Covered

In the story of Adam and Eve, after partaking of the fruit they realized that they were naked and that they needed to be covered.  They attempted to fix the problem themselves when “they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Genesis 3:7).  When the Lord came to the garden to speak to Adam and Eve, He replaced their first attempt at clothing and did “make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).  Nakedness is a symbol in the scriptures for being guilty; for example, Moroni wrote of the wicked: “For behold, when ye shall be brought to see your nakedness before God, and also the glory of God, and the holiness of Jesus Christ, it will kindle a flame of unquenchable fire upon you” (Mormon 9:5).  Clothing, on the other hand, can represent removing sin and being clean before God.  For instance, Jacob wrote that “the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness” (2 Nephi 9:14).  In that context, I wonder if there isn’t a lesson in this story of Adam and Eve in that we should seek to let the Lord cover our “nakedness” or sins.  The natural man is tempted to cover his own faults and problems, but the man of God will turn to the Lord to be “clothed” by Him just like Adam and Eve. 

                The scriptures condemn those who try to cover or hide their own sins from the Lord.  For example, in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord warns those who “undertake to cover [their] sins” (D&C 121:37).  Similarly in Isaiah we read, “Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin” (Isaiah 30:1).  In other words, the rebellious who attempt to “cover with a covering” their iniquities without the Spirit of the Lord are simply adding “sin to sin.”  Perhaps the most notorious example of someone attempting to cover their own sins was that of Cain: he made a pact of secrecy with the devil and others about his murder “that they tell it not” (Moses 5:29).  His deed which was meant to be “covered” and a secret forever has been known throughout history, and the Lord condemned him for his clandestine deeds.  In that same manner, the Gadianton robbers attempted to “carry on the secret work of murder and of robbery” (Helaman 2:4).  We even read of how they did commit murder in “a garb of secrecy,” where garb here is another word for clothing (Helaman 9:6).  They were seeking to “clothe” their acts of wickedness to hide them from society and the Lord.

                On the other hand, the Lord praises those who seek to have their sins covered by the Savior through repentance and the atonement.  We know that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” but the Father has prepared a way through His Son to be cleansed from the sin or to permanently cover it (Romans 3:23).  The Psalmist wrote, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalms 32:1).  Paul quoted this same passage when he wrote to the Romans, “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Romans 4:6-8).  In other words, it is not through our works that our sins get covered but through the Lord—the Savior’s atonement—that they become covered.  Peter encouraged the Saints of his day, “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).  In the truest sense, Christ is the embodiment of charity, and so perhaps on one level we can take his words to mean that as we become like Christ by developing charity, then it is Christ that covers our sins. 

Ultimately our goal is to be one who can overcome the world and “be clothed in white raiment” by the Savior as John wrote to the Saints in Sardis (Revelation 3:5).  We must seek to let the Lord cover our sins and weaknesses and not attempt to cover them ourselves by refusing to repent.  We may be embarrassed that our sins are “as scarlet,” but they only way to truly remove them is to let the Savior turn them “white as snow” through His atonement (Isaiah 1:18).  If we fail to do that then one day we may wish, as Alma said, that they were covered by the “rocks and the mountains” (Alma 12:14).