Genesis 3:21 – “Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”  NKJV

This is the first recorded sacrifice in the Bible, and it comes After man has sinned in the Garden.  It is a type and picture of what is to come to cover sinful man.  God supplied the animal and shed its blood using the skin to make coverings for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness.  In one short sentence, we get a glimpse of what is to come through the sacrificial death of the LORD Jesus on the Cross for the nakedness (sin) of mankind.

Biblical Hermeneutics has what is called “The Law of First Mention” and affords us a powerful basis for developing a doctrine or defining a principle in God’s Word.  In this case, it gives us a valuable key to the meaning of sacrifice in the Bible and points to the Cross.  The Law of First Mention can be understood as “the first use of a word, phrase or incident in and gives a key to the exact meaning everywhere else in the Bible.”  If we apply it to this verse, we discover three basic things:

• Salvation Must Be Of The Lord.
• It Must Be by the Death of an Innocent Substitute.
• It Must Be by Blood.

Every acceptable sacrifice must meet those conditions and cannot be man’s work but God’s.  It cannot be the fig leaves of man’s own righteousness but the bloody skins of God’s providing.  Abel’s sacrifice met the condition of Genesis 3:21, but Cain’s did not.

Noah took one of the clean animals God had commanded him to take seven.  Abraham was prepared to slay his son when God showed him a ram in the thicket, so God provided the sacrifice.  It Must be God’s gift, as we see in John 3:16. It Must be by the death of an innocent sacrifice, as was Jesus, as detailed in 1 Peter 2:22-24.  It Mut be by blood, as Peter declares in, I Peter 1:18-20

The Blood is indispensable for salvation!  Since God is perfectly and completely holy, sin can never be passed over without the satisfaction of Divine Justice.  Sin is, at its root, a rebellion against God.  That is why Jesus had to go to the Cross; he was and is our substitute and payment for sin.  His innocent blood liberates from the legal claim of the devil, and through the Blood of Jesus, man is repurchased, and entry into the family of God is made possible but only by the Blood.

Remember when the Children of Israel made the Golden Calf and worshipped it?  Moses took the image, melted it, ground it to powder, put it in water, and made Israel drink it.  In Deuteronomy 9, there is a more elaborate detail of what transpired.  Moses took the gold, melted it, stamped it, ground it a second time, put it in a brook, and made Israel drink.  He then took some of the water out of the brook and offered it to God for the Blood Atonement of the sins of Israel.  

Gold is insoluble in water as it is nineteen times heavier with a specific gravity of 19.5.  In fine powder form, it assumes a colloidal condition and water results in a coloration.  As the particles are made finer and finer, it acquires an “apparent” specific gravity permitting their suspension in water and takes on a “rose-colored” appearance.  All that Moses did to the gold would have resulted in a blood-red solution and possessed purifying qualities.  It was a type of Christ and His shed blood.

One more thing must be said.  Moses made atonement, and God accepted it, but Only those who, by faith, appropriated it were saved.  The others died.  That is strongly suggested in Exodus 32:26-28.  Jesus died for every man, woman, boy, and girl in the world who has lived, is living, and will live, but Only those who, by faith, appropriate it receive Salvation.

The Cross is found in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and the Blood of Jesus is an indispensable element in the message of Salvation or The Gospel of Jesus Christ.  My question is simple but vital, “Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?”  If not, I urge you to turn to Him today, for “now is the accepted time, and today is the day of salvation.”

God bless you as you go through this wonderful day!