When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they tried to cover up their sin and shame. The fig leaves they sewed together concealed their nakedness, but the fig tree continued to live. Sin deserved death. Fig leaves would not pay sin’s penalty.

God provided Adam and Eve with something different, something sacrificial. He clothed them with skin from an animal. The life of an animal was taken for their sin to be covered. Adam and Eve deserved death, but God supplied a substitute. This system of sacrifice became God’s gracious provision throughout the Old Testament. Then Jesus came.

Ephesians 5:1-2
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Jesus—fully God and fully man—gave himself up as the perfect sacrifice. Being sinless, he was the only One who did not have to die for his sins. Being man, he was the only One who could die on man’s behalf. The Old Testament sacrifices had to be repeated over and over, but Jesus’ perfect sacrifice took place one time for all time. Believers “have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10 NIV).

Lord Jesus,
Thank you for making me holy—setting me apart for your work—through your one-time-for-all-time sacrifice.
In your name, I pray. Amen.