There is a fundamental difference between every other relgion (including those who claim not to be a relgion) and Christianity.  This difference is found in the Second (secundum) Gospel (evangelium) we see in Genesis chapter 3 is in verses 20-24.  Let’s get some background in order to understand it.

God breathed life into Adam, the man from dust (Genesis 2:7).

God put the “tree of life” in the midst of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9).

God, in the cutting of the Covenant of Works, promised certain death for disobedience and thus also life for obedience (Genesis 2:15-17).

Even though God had done all of this and given them every tree in all the Garden to eat from, Adam and his wife believed the lie of the serpent (Genesis 3:4-5) instead of the truth of God (Genesis 2:15-17) and sinned by eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-6; compare 2:9 with 3:6).

Then in Genesis 3:7 they felt the shame of their nakedness (cf. 2:25 and 3:10) and tried to cover themselves up in order to make themselves feel better about their sin, in order to protect themselves from each other, and in order to make themselves acceptable to God.

But God, in His great and glorious grace enters into a second covenant (or at least a second phase of the first covenant) with them (the Covenant of Grace) in Genesis 3:15 (See my previous post on the Protoevangelium).

Yet God still told them about the curse that they would undergo and how while they were spiritually dead the moment of their sin, they would someday die physically (Genesis 3:16-19).  The wages of sin has always been death (Romans 6:23).

Now we can get to Genesis 3:20-24

In verse 20 we see Adam’s faith in response to God’s promise in v. 15.

V. 20 — Adam first named his wife, “woman”, for she came from man (Genesis 2:20-23).  Notice that she is not called, “Eve”, but “woman” up to this point.  But in verse 20 he changes her name to “Eve” (life-giver and/or living; in the Septuagint the word used is “ζωη” (= zoe) meaning, “life”).  How could and why would he do this?  He was promised sure death in the verse just before this (v. 19) (see also Genesis 2:17).  The only way to make sense out of the death-filled Adam changing the name of his dying wife from “woman” to “Eve”/”life”/”life-giver”/”living” is because of what the rest of verse 20 says, “because she was the mother of all living“.  The NIV renders this, “because she would become the mother of all the living”.  While the NIV here is not the best translation, it is, I think, an accurate interpretation.  This declaration of Adam’s was one of faith!  Faith in what?  In God, and specifically His promise in 3:15 that the woman would have offspring.  And not only would she not physically die immediately, but would have offspring first, but her “seed” would be the One who would rescue them!  Adam believed the Protoevangelium (the first gospel)!

In verses 21-24 we see God’s mercifully saving response to Adam and Eve based on their faith (v. 20).

V. 21 — God killed the first living thing!  As the only Source, Owner, and Sustainer of all life, He alone has the authority and power to give and take life.  He killed (it is very probable that He had Adam do the actual slaying of the animal, but God was still the direct Author and Approver and Commander of it) an animal(s) in order to take the skins to cover up Adam and Eve.  There are a few things to notice about this:

1. Death has always been the punishment for sin (Romans 6:23; Genesis 2:15-17; 3:21; Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22).

2. The animal(s) that was (were) killed were not guilty, but innocent.

3. Being innocent, the animal(s) was (were) not killed for its (their) own sins but for the sin of Adam and Eve.  This is substitution!

4. The substitionary death of this (these) innocent animal(s) was God’s gracious response of salvation toward Adam and Eve for their faith (v. 20).

5. This saving act of God was a way of saying, “I accept you, even though you are sinful, as though you were innocent like the animal(s).”

6. This is the instituting of the whole sacrificial system!  The death of this (these) animal(s) and all other sacrifices in the Old Testament history pointed to and prefigured Jesus, the One whose heel would be crushed (whose blood would be shed unto His death) as Genesis 3:15 says.  This is the Second (secundum) Gospel (evangelium)!

7. The covering (atonement) that the Lord God made for Adam and Eve was a replacement for the ineffective, unacceptable attempt of Adam and Eve to cover (atone for) themselves with the fig leaves of verse 7.  This gives way to the point of the next 3 verses.

Vv. 22-24 — God is concerned with the method and means and focus of the salvation of His people.  The “tree of life” was for eternal life within the Covenant of Works, but now that Adam and Eve sinned, they need more than just eternal life.  They need salvation unto eternal life!  The only way for salvation to occur is by the graciously God-given sacrificial death of an innocent and holy substitute (JESUS the CHRIST – v. 15 and 21) on their behalf!

1. Adam and Eve were not allowed to try to secure eternal life for themselves, but rather their salvation must come from God by grace through faith in His provided Substitute.  Just as their self-made coverings were not acceptable (cf. v. 7 and v. 21), so too any other attempt to self-save would be wholly unacceptable to God.

2. Salvation has ALWAYS been only by God’s grace, through faith in His promised and provided Substitute!  There is not and there never was a different way of being saved and reconciled to God.  Every Old Testament saint is saved by God using the same means (by grace through faith) and in the same Person (the suffering Servant: Jesus Christ; see I Corinthians 10:1-4).

3. This is the fundamental difference between every other religion (and so-called non-religion) and Christianity!  Any and every other religion that has ever been is where man seeks to save himself, make himself acceptable to God, or make himself happy like God (even using religion, spirituality, the Bible, God, church, etc…), whereas Christianity is all about God Himself doing the saving, making His people acceptable, and making His people happy in Him.  Whereas everything else tries to be a god or come to God on their own terms, in Christianity (in the Bible, in the Gospel) it is all about God coming to us on His terms.  Only Christianity is where we don’t try to cover our own sins by our own “good” efforts, but where God gets rid of our sins by punishing them on Jesus and He covers us with Jesus’ perfect, sinless righteousness!  This is Good News for Great Joy!