And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
The verse describes the first parents, Adam and his wife, in their Eden home before they transgressed God's law, living in holy innocence and untainted purity and enjoying communion with God and sinless angels. It belongs to the account of Adam as he stood in innocence with unfallen human nature and humanity's moral likeness to God, before sin weakened and defiled it. They wore no artificial or human garments and were unclothed yet felt no shame because they were innocent and at peace. They were instead clothed with a covering of light and glory like that worn by the angels, a circle of light that enshrouded their bodies while they lived in sinless obedience to God. That light clothing symbolized their spiritual innocence and harmony with God, and it imparted sweet love and peace and happy, contented bliss.
Their life shows man was made perfectly happy for happiness and not continual worry, in a Garden that was an emblem of heaven and the love of God. There flowers displayed beauty and loveliness with grateful fragrance, fruit trees bore precious treasures for man's good, and birds on every tree sang praise to God, in which Adam and Eve in their purity delighted to listen. God still wants men and women to rejoice in such sights and sounds today, while crowding people into cities in terraces and tenements is not in His order. The larger passage of Genesis 2:18-25 shows God celebrated the first marriage and thus the Creator of the universe originated the institution. Marriage was one of God's first gifts to man and one of the two institutions Adam carried with him beyond the gates of Paradise after the fall. When divine principles are recognized and obeyed in it, marriage is a blessing that guards the purity and happiness of the race, provides for man's social needs, and elevates the physical, intellectual, and moral nature.
When they sinned that connection with God was broken and the light departed, leaving both physical nakedness and nakedness of soul, with a sense of sin, dread of the future, want, and loss of bliss. Their bodily nakedness became an outward sign of newly felt guilt and spiritual nakedness. In shame and fear of meeting God and the angels exposed they turned their attention outward for the first time to seek coverings for their forms. Their transgression lost that Eden home to Satan and marred God's purpose, bringing the care and anguish that rends hearts. But Jesus Christ paid the price to ransom humanity from Satan's hands, and the image of God is to be impressed once more upon souls, with angels filling human hearts with the peace of heaven so that the Lord's people are joyful in reposing in Him and realizing His goodness, mercy, and love, for God has not abandoned the earth and sinners are still to be converted to Him.
The verse shows Adam as he stood with unfallen human nature before sin weakened and defiled it, which provides the contrast that for the Son of God even to take that sinless humanity would have been an almost infinite humiliation. Yet Jesus went still lower by accepting humanity not as it was then but as weakened and defiled by four thousand years of sin. Obedience to all of God's requirements brings peace and happiness without shame or a troubled conscience. By perfect obedience and overcoming as Christ overcame in keeping His Father's commandments, footsteps bend heavenward back to that Eden home and point others there.
The verse describes the first parents, Adam and his wife, in their Eden home before they transgressed God's law, living in holy innocence and untainted purity and enjoying communion with God and sinless angels. It belongs to the account of Adam as he stood in innocence with unfallen human nature and humanity's moral likeness to God, before sin weakened and defiled it. They wore no artificial or human garments and were unclothed yet felt no shame because they were innocent and at peace. They were instead clothed with a covering of light and glory like that worn by the angels, a circle of light that enshrouded their bodies while they lived in sinless obedience to God. That light clothing symbolized their spiritual innocence and harmony with God, and it imparted sweet love and peace and happy, contented bliss.
Their life shows man was made perfectly happy for happiness and not continual worry, in a Garden that was an emblem of heaven and the love of God. There flowers displayed beauty and loveliness with grateful fragrance, fruit trees bore precious treasures for man's good, and birds on every tree sang praise to God, in which Adam and Eve in their purity delighted to listen. God still wants men and women to rejoice in such sights and sounds today, while crowding people into cities in terraces and tenements is not in His order. The larger passage of Genesis 2:18-25 shows God celebrated the first marriage and thus the Creator of the universe originated the institution. Marriage was one of God's first gifts to man and one of the two institutions Adam carried with him beyond the gates of Paradise after the fall. When divine principles are recognized and obeyed in it, marriage is a blessing that guards the purity and happiness of the race, provides for man's social needs, and elevates the physical, intellectual, and moral nature.
When they sinned that connection with God was broken and the light departed, leaving both physical nakedness and nakedness of soul, with a sense of sin, dread of the future, want, and loss of bliss. Their bodily nakedness became an outward sign of newly felt guilt and spiritual nakedness. In shame and fear of meeting God and the angels exposed they turned their attention outward for the first time to seek coverings for their forms. Their transgression lost that Eden home to Satan and marred God's purpose, bringing the care and anguish that rends hearts. But Jesus Christ paid the price to ransom humanity from Satan's hands, and the image of God is to be impressed once more upon souls, with angels filling human hearts with the peace of heaven so that the Lord's people are joyful in reposing in Him and realizing His goodness, mercy, and love, for God has not abandoned the earth and sinners are still to be converted to Him.
The verse shows Adam as he stood with unfallen human nature before sin weakened and defiled it, which provides the contrast that for the Son of God even to take that sinless humanity would have been an almost infinite humiliation. Yet Jesus went still lower by accepting humanity not as it was then but as weakened and defiled by four thousand years of sin. Obedience to all of God's requirements brings peace and happiness without shame or a troubled conscience. By perfect obedience and overcoming as Christ overcame in keeping His Father's commandments, footsteps bend heavenward back to that Eden home and point others there.