Clothes From the Savior

After Adam entered mortality, he was commanded to offer animal sacrifices, and the angel of the Lord taught him, “This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth” (Moses 5:7).  This symbolic practice continued from the time of Adam up until the Law of Moses was fulfilled in the Savior.  But my wife pointed out to me that Adam’s sacrifice of animals was not the first.  Before the Lord drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, He made clothes for them.  The Lord related, “Unto Adam, and also unto his wife, did I, the Lord God, make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Moses 4:27).  This seems to imply that an animal had to die for the Lord to get a coat of skins.  So this was really the first sacrifice of animals on earth, and as the angel taught, this was a symbol of the great sacrifice of the atonement that was to come.  The Savior Himself made the sacrifice in order to cover the physical nakedness of Adam and Eve just as in the flesh He would later make the “great and last sacrifice” in order to cover our spiritual nakedness (Alma 34:13).  In fact, having clothing is often used a symbol for the righteous who have been cleansed by the Savior.  Jacob spoke of the “guilt”, “uncleanness”, and “nakedness” of the wicked on one hand, and how the righteous would be “clothed with purity” with “the robe of righteousness” on the other hand (2 Nephi 9:14).  In the spirit of the Savior’s statement that “all things bear record of me”, we should likewise be reminded of the Savior by the simple fact that we have clothes to wear each day to cover us (Moses 6:63).  The Savior’s sacrifice provides our spiritual clothing that “covers” our sins when we accept the gift from Him (Romans 4:7).