The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. “Coats of Skins” Typified Righteousness of Christ

Adam’s transgression in violating the stipulated and revealed will of God, and thus stepping over the boundary line from obedience to disobedience, was sin. And the wages of sin is always death (Romans 6:23). Man had disobeyed the express command of God, and had lost his innocence and purity. He was now in rebellion against God, which condition resulted in a consciousness of alienation and separation. If man was not to perish, sin must be punished and the sinner restored to purity, obedience, and fellowship with God. CFF1 63.2

But his sin could only be covered by the righteous obedience of another, who alone could provide the requisite righteousness that would enable man, polluted by sin and estranged from God, to stand without alienation in His presence again. CFF1 63.3

1. DIVINE PROPITIATION PROVIDED

The Divine Record simply states that the Lord God (Jehovah, their Creator—Genesis 2:4) made “coats of skins and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21), thus for the first time typifying Christ Jesus, who is “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness” (1 Corinthians 1:30). These divinely provided garments replaced the man-made covering of fig leaves (Genesis 3:7), and made it possible for earth’s first sinners to stand in God’s presence again. ⁵ These skins were probably from the animals offered up in sacrifice, as part of the symbolic worship of the sacrificial system then established, and as a type of divine propitiation soon to be revealed in greater fullness. CFF1 63.4

Thus man’s Creator became his Redeemer. And as Bunyan well phrased it, the sinner was “shrouded” under the provided righteousness of Christ. ⁶ It is also essential to note that salvation apart from righteousness, obedience, and sacrifice is unknown either in the Old Testament or in the New. God thus provided the requisite righteousness by the sacrifice in Christ. CFF1 64.1

2. DEEPEST MYSTERIES OF ATONEMENT UNFOLDED

The deepest mysteries of the atonement thus begin to appear—Christ becoming man’s sin-bearer and his sin-offering, taking man’s place and punishment, and providing for man’s restoration. And the righteousness provided is none other than Christ Himself, who fully met in our stead and behalf every demand of the law, and is Himself “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Or as the apostle Paul graphically puts it: “He bath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). CFF1 64.2