Naked – Genesis 2:18-25

Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. Genesis 2:19

Had that last creature which was probably a zalophus (latin for sea lion) been followed by a female I suspect Adam might have named her specie “Wow!” and thought, “There is no way that thing was made from dirt! Come, let us be alone no longer!”  Would we have ever become used to hearing pastors say, “And who gives this wow to be married to this man?”

But we know this is not how that story unfolded. Instead….

The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

What Adam really said was….

“This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

This is why…

…. a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

There are so many directions one could go on a keyboard given our gender-challenged world where these fundamental truths about who we are were debated by the wise of this world and discarded as fable. In this hour of history we see that human courts have taken it upon themselves to become the arbiters of these truths. If ever there were a living illustration of man’s folly in the light of biblical truth it is western culture. Listen to the Spirit in two passages warning us to not do what we have already done and continue to do…..

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption…..” Galatians 6:7-8

“God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.  For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,  and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”  Romans 1:24-27

Why was it that the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed?  A comment by Paul regarding human nature in general may help to answer this question…..

” ….. when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. 2 Corinthians 10:12

Adam and Eve did not have the disadvantage of having a multitude of victims of modernistic culture to compare themselves with. We moderns have literally millions of images stored away in our minds for the sake of fruitless comparison. Most were intentionally planted there by Madison Avenue. How tragically ironic that the success of advertisers would fuel a perpetual discontentedness with who we are and what we have which ultimately turns out to be the plague of the human soul and the essential fuel of our economy. Talk about a quandary.

And Arlo Guthrie asks, “Hello America, how are ya?”

What should our response be to our conflict, when in it’s presence, the Spirit tells us…..

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Matthew 6:25

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Mankind shall not likely return to this place of innocense at least as it pertains to apparel. However, that men might know a progressive transparency and innocense in their inner most beings is surely an aspect of the abundant life that Jesus promised to us.  Our hurdle, shame, is as unnatural as same sex union yet it too is pervasive in our culture. Shame (in what we wrongly think about ourselves) not only drives fashion, it drives religion in a sense that we must understand if we are to know any transparency at all with God and man. Recall; light is what children of light are called to walk in. Dallas Willard rightly says that we live in a shame-based culture. (For a profound and thorough discourse on our hearts, by all means read his book; Renovation of the Heart.)

Religion is what we clothe our hearts with in order cover our shame and enable us (we vainly imagine) to approach God.  In the insanity of human imaginations we think we can do things to win God’s approval. But church attendance, baptisms, giving, service are all but filthy rags in God’s presence. There are simply no human thoughts or actions that God approves of in and of themselves. They are worthless. They are even damning, if we die while thinking we are adequately clothed with them.

Yes,  by some definitions (even Wikipedia) , Christianity is a religion. But by the definition that I believe Jesus worked with (study Jesus’ issues with Pharisees) religion is simply any system of thought or practice whereby the doing of it causes us to think that we have gained the favor of God.  If life truly begins in the heart as Proverbs 4:23 tells us, it should be paramount that we ask ourselves, in the diligent watching over our hearts (as the verse commands), to ask ourselves the why’s behind our thoughts and deeds. We could complete this sentence, “I am accepted in God’s sight because ________________________________________________________________________   .”(Some may require extra space here but I sure hope not.)

If you think that you are ok with God and that heaven is assured you because of something you just placed in that blank space, rethink your position in comparison to God’s words. If we think we have performed in some way or that our personal righteousness is as good as another’s (there is that comparison again), we are standing on shifting sand. When the winds and storms come (especially the last one) we will have no foundation and it will indeed be finished. People often ask, “Why trials?”  “Why suffering?” We must give thanks if God has sent storms in advance to expose the falsework of our existing spiritual house. He is working in us and wanting us to reinvest our faith in Him alone, the only firm foundation for life.

When we stand before him (and we all shall) we must be clothed in Christ alone. Even a peep about our righteousness on that occasion will be the ultimate absurdity in light of the glowing perfection of God’s holiness which is the only and continual comparison that we must make.

                                                       Be holy therefore as I am holy.

This can be achieved only by clothing ourselves in Christ; by being a vessel that he has come to inhabit by the Spirit. Today (as always) is the day of salvation. If you are laboring under the delusion that something about you is inherently good; that your life is sufficient; that your faithfulness to this or to that has won God’s approval, then repent and put your trust in Christ alone and be saved.  Being clothed in this sense is not only how God saves our souls but it is also how God will restore to us the shame and guilt free-life he intended for Adam and for us. Walking in this light will bring the promised healing and substance of the promised abundant life.

Father, In your kindness disrupt us in every place we are trusting in oursleves for our salvation or our renovation. Let our restlessness be only that which comes from our longing to taste and see at ever deepening levels your beauty and your glory. We invite you as Lord to justly challenge and overthrow any religious idea that may have lodged in our thinking undermining the surety that is in you alone. Blessed be your name. Amen.