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New clothing (v. 21). God’s response to Adam and Eve’s faith was to remove their flimsy man-made garments and clothe them with acceptable garments that He Himself provided (Isa. 61:10). Innocent animals had to die so that the man and woman might have a new beginning and be back in fellowship with the Lord. It’s a picture of what Jesus did for sinners on the cross when He died for a sinful world (2 Cor. 5:21).
A new home (vv. 22-24). If Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Life, they would live forever on earth as sinners, and their future would be bleak. They must one day die because “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Therefore, the Lord banished the couple from the garden; in fact, Genesis 3:24 says that He “drove” them out. (See 4:14 and 21:10.) God put angelic guards at the entrance of the garden to make sure Adam and Eve didn’t try to reenter. The way to “the Tree of Life” would one day be opened by Jesus Christ through His death on the cross (John 14:6; Heb. 10:1-25; Rev. 2:7; 22:1-2, 14, 19).
Daily life would now become a struggle for the man and woman outside the garden as they toiled for their bread and raised their family. They could still have fellowship with God, but they would daily suffer the consequences of their sin, and so would their descendants after them. The law of sin and death would now operate in the human family until the end of time, but the death and resurrection of the Savior would introduce a new law: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2 nkjv).