Word of Salvation – Vol. 35 No. 23 – June 1990
Glory, Guilt And Grace
Sermon by Rev. H. DeWaard on Genesis 2:25, 3:7,21
Reading: Gen. 2:25-3:10; Revel.3:14-22
Singing: 13:1,4,5; 388:2,1; BoW H.801:1,3,5; Bow Song 3; 420:5; 469
Dear congregation, beloved in Jesus Christ,
We all know what it is to be ashamed. You set yourself a task and at the end you know: I goofed it. Girls and boys come home with a report card. It is not as good as it could be. She hides it in her bag. You have to say a prayer or short speech in public. You umm and arr and feel ashamed. We feel shame when people speak ill of us or our family. It hurts our pride. Honour is at stake.
Sometimes we are ashamed about things that are not wrong. We feel shame when people stare at us. We blush or cover our face. It is impolite to have direct eye contact for more than a second or two. We hate it when people ‘see through us’. We feel ashamed because we feel exposed. Our inner self is laid bare. Our life is becoming an open book. And we don’t want people to read it.
Adam and Eve hid in shame after they sinned. They literally covered their bodies. Let’s have a closer look at this story of:
GLORY, GUILT AND GRACE.
1. The glory of openness in virtue of creation.
2. The guilt of hiding in virtue of the fall
3. The grace of covering in virtue of redemption.
1. The Glory of openness.
In Genesis 1 and 2 we are called to love and worship God for his wonderful act of creation. ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being’. (Rev.4:11.)
You and I can worship God because we are not vegetables, or animals. We are special. Created in God’s image. We are created to relate to God in a way no other creature can. We can live consciously in the presence of God in a relationship of genuine love. Computers cannot form a love relationship. We can. We can communicate, speak, think, love, manage. God gave mankind creativity and skills. Hence, the depths of the sea give up their oil and gas. The mountains yield their gold, iron ore and uranium. Satellites circle the earth, enabling us to pick up the phone and speak with a relative in Amsterdam. Jumbo jets hurl us across the skies to New Zealand, Africa or Europe. Rembrandt and Handel produced their masterpieces in art or music. Man is great. Because he has a great God whom we must glorify for ever and ever,
When creation came from the hand of God it was good. It was at peace with itself. Man was at peace. That’s what I read here in vs.25. The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame. Between them the channels of love and communication blossomed. Just as between Father, Son and Holy Spirit there is fullness of fellowship and communication, so between Adam and Eve there was openness. Man and woman loved God and one another in perfect openness and innocence. No pretence, no tension or the mockery of self-gratification or the curse of unfaithfulness. They were naked, but not ashamed. Everything was good.
They felt no shame because the disturbance of sin had not crept in. Hence they could enjoy the delights and intimacies of marriage both physically and emotionally. They were comfortable with each other, at ease and secure. They were not even aware of their nakedness.
Here we see the glory which marked creation. Adam and Eve enjoyed uninterrupted communion with God. Surely that is the purpose of our life! They enjoyed the blessing and delight of walks with God, the joy of his presence, open relationships, happy friendships. No shame at all because there was no rebellion, no selfishness, defensiveness or embarrassment.
We long for that kind of situation. Think how utterly disturbed the family relationship is. The problem of homelessness. The alienation between parents. The dependence on drugs. The violence of society. It is symptomatic of a severely disturbed relationship with God. We have lost the glory that belongs to our createdness. How can we yet live with ourselves and with each other in a meaningful way?
We can, because we still have God as the basis of our existence. We can still have a firm grip on life even when we struggle with broken relationships and the disturbance of sin.
When I am depressed or downcast, when I ask: “What’s the use?”, I must remind myself that because God has created me, I have worth and dignity. I accept myself as the image of God. That’s what Scripture says. I must listen to it, not to atheists and humanists. You know what they say about mankind? Man is junk and may be treated as junk. If the embryo is in the way, ditch it. If the old person is in the way, throw him away! With that view people create hell for themselves. As Adam and Eve found out.
2. The Guilt of Hiding.
The fall of man into sin is not described in theological terms. It is described in terms of persons relating to each other. ‘Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked…’ (vs.7). When? After they had eaten of the forbidden tree… immediately they became self-conscious. They knew they were naked and began to cover up. Adam’s relationship with God was disturbed, so was the relationship with his wife and the rest of creation. No other humans were around, so they did not have to worry what others would think. They covered themselves from each other. They knew they had failed to live up to God’s ideal by their act of disobedience and non-love.
They hid from God and from each other. ‘A person who is unable to love cannot reveal himself’. If you do not love, you cover yourself, you keep yourself aloof. It becomes a way of life. Fellowship is broken and many people enter into the isolation of loneliness. It happens in society. It happens in the church. Here is the testimony of a teenager:
‘I am sick of the church. The church is so cold you can ski down the aisle and tear an icicle off the preacher’s nose’.
True or not, that is how some people feel.
Wholeness is shattered. When the relationship with God goes sour, every other relationship suffers. We create an attitude of us and them. We dare not care, for caring means involvement. We look the other way.
Brothers and sisters, if there is such hiding from one another we must repent. It is not possible to have a right relationship with God while at the same time living at odds with the neighbour.
I came across such an instance where a Christian lady told of her separation from her husband and how she was quite content with that. ‘It does not in any way affect my relationship with God!’
We are dealing here with a real spiritual issue. When the relationship with God is disturbed, everything suffers. Notice vs.8… they hid from the Lord. It’s like a game of hide and seek. God comes down. He doesn’t find them. They hide in the bushes. ‘Adam, where are you!!’ Of course God knew exactly where they were. They tried to cover their guilt by avoiding the Person offended.
Innocence and flawless beauty has made way for GUILT. Their guilt before God caused them to feel naked.
And the next game begins. Passing the buck, it is called. ‘The woman you gave me…. the serpent did it…!’ It’s a game we all play. We shift attention from our own guilt to others, neighbours, circumstances, lack of opportunity.
The situation we face here was repeated over and over again in Israel’s history. Jeremiah 3:3, “You have defiled the land… yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame.” They continually spurned his love. It can happen in the church too. To the church of Laodicea Jesus says: ‘You do not realise that you are wretched, poor, pitiful blind and naked…. buy from me white clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness…’ (Rev.3:18).
Nakedness here refers to a very poor spiritual condition, which needs the willingness to repent and confess. When we do, the Lord is ready to begin the healing process. In Jesus Christ, God involves Himself with you and me. He reduced himself to man-size in order to come to our aid. In Christ you are loved. You have something worth possessing (eternal life) and you have something worth giving (the comfort of the Gospel). Christ is the perfect answer to the problem of our spiritual nakedness.
– Are you serious about eternal, spiritual issues?
– Do you have a desire for God?
– Do you have a love of holiness which grows out of a conviction of guilt and deep repentance?
– Do you have a deep gratitude for forgiveness and cleansing through the blood of Jesus?
– And a desire to please God?
The answer to these questions will show whether you are hiding in guilt or enjoying the grace of sins forgiven?
3. The Grace of Covering.
We see here in our text also the GRACE by which our guilt is covered. God took away Adam and Eve’s fig-leaf covering and graciously provided garments of skin. When we read that God made garments of skin, we must not (says Calvin) imagine God as coming down to slaughter animals, skinning them and then making these skins into clothes. This is a human way of speaking about God. God gave man the authority to slaughter animals for the purpose of making clothes. This covering required the death of the animal.
Do we have here a looking forward to Jesus the Lamb of God who would sacrifice Himself so that we might be clothed with white garments of salvation? Perhaps! We do know that man cannot stand before God in his own spiritual rags. He needs a covering from God. It is the covering of righteousness received from God through faith in Jesus Christ.
When Jesus hung there, naked, and exclaimed: ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ He experienced the ultimate separation from God and man. It was the only way in which our guilt and shame could be covered. There is no sufficient sacrifice that we can bring. Nothing! We are bankrupt. Naked! All we can do is rely on his mercy and pray that the Lord will give us His salvation and an experience of the inward reality of salvation.
Is this risky? What if in the end we are left out in the cold? What if in the end, hoping for heaven we find ourselves utterly exposed? Sometimes we are anxious about that, particularly in times of doubt, depression or tragedy. What does Scripture say? The one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. (Rom.9:33).
We are asked to commit ourselves fully to God.
An Illustration: John Wesley was on board a ship to America (1736). On board were a group of Moravians, German Christians. As they were singing their opening Psalm of the Sunday service, a storm broke out. Water swept over the ship. The main sail split in pieces. It seemed as if the deep was going to swallow them. A terrible screaming began. Wesley was terrified. The Germans calmly sang on. Afterwards, Wesley asked: Were you not afraid? They replied: ‘We thank God, no! We are not afraid to die’.
Wesley was ashamed of his own lack of trust. Soon after he came to the experience of full surrender. He knew himself covered in the white garments of righteousness for ever!
I am not saying that when we are Christians all our problems are over. We still groan. Love and zeal are often at a low ebb. We experience spiritual and psychological nakedness.
But we know that when Christ comes we shall be like Him!
In the meantime, love God and each other as members of the family of God. Don’t play hide and seek. Be willing to change in order to DO the command of the Lord: Love one another as I have loved you.
Will you hear him speaking to you today?
AMEN