This of course is an interesting statement and probably gets a lot of people’s attention. No this doesn’t promote nudity as the normal state and specify that we should all go to church without any clothes on. There are obviously some that would like that, but this is not what God is telling us here. God is giving us a view into the spiritual state of the man and the woman before sin. Let’s look at complete verse:
Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
In this verse we see a state of innocence. I only know of one time in a normal person’s life when they are not ashamed of being naked, and that is when they are children 2 to 4 years old. My son use to take his diaper off and run around naked and it seemed to be his preferred dress code. Isn’t it interesting that children do this without any consciousness of their nudity? Why is this? Here is a verse that Paul speaks about this state of innocence:
Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
You see this is a complex verse that is easily misunderstood if applied incorrectly. It speaks of a time in Paul’s life when he was alive. This of course is speaking of a spiritual state. I many time hesitate calling it spiritual death and life, because spirits can not technically die. A spirit will forever exist somewhere. I often times refer to this as spiritual awareness. You see children when they are young are more in tune with their spirits and I like to say it this way, children realize that they are spirits clothed with a body. As we age and mature, then Paul says sin revived and he died. In other words he became spiritually unaware or dull. No longer was Paul an innocent child, he came into the age of accountability and he was unaware of spiritual things. How did I come to these conclusions? First by having children, then I saw it in the Bible:
2 Corinthians 5:4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
You wee in this verse again a complex statement with widespread implications. The primary subject of the verse is the human body. Paul is writing about our current earthly body in the terms of a temporary dwelling place. God calls it tabernacle. A tabernacle is a hut, a tent, or any other temporary residence that you will not be staying long in. Then in the verse in terms of the human body, God refers to our bodies as being our clothes for our spirits. When we die and leave this world, our bodies do not go with us and Paul calls this a state of being unclothed. But he says we are anxiously awaiting an immortal and permanent dwelling place that will be coming soon.
So what we can say about Adam and Eve at this point in time is that they are spiritually alive or aware, in a child like state of innocence. They were spirit beings clothed with bodies. Later we will see in chapter 3 the effects that sin had on them and what God did about it. I’ll stop here for now and we can move on to another subject.
Tags: Bible, creation, Genesis, God, man, Religion, sin, Truth, understanding
