Reflections
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Gen. 2:25)
This is God’s description of humanity BEFORE Adam’s sin. Thus, it is His original design. Man was created to be, “naked but not ashamed.”
To be naked is to have NOTHING of yourself as a resource for life. Now note: This was not a bad thing, but a God-ordained thing. Man was MADE to have nothing in himself for life – God created man to BE naked. Why? Because man was created one with God – and thus all resources for life were to be found by man in God Himself.
But Adam was not only naked of all resource for life — he was, “not ashamed.” In other words, because originally Adam was one with God, and abiding in Him by faith, he was fully at home being without any resource in himself – he was fully alive and complete in God.
There was no shame – no consciousness of lack or emptiness.
When we come to Christ, we are joined to Him in spirit and made one with Him. (I Cor. 6:17) We are therefore COMPLETE IN HIM. (Col. 2:9) He IS our life. (Col. 3:4) Thus, what we see is that the new birth is, in many ways, a restoration of what Adam lost through his sin and rebellion against God.
Naked and Ashamed
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked….and Adam said, “I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Gen. 3:7-10)
BEFORE his sin, Adam was naked but unashamed. AFTER his sin, Adam was naked but ashamed. God created man to be naked, and thus, dependent upon God for life. Thus, the sin did not change the nakedness. Rather, the sin changed Adam – he was no longer unashamed — but ashamed and afraid.
The reason for Adam’s fear was that he was no longer one with God. God had been the source of all life for him before the sin – thus, despite being naked, he was unashamed. He was fully completed by God and withour fear. But now, after the sin, Adam was all alone in his nakedness. He had declared independence from God and that is exactly what he got – he was alone and afraid, without resource for life. Or, to put it another way, Adam was now spiritually dead.
This is man in Adam – naked and ashamed – without realizing what is actually wrong with himself. The human race has tried every manner of solution to try to fix what ails us, including religion But the only solution is that we must once again be made one with God as our life. Jesus Christ has restored this relationship.
The Fig Leaves
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (Gen. 3:7)
Before his sin, Adam was naked but unashamed. After his sin, he was naked and ashamed. The reason for the change from unashamed to shame was that Adam was no longer one with God. God was no longer His life. Adam was dead.
Adam immediately tried to fix the damage. He was naked but without God as his source for life, and so he tried to cover his nakedness. He used fig leaves – a man made means to deal with the situation. But God made Adam to be naked. The solution would therefore never be to cover his nakedness. The only solution would be to confess his nakedness and come back to God for life.
Fig leaves represent any means we use to try to fix what sin has done. One of the most common fig leaves is that of our own righteousness. We try to make ourselves righteous by covering up our true condition with works. But God says, “This is a façade. It is a lie. You are naked. What you need is the righteousness found only in the Person of My Son.” Jesus Christ is the only true covering. Only in Him is there life.