he had separated himself from God, and he would experience physical death. But Adam was created to live forever since he was created in the image of God and that is the great mystery; you die physically but you are still alive.
And physical death came immediately, not for themselves but for animals. “And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. Gen. 3:21 (NLT). This is the beginning of the Covenant of Grace. “Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heal.'” Gen 3:14-14 (NLT) We must realize that Satan had used the serpent’s body to disguise himself and somehow the serpent was a willing participant. God was speaking to both the serpent who would slither on its belly from then on and to Satan who would try to prevent God’s promise of forgiveness. Verse 15 is recognized as the first promise of redemption that would be fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ because Satan would cause a temporary wound to Christ on the cross, but Christ would crush the power of sin there with His death and prove that power was destroyed by His resurrection. For Adam and Eve to understand God’s plan of redemption, God used the illustration of killing the animals to provide clothing as a symbol that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness and covering for sin. This was the beginning of animal sacrifices where man recognized the promise of God as he worshiped and remembered God’s great promise of forgiveness and redemption. It was by faith in God’s promise of providing a future sacrifice that people found peace with God.