But there are those who, refusing to accept God’s estimate of the natural man, deny the necessity of any radical and revolutionary change in him. They delight in the exaltation of the flesh and reject the self-evident fact that human nature is in utter ruin though they are compelled to admit that it is significantly in need of repair. They believe and teach that human nature is imperfect because it is in the process of formation. But given a proper environment, liberal education, and the chance to make the best of what he already possesses, a man, by his own natural development, ultimately will achieve Godlikeness and attain a place in the Kingdom of God. In other words, salvation is not by grace but by growth; it depends upon an evolution of life from within rather than upon an impartation of life from without.

There are those even in the pulpit and in the theological seminary who teach that the natural man is not dead but diseased; not wicked but weak; not fallen but fainting; and they attempt resuscitation through ethical culture, social reform, and mass education while ridiculing the necessity of redemption through the atoning work of the crucified Savior and regeneration through the power of the indwelling Spirit.

Their kind of preaching is well summed up in the word of a prominent preacher who said, “Do your part, and God will surely do His. To deny that a man is forgiven when he turns away from wrong and asks forgiveness would be to deny the moral character of God.” In such teaching, man is made his savior, and salvation is nothing more than a feeble sense of regret resulting in slight changes in conduct to which God is asked to affix His seal of forgiveness.

This kind of thinking and teaching leads men to seek out ways of futile salvation and rest upon false hopes. If the meaning of salvation is what we have indicated in these pages, then the means of its accomplishment must be supernatural. But man is ever prone to put his trust in the purely natural, in himself.

When the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened to evil, and they came to a realization of their sin and shame, instead of seeking God, confessing their sin, and acknowledging their undone condition, they made themselves aprons of fig leaves to cover their nakedness (Genesis 3:7). From that day to this the natural man has been at the same foolish, futile task of trying to cover his sin and guilt with some garment of his own making which he trusts will be acceptable to God.

But no dress the natural man provides for the flesh will ever please God. No matter what material it is made or how beautiful, fitting and durable it may seem to be to the world, it will wither into nothingness, even as Adam’s and Eve’s aprons of fig leaves, before the righteousness and holiness of God.

No garment of salvation except the one He Himself provides will be acceptable to God.

Genesis 3:21

“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”

By this act, God acknowledged that the shame of Adam and Eve was not groundless and that they did need a covering. Still, He also showed the utter inadequacy of the one they had provided for themselves, their lack of apprehension of the enormity and heinousness of their sin against Him, and the nature of the salvation required to restore them to His fellowship.

God had said, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17). They had eaten. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). If they did not die, someone acceptable to God must die in their stead. This is the meaning of salvation. But God had already given the promise of a Savior-Substitute. The seed of the serpent would bruise the heel of the woman’s seed. The garments of skin with which the Lord God clothed Adam and Eve were procured through the slaying of animals, through the shedding of blood. By this gracious act of God, the means of salvation was symbolized; the death of His own well-beloved Son was shadowed forth. God Himself furnished the skins; God made the coats, and God clothed them in acceptable garments.

Next, we will look at some of the aprons of fig leaves with which the natural man is trying to make himself acceptable to God.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Lord, thank You for making us acceptable to God.  You fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law on our behalf. You died in our place!