Nakedness Avoided??

Written by Kevin Mills

Have you ever felt naked? The term naked doesn't just relate to physical vulnerability but also other areas of our lives. One of the definitions of "Nakedness" is inadequacy - using that substitute let's ask a question: Have you ever felt inadequate (naked) in the area of your job, family, relationship, finances, health, mind, spirituality? Most of us would plead to a feeling of inadequacy in one of these areas and guess what - this isn't anything new!

What's the origin? God wondered the same thing. God even asked this question, "Who told you that you were naked?" (Gen. 3:11). Since that "apple-eating" day (or "The Fall") we still find ourselves with the stigma of…well…inadequacy. But this inadequacy does not originate from God. Rather it originates fro m ourselves. Paul alludes to this in Romans 7:9 when he says, "I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died." Before the fall we were experiencing full life, contentment, and joy in the completeness of this utopian world God had created - but through the fall we lost our innocence and "fullness" and became aware of God's laws and commandments (we were now able to discern between good and evil Gen. 3:22) and sin was realized within us - or as Paul puts it, "…sin came alive." The law was in existence before the fall but mans realization of it had not yet been awakened. A quick note before we go on: Evil or sin is the absence of good. Many people ask the question, "How could a good God create evil?" But they miss the realization that evil is the absence of good. Just as dark is the absence of light. Keep this in mind while reading the rest.

In the garden man was in complete wholeness and therefore could not realize any inadequacy within himself and dwelt in perfect love ("God is love" 1Jn 4:8) which castes out all fear (1 Jn 4:18). But when man sinned there was an absence (evil/sin) of good and wholeness caused and two things happened - sin "came alive" for the perfect love was no longer complete and therefore fear was not cast out. So subsequently we found ourselves left with the self-realization and vulnerability of "nakedness." But this is why God made it clear that He did not come to condemn the world (Jn 3:17) but that the world may be saved through Him. His laws have never changed but our awareness of them has. God never accused our condemned us of inadequacy - it was our own realization of inadequacy to follow His will that torments us! But here's the good news, "there is no condemnation for those who are found in relationship with Christ Jesus." (Rom.8:1) God's desire is to restore us back to that perfect walk with Him where there exists no condemnation and no guilt but only newness and joy of life. God still asks us this question, "Who said you were inadequate?" Through Christ we can do all things (Php.4:13) and we no longer remain "naked," vulnerable, and inadequate but rather clothed completely in the armour of God (eph.6:11) and the realization that in Christ I am complete. (Col2:10)