Genesis 3:10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

 

 

 

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they had unbroken communion with God. Once they sinned, things changed. They quickly threw some leaves together to clothe themselves, and hid behind some trees when they heard God coming. This story could be taken literally, but do not miss the spiritual significance.

After they had been deceived into eating the fruit, suddenly they realized that they were fallen creatures. For the first time, they knew disobedience. For the first time, they did not welcome the sight of God. For the first time, they felt shame.

The sin, the first one, put distance between them and God. This distance has continued and still exists. The way Adam and Eve dealt with the distance is often the way it is dealt with today.

Verse seven says they realized they were naked and they covered themselves with leaves. It is interesting to note that when God came looking for them, they still felt naked even though they were clothed.

They used what they had, leaves, to try to fix their problem. The leaves were not working though, because they still hid when they heard God coming.

Once they were confronted with their sin, their first act was to shift the blame. Adam blamed eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and soon the serpent would not have a leg to stand on.

It is not until verse 21 that we see God making clothing for them. The clothing God gave them was an adequate cover for their nakedness, just as the fig leaves were not effective.

This story is a striking picture of  forgiveness.

When we sin, we realize we have done something that has separated us from God. Our first natural response is to hide. We may try to cover it up, and then we try to justify ourselves.

Our first normal response is to hide, to run away from God, because our natures do not want to admit that we have sinned. Then we may use just about anything to cover our sin, to make ourselves appear ok.   It is just something we use to try to make us feel ok about ourselves even though we realize we have done wrong. Our third response, when convicted by the Holy Spirit, is to shift the blame. We try to find a way to justify our behavior, to blame someone else, or to convince ourselves that it was not really our fault.

When this happens, spiritually speaking, we are booted out of the garden. We do not lose our salvation, just as Adam and Eve did not lose their relationship with God. However, we do lose that closeness of fellowship with God the Father.

The only thing that can restore that closeness is for us to get naked. We must take off our fig leaves and come out from our hiding, quit trying to justify ourselves, and return to God.

Adam and Eve were restored in verse 21, when God made clothing for them. A covering that God provides will take away our shame and guilt. A covering that we make ourselves – fig leaves – will not work.

As it is written in 1 John 1:8-9. “⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Running, hiding or covering, is another way of claiming that we have no sin, and John writes that when we do this we only deceive ourselves. God knows, and often other believers know too.

We all sin. We all will sin. But we are promised restoration. We are promised clothing that will hide or cover our sinfulness, but there is one thing we must do. We must confess. The confession means to agree with God, to admit that we have done wrong. It is to own up to our weakness. When we do that, God will take our fig leaves and give us a covering that will truly cover us.

In I John, the tenses of the Greek words, show confession and forgiveness to be continual actions. Something that continues. It could be translated, if we keep on confessing, He will keep on forgiving and cleansing us.