Marriage is more wonderful than anyone on earth knows. And the reasons it is wonderful can only be learned from God’s special revelation and can only be cherished by the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to behold and embrace the wonder. The reason we need the Spirit’s help is that the wonder of marriage is woven into the wonder of the gospel of the cross of Christ, and the message of the cross is foolishness to the natural man, and so the meaning of marriage is foolishness to the natural man. 1 Corinthians 2:14-Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.Leaving parents and holding fast to a wife, forming a new one-flesh union, is meant from the beginning to display this new covenant — Christ’s leaving his Father and taking the church as his bride, at the cost of his life, and holding fast to her in a one-spirit union forever. 1 Corinthians 6:17-But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Genesis 2:25, “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” What is the point of that verse? Now obviously they were in perfect bodies, without blemish our blame. Since their appearance was perfect, they did not have the slightest fear that their spouse would disapprove of them. In other words, their freedom from shame was because they had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. But is that the point?
First off no matter how perfect the appearance of your spouse is, if your unkind or selfish you can make comments in a way that will shame the other. Not being ashamed in marriage takes more than being perfect, it takes the one looking at you to be morally upright and gracious. If they have this your spouse's appearance will mean nothing.
I feel that the emphasis falls not on their freedom from physical imperfection, but on their fullness of covenant love. I am imperfect but I have no fear of being disapproved by my spouse because I can be shame free based on the gracious nature of covenant love. There is no shame because covenant love covers a multitude of flaws. 1 Peter 4:8- Above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves; for love covereth a multitude of sins.
Marriage was designed from the beginning to display Christ and the church, and the very essence of the new covenant is that Christ passes over sins in his bride. His bride is free from shame not because she is perfect, but because she has no fear that her lover will condemn her or shame her with her sin.
In Genesis 2:17, God had said to Adam, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” I think the "knowledge of good and evil" refers to a status of independence from God. Where Adam and Eve would decide apart from God what was right and wrong. The first effect of this rebellion was “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” What does this mean?
Suddenly they are self-conscious and aware of shame. They weren't all of a sudden ugly, so why then the shame? Because the foundation of covenant-keeping love collapsed. And with it the sweet, all-trusting security of marriage disappeared. The foundation of covenant-keeping love between a man and a woman is the unbroken covenant between them and God. God governing them for their good and they enjoying him in that security and relying on him. When they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that covenant was broken and the foundation of their own covenant keeping collapsed. They experienced this immediately in two ways.
In the first case, I am self-conscious of my body and I feel vulnerable to shame because I know Eve has chosen to be independent from God. I feel vulnerable around her, because she is very likely to put me down if that puts her up. So now my nakedness is precarious. I don't trust her to love me with a pure covenant love so I am self-conscious and ashamed.
The other source is that Adam himself, not just his spouse, has broken covenant with God. If she is rebellious and selfish and therefore unsafe, so am I. But the way I experience it in myself is that I feel defiled and guilty and unworthy. This huge gap between what I am and what I ought to be colors everything about me — including how I feel about my body. So my wife might be the safest person in the world, but now my own sense of guilt and unworthiness makes me feel vulnerable.
They tried to cope with this new situation by making clothing: “And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”Adam and Eve’s effort to clothe themselves was a sinful effort to conceal what had really happened. So they tried to close the gap between what they were and what they ought to be by covering what is and presenting themselves in a new way. From their standpoint, this was the origin of hypocrisy. It was the first attempted, and totally unsuccessful — snow job.
So what does it mean that God clothed them with animal skins? Was he confirming their hypocrisy? Was he aiding and abetting their pretense? If they were naked and shame-free before the Fall, and if they put on clothes to minimize their shame after the Fall, then what is God doing by clothing them even better than they can clothe themselves? I think the answer is that he is doing something with a negative message and something with a positive message. Negatively, he is saying, The chasm between what you are and what you ought to be is huge. Covering yourself with clothing is a right response to this — not to conceal it, but to confess it. One practical implication of this is that public nudity today is not a return to innocence but rebellion against moral reality. God ordains clothes to witness to the glory we have lost, and it is added rebellion to throw them off.
And for those who rebel in the other direction and make clothes themselves a means of power and prestige and attention getting, God’s answer is not a return to nudity but a return to simplicity.
1 Peter:3-4 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.
This was not only a witness to the glory we lost and a confession that we are not what we should be, but it is also a testimony that God himself would one day make us what we should be. God’s mercy points to the day when he will solve the problem of their shame decisively and permanently. He will do it with the blood of his own Son. And he will do it with the clothing of righteousness and the radiance of his glory.Philippians 3:21- He will fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.
Which means that our clothes are a witness both to our past and present failure and to our future glory. They testify to the chasm between what we are and what we should be. And they testify to God’s merciful intention to bridge that chasm through Jesus Christ and his death for our sins. He will solve the problem of fear and pride and selfishness and shame between man and woman with his new blood-bought covenant.
May You Be Blessed With Peace and Understanding
