Download | Duration: 00:50:42

    Naked and Ashamed

    Genesis 3:1-13

Without G3, nothing in the Bible makes sense.  We go from marital bliss in a garden paradise in G2 to a murderous rage in G4.  How do we go from naked/unashamed in G2 to hate/murder in G4?  How do we go from a wedding to a funeral?  Why is there sin/evil/judgment/ heartache?  Why are people battered/broken/bleeding/bruised?  Why is there death/ suffering?  Why is there hope?  Why do I hurt?

This passage multi-tasks – it does a lot of things at the same time.

Look at this passage through five lenses/perspectives: historical/ theological/ relational/philosophical/practical.  

Foundation stone: bears weight/determines vertical and horizontal lines.  G3 is a foundational passage that carries the weight/sets the lines for the rest of the Bible.  

Historical – israel in the wilderness

Story of the fall told in the context of the wilderness wandering.  But it just wasn’t a story –  it was a sermon, also.  It not only had historical value, it was meant to instruct them morally/spiritually.  It was not only the story of a/e, it was their story, too.  They were to see themselves in a/e.  Faithful teaching of the Word will help you see you in the characters of the Bible.  

You are David, trusting god to protect you from the murderous hatred of saul.

You are Elijah, depressed and gripped by fear.

You are Peter, denying Jesus before your accusers.

you are daniel, trusting in god in the lion’s den.

you are the three hebrew children, following god no matter what the cost.

you are paul and silas sitting in a prison cell singing hymns of praise to God.  

The Bible is mankind’s/everyman’s/your story.  F. Gallagher/I criticizing OT Israel for rebelling against a God who made Himself so evident.  Then we stopped/laughed – we saw ourselves.

a/e kicked out of the garden because of sin/Israel kept out of the promised land because of sin.  Israel is a/e, being kept from a good place because of sin.  Barred from garden/promised land.  You can be barred from a good place because of sin – marriage/peace/joy…

What are we doing in the wilderness?  Past is key to the present.  God’s word shed a light on them and helped them to understand the course of their lives.  God’s Word will shed a light on your path.

Theological – original sin/redemption

a/e not created righteous, but innocent.  McGee  They were not created w/ sinful/selfish/self-absorbed souls.  They were naked/unashamed.  They weren’t hiding from/judging/blaming one another.  What happened to bring about the universal condition of w/holding ourselves/judging/blaming one another?  

Sin entered the human heart and brought death to three areas – spiritual - God/psychological & social - others/physical - life.  Why does man struggle w/ God/others/self?  Sin.  Where does sin come from?

When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned… For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this other man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God’s bountiful gift. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but we have the free gift of being accepted by God, even though we are guilty of many sins. The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.  Yes, Adam’s one sin brought condemnation upon everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness makes all people right in God’s sight and gives them life.  Because one person disobeyed God, many people became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many people will be made right in God’s sight.  Romans 5:12-19 (selected)  NLT

Titanic’s captain’s decision affected all. Federal headship – Captain Adam sunk the human race.  Medical workers have identified patient zero in the AIDS epidemic and Adam is patient zero in the death epidemic.  

“It’s not fair that I have to suffer for what someone else did.  It’s not fair that I be reckoned unrighteous by what Adam did.  I wasn’t there, I didn’t do it.”  Then it’s not fair that you benefit from someone else did.  It’s not fair that you be counted righteous for Christ’s sake – you weren’t there, you didn’t do it.  

All who are in Adam are lost and all who are in Christ are saved.   The fact that you were born on an impoverished/disease ridden island is not your fault – though you will still suffer for this.  But if there is a bridge built to the healthy mainland and you don’t cross it – that is your fault.

Original sin – born spiritually dead/needing redemption.  Mankind is born wandering in the wilderness of sin.

V21 – Redemption/animal skins/sacrifice

Relational – naked and ashamed

Why try to hide from each other? Remember how shame works in the Bible -  shame isn’t necessarily an admission of guilt/feeling of embarrassment.  Shame is associated w/ judgment.  Naked/ unashamed – everything is seen/nothing is judged.  When they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good/evil they didn’t suddenly develop a sense of modesty.  They didn’t say to one another, “It’s not polite to be naked in public.”  To be ashamed meant that they had acted dishonorably/done something to bring judgment upon themselves.

In covering themselves they were trying to hide from each other’s judgment.  Their covering themselves didn’t mean they were modest or embarrassed – it was survival.

They were guilty b4 God/sinned against God – not each other.  Observation: my sin against God drives a wedge between you/me.  God is the glue between people – remove God and people grow suspicious of/hostile toward one another.  Atheists/atheistic regimes have the worst record of human rights abuses, bar none.  Atheism killed at least 200M in 20th century.  

It may not look/feel the way it did for a/e, but when man is not connected to God, he is in some way also disconnected from man.  a/e went from self giving to self w/holding.  They went from God/ other centered living to self centered living.  Your sin against God puts a distance between you and people/spouse.  

How did they seek to hide from one another? In covering their genitalia, they were covering themselves at the place of deepest giving/most intimate expression.  The fig leaves were not just a covering where they could hide, they were a barrier so that the other person couldn’t have access.  “You can’t see me there.  It’s mine and not yours and I can give it or w/hold it as I want to.”  Cf. 1 Cor. 7 – your bodies don’t belong to yourselves – quit covering/withholding yourselves.  (Could it be that the sexual revolution that has made nakedness a virtue is trying to recapture the garden w/o God?  It has created a nightmare, instead.)  
 
They were not created w/ sinful/selfish/self-seeking souls.  They were naked/unashamed.  They weren’t hiding from/judging/blaming one another, but now they are.  Their relationship is now in the wilderness.  They were created to be one flesh.  What we see here is one flesh becoming two flesh.  Ripping/tearing.  

Physically/socially together –  spiritually/psychologically disconnected.  I think we enter marriage w/ a list somewhere of what we won’t give up for one another.  (We don’t know where the list is and we don’t know everything that’s on it). There are forces at work keeping us from oneness.

When a man/woman comes to Christ, the Spirit works in them to become a better spouse – there is a giving/not a holding back.  

Historical –   Israel in the wilderness

Theological –  mankind in the wilderness

Relational –   marriage in the wilderness