A Garment of Innocence
By Stephen Terry
“And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any
tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17,
NIV
Unique among all the creatures God had
created on the Earth, Man was given the opportunity to make his or her own
moral choices. In the beginning it was so simple. There was only one choice to
make. It was a simple as telling a five-year-old, "Don't get into the
cookies!" While some five-year-olds will obey, some will not. Our
first parents, Adam and Eve, did not.
That failure of moral fortitude has
since given way to a multitude of moral choices. Should
I drink alcohol or not? Should I listen to this music
or not? Should I wear this outfit or not? Should I see this movie or not? All of these are merely the
original choice revisited in as many forms as there are desires susceptible to
temptation.
Sometimes we assume a
certain arrogance, telling ourselves that the choice was so obvious to
Eve that we ourselves would never have tasted forbidden fruit. Yet, all
the while, we fail similar choices daily, hourly, and minute by minute. In the
quietness, when we are alone, our hypocrisy condemns us, and the one known as
"the Accuser of the brethren" (See Revelation 12:10) is only too
happy to remind us of our failings. We feel keenly our separation from God. We
would never admit it to our friends, but our hearts bleed for what we have
lost. What we don't understand is that theirs bleed as well. It is our
shame that keeps us from sharing this secret with one another.
Adam and Eve enjoyed daily "face
time" with God. According to Genesis 3:8, God enjoyed walking in the
Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve in the "cool of the day." No doubt,
they both enjoyed this close time together with God. The Bible says they were
"naked" but "felt no shame." (See Genesis 2:25)
Perhaps they were clothed in light from walking with God. When Moses many
generations later came into God's presence, we are told that the light that
shone from his face was so bright the people could not look at him. (See Exodus
34:29-35) Adam and Eve spent much more time in God's presence than Moses and
were probably much more affected by that experience.
Once the first pair made the choice to
separate themselves from walking with God and wanting to go their own way, the
brightness faded. In shame they sought to hide their nakedness. Searching for a
replacement for the light, they chose creation rather than the Creator for the
solution. The Bible says they "sewed fig leaves together" for clothing. (See Genesis 3:7)
They had experienced the love of God
personally. However, the guilt and shame they felt for what they had done
prevented them from coming to God. Surely, Satan was all too happy to point out
their failure and increase their shame. When they realized the inadequacy of
the fig leaves, they felt that the only thing they could do was hide from God.
How this must have broken His heart. If
you have ever given your all for a child only to have that child turn from you
in rebellion, then you have experienced some small measure of the heartbreak
that God must have felt. Even then, He demonstrated His love for Adam and Eve.
He knew that fig leaf garments could never hide their shame or make things
right again. He knew they needed a better solution.
Today we are bombarded with media
statements that this car, this technological gadget, this clothing style, or
even this person in our lives will give us the happiness that our fallen hearts
are searching for. So we buy the car, we wear the latest styles, we find the
right person to be our "arm candy." But in the end, we find only
emptiness, and we wonder why we cannot find the happiness we are searching for?
Why do we still feel that we are clad only in fig leaves and covered with
shame?
Maybe what we really need is to find
those garments of light again. Maybe we need to bring ourselves into the
presence of our loving God. God made it possible for that to happen. He told
Adam and Eve that failure to choose rightly in the Garden of Eden would cost a
high price--death. That price would still have to be paid. To illustrate that
only paying that price could restore their ability to have a relationship with Him, God slew some animals and clothed Adam and Eve in the
skins. As the blood of those animals was a lesson on what it would take
to stand before God without shame, one day a more perfect answer to the
sentence of death would eventually allow a complete restoration for those who
wanted it.
The
blood of animals was an imperfect solution. It illustrated the point but it
could not solve the problem. Otherwise, why would it have to be done over and
over again? (See Hebrews chapter 10) Those sacrifices were not the cleansing
for sin, but only the reminder of the need for restoration.
Many religions teach that given enough
sacrifice on the part of the believer, Nirvana or a similar state of bliss can
be attained. But man has no power for his own salvation. No matter how
intricately we sew those fig leaves, they are still just fig leaves. The white
garment of light that will allow us to stand in the presence of God is only
available one way.
We cannot buy it because we cannot
afford the price. Yet, we can have it. Jesus says, "I
counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich;
and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve
to put on your eyes, so you can see." Revelation 3:18, NIV
But how can we
buy what we cannot afford? As strange as it may seem, because of God's love it
is possible.
The prophet Isaiah knew the secret. He
wrote "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and
you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and
milk without money and without cost." Isaiah 55:1, NIV
What is the
secret? How can we buy things when we clearly have no way to pay for them? The
answer is that God made it possible.
Nothing we can do can restore the
relationship. In fact all we do still leaves us under the original sentence of
death. Paul puts it this way: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23, NIV The
answer is a gift. You don't buy gifts. You only receive them. John 3:16 makes
it even clearer what that gift was." For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life." NIV
But who can
receive this gift? Anyone can! "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1:9, NIV If
we ask Him, God is willing to remove our shame, and will one day return to
walk with us again. What a wonderful hope. And when we enter His presence at
that second coming, we will be changed.
"in a
flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For
the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be
changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable
has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then
the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in
victory.'" 1 Corinthians 15:52-54, NIV That change is a restoration of all that was
lost through mankind’s fall in
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