Genesis 2 ends with man and woman “naked and not ashamed.” By the middle of chapter three, however, they were hiding themselves among the trees, attempting to escape the presence of God. What happened in the course of these eight verses that caused the shift from no shame to shame is one of the most significant events in the storyline of the Bible. It is here that history moved from Creation to Fall.

This cosmic shift is, for the Christian, the explanation for the existence of evil. It is an historic account that makes sense of the world as we experience it. Man, as moral creature made in the image of God, has rebelled against his Creator, plunging himself and the rest of God’s creation over which he was to have dominion into a state of shame and curse. The one given the charge to “rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (1:28) was instead ruled over by another creature – the serpent.

As Adam’s descendants, we not only inherit the guilt of his moral failure (Rom. 5:12-14), we also find ourselves committing shameful acts similar to his. We too align ourselves with the serpent and forfeit our responsibility to take dominion over the earth.

All of us are those who do not practice what we would like to do, but do the very things we hate (Rom. 7:15). What is needed is a man who has not inherited the guilt of Adam and who can succeed where Adam failed. In Christ alone this is accomplished! “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).

One day men and women will again seek to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord. When the day of judgment comes, they will say “to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb’” (Rev. 6:16). May we not be found among those ashamed in their fig leaves on that day, but may we be found among those “standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes” (7:9).

Audio from the lesson can be found here.

~DGG