The Shocking Price of Sin: Adam’s Lesson, Our Reality

This post and its message were inspired by a precious and beloved brother of mine who regularly preaches Christ on the street corners. One of his YouTube videos was the inspiration for this topic and the probable series of posts to come that trace blood, sacrifice, and atonement through Scripture.

Thank you for your faithfulness, Brother Lloyd. 🙏

The Shocking Price of Sin: Adam’s Lesson, Our Reality

Adam was created in perfection. He only knew life. Proof of this is the fact that he named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20). Death was not part of his world. But when sin entered, everything changed. Shame exposed their nakedness, and fig leaves—human effort—could not cover it.

Genesis 3:21 records: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” This was no small act. For the first time, Adam saw death. An innocent animal was slain. Blood was shed. Life was taken so that his guilt could be covered. Imagine the shock, the horror, the weight of guilt pressing down as Adam realized: my sin caused this death.

The fig leaves they had sewn together represented man’s attempt to atone for sin by his own effort. But God rejected this. Nothing we do can cover guilt. Only blood, determined by God, can atone. This was not arbitrary—it was prophetic. It pointed forward to Christ, the Lamb of God, whose blood alone would bring true atonement. From the very beginning, God was teaching that forgiveness is not earned by human effort but provided through His appointed sacrifice.

We see this lesson continue in the next generation. Abel brought the firstlings of his flock, and God respected his offering. Cain brought produce from the ground, and God rejected it. Abel’s sacrifice was accepted because it was by blood, by faith in God’s revealed way. Cain’s was rejected because it reflected human effort without substitution. The pattern was clear: fig leaves and fruit of the ground—man’s works—cannot please God. Only blood, only substitution, only God’s provision is acceptable.

And here is the piercing truth—you and I are no different. Sin still demands blood. Every lie, every rebellion, every careless indulgence carries a price. In this age of grace, the blood of Christ is that price. He suffered terribly, His body broken, His blood poured out, because of our sins. Each time we fall, each time we wander, His blood, His sacrifice, His death must be is the requirement for our atonement.

This age of grace is a vital blessing and a weight lifted from us, yet it can also breed too much comfort and complacency. It is human nature to become lax and forgetful amid life's busyness. We begin to treat sin lightly, as if forgiveness were cheap. Does the blood of Christ still shock us? Does it still pierce our conscience as it did Adam when he saw blood spilt for the first time? Or have we grown numb to the cost?

Adam must have trembled as he watched innocent life taken for his guilt. Abel understood that only blood was acceptable. Should we not tremble more, knowing that the Son of God Himself was slain for our guilt? His blood was not shed for vague humanity—it was shed for your sins, my sins, and each act of rebellion we commit.

Let this truth cut deep: blood and death are still the payment for sin. Christ bore that payment in full, but it was not light, not easy, not casual. It was agony. It was shame. It was the wrath of God poured out on Him instead of us.

So I ask you—are you still sensitive to the price? Does the cross still break your heart? Or have you covered yourself with fig leaves of excuses, forgetting that only blood can atone?

Let us wake up to the reality: sin is not small. Forgiveness is not cheap. The blood of Christ is precious, and it was shed at the highest cost. Let us never grow numb to it. Let us live in holy fear, in gratitude, in trembling awe, knowing that every sin demands our death—yet Christ died in our place for them all.