Nudity!

Genesis 3:11
And He said, “Who told you that you were naked?”

Good old Adam and Eve, running through the Garden of Eden with all that God blessed them with just flopping in the wind! Not a care in the world. It wasn’t until they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they realized they were naked.

I think their understanding of nudity was much more than the realization that they weren’t wearing their Hanes. No, this was a spiritual recognition of nudity. It was their recognition of their unrighteousness, their knowledge of good and evil, that made them naked. Up until that fateful bite Adam and Eve were completely oblivious to their imperfections.

They had no knowledge of how they fared next to a holy and perfect God. They had no clue that they weren’t worthy of being in His presence. They were completely unaware of anything that would separate them from His love. But when they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil their eyes were opened. They realized God’s perfection and their imperfections. They began looking at themselves and then they began hiding from God.

Adam and Eve were clothed in the righteousness of God in the Garden. They had no knowledge of good and evil and therefore everything they did, whether good or evil, was not held against them. It wasn’t because God wasn’t aware of it; it was because God chose to not hold them accountable for it. The burden was on God, not on man. That was the way God designed it! When Adam and Eve became aware of themselves God, being just, had to hold them accountable.

What did God do? Well, He did exactly what He said He would do; He brought death into the picture. But before He did that, God asked the question, “Who told you that you were naked?” The question asked by God shows that Adam and Eve were naked all along! The truth is that someone, Satan, told them about it.

Isn’t this is what happens to us all the time? We’re reminded that we’re naked; we’re told who we are. This is exactly what the Devil wanted in the Garden: for man to know himself rather than God.

God’s desire all along was to have man for a friend. His desire was to have perfect communion with us all the time. That perfect communion was available only by the fact that God’s righteousness covered the sins of man. It wasn’t so much that God overlooked what man was doing, but that He chose to endure it for the sake of friendship.

Folks, this is what we have today through the cross of Christ: forgiveness of sins and perfect friendship with God. Jesus came to restore life, abundant life, to mankind. He came to remove the curse of knowing we’re naked by clothing us, once again, with His righteousness. When you are in Christ you are clothed in Him. When God sees you it is only through the perfection of Jesus Christ. Being a Christian means that you are restored to a Genesis 2 relationship with God. Grace didn’t start at the cross; grace was made public at the cross. Grace started at Genesis 1:1!