And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Adam answered God's call after disobedience by saying he had heard His voice in the garden and had hidden in fear because he was naked, though in innocence he and Eve had delighted to welcome their Creator to walk and talk with them and now fled in terror among the trees. His nakedness was the loss of the covering of light and innocence that had enshrouded them, leaving their eyes opened not to godhood but to shame and ruin, with love and peace gone and dread of condemnation in its place. His words admitted hearing God and eating the fruit, yet they were no repentance but the beginning of evasion and shifting of blame to Eve and to God Himself. The fear and hiding lay bare what sin does, ending open fellowship without a veil, separating man from God, marring his likeness to his Creator, and opening the floodgates of sorrow, suffering, and death upon the world from what seemed a small transgression. God did not leave the guilty pair without hope but gave a star of hope in the dark future, fulfilled when Christ passed over Adam's ground and overcame, so that all who feel the same naked fear may obtain the white raiment of His righteousness through repentance and faith.
Setting in Eden Story
The words are Adam's answer when God called, Where art thou, in the garden after the transgression, when God manifested His presence to make known to Adam and Eve the consequences of their disobedience. He had fallen from his high estate after listening to Satan's misrepresentation of God, and through his transgression the floodgates of woe were opened upon the world. His fear, shame, and hiding among the trees expose guilt after breaking God's one prohibition, for which there is no excuse since every want had been generously supplied. Before disobedience he and Eve had been clothed with a covering of light, a garment of innocence, and the hiding proves God's law was binding when they were on trial in Eden and remains binding now.
In innocence and holiness they had delighted to meet their Creator and had joyfully welcomed His approach to walk and talk with them, but after eating the forbidden fruit they fled in terror, hid among the trees and in the deepest recesses of the garden, and were afraid to meet Him. While innocent Adam had delighted to meet God, after disobedience he became afraid and ashamed of his nakedness, and his awareness of being naked was part of the guilt and loss of innocence caused by sin. Before disobedience they welcomed God when He came to visit them in the garden; after they partook and became transgressors they were afraid and hid from His face, and refused to come to meet Him. God called, Adam where art thou, heard Adam's answer that he heard God's voice and was afraid because he was naked, and told him he had eaten of the forbidden tree.
The answer follows Eve's separation from her husband while laboring in the garden despite angels' caution to stay together for safety from temptation. She wandered alone, felt apprehension of danger, dismissed her fears trusting her own wisdom and strength to discern and withstand evil, gazed with curiosity and admiration on the forbidden tree questioning why God withheld it, and lingered instead of fleeing when the serpent addressed her. When the serpent tempted Eve and Eve tempted Adam, though privileged to behold Eden and permitted to eat of all its trees except one, they ate of the forbidden tree, broke God's command and became sinners. Sorrow spread through heaven where every harp was hushed, and angels feared they would again put forth the hand and eat of the tree of life and become immortal sinners, so God drove the transgressors from the garden and set cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way of the tree of life so man could not approach it and eat its fruit which perpetuates immortality.
The verse belongs to the authentic, inspired history of creation, the fall, and the introduction of sin and its results upon mankind. It is a grand truth of sacred history possessing amazing strength and beauty and reaching as far as eternity, a very pillar of the Christian faith, yet practically rejected by a large share of the professedly Christian world. It traces the race from standing in Eden in holy innocency enjoying communion with God and sinless angels to disobedience, impenitence, and just retribution. This true history of the beginning of the world gives true knowledge of the creation of man and his fall, keeps the mind from fables and conjectures, false theories, superstition and falsehood, and enfeebling of the intellect, so there is no need to be hampered by human conjectures and unreliable theories. Together with the telling of Christ's first advent, His incarnation, His divinity, His atonement, His wonderful life in heaven as our advocate, and the office of the Holy Spirit, it stands among the most important knowledge to be gained, as golden links in a perfect chain of truth revealed from Genesis to Revelation that should be exalted in every school in the land.
That meeting in Eden where God talked with Adam and Eve to give them heavenly instruction is the beginning of the gospel shining forth with clear light from Genesis to Revelation, a light that has continued to shine down through the ages since that time. Adam himself described that history of his fall to his children and children's children to the ninth generation, together with man's holy and happy estate in Paradise, the sufferings by which God taught him the necessity of strict adherence to His law, and the merciful provisions for salvation. He carefully treasured what God had revealed to him then and was commanded to repeat it to instruct his posterity in the way of the Lord, living nearly a thousand years among men as a witness to the results of sin and faithfully seeking to stem the tide of evil. Yet few gave heed to his words and he was often met with bitter reproaches for the sin that had brought woe upon his posterity.
Nakedness Fear and Hiding
The nakedness Adam confessed was the loss of the covering God Himself had given, garments of purity and brightness, of heavenly light and innocence and glory that had enshrouded the pair. Before disobedience they had been clothed with that light and glad to meet their Creator, but when they yielded to the tempter it departed and could no longer cover disobedience. His fear at hearing God's voice and his hiding among the trees confessed that guilt, for the same naked, afraid condition falls on all who yield to temptation and give themselves to obey Satan. The light that clothed them had departed, leaving poverty, sickness, suffering, diminished dignity, and the entrance of sin and death with loss of original purity.
That light had illuminated everything they approached and enabled them to see God's character clearly in nature. Deprived of heavenly light they could no longer discern His character in the works of His hand, God's brightness departed from nature, and the earth became marred and defiled by sin. Their transgression brought a blight upon the earth, came between nature and nature's God, and wrought a change in nature itself, so that marred nature bears only imperfect testimony and cannot reveal God's character in perfection.
Feeling unclothed they turned attention to their bodies and tried to fashion coverings of leaves to supply the place of lost innocence. Their fig-leaf covering could not replace that innocence or make them acceptable to meet God and holy angels. Human efforts to cover the shame and guilt caused by sin cannot restore what was lost.
Adam's fear and sense of nakedness reflected guilt and loss of innocence, dread of the future, spiritual want, and nakedness of soul. The love and peace and contentment known in innocence were gone, replaced by guilt and dread. Even the air, before mild and uniform in temperature, seemed to chill the guilty pair, who feared how they could face God and the angels unclothed. Their eyes were opened not to godhood but to their own shame and ruin, for they realized the garments of heavenly light that had protected them were gone and saw that nakedness was the result of transgression. They hid because they now anticipated what they had never known before, the condemnation of God.
No sinner can hide from God by turning away, so Adam's hiding must not be followed. Wicked works had separated him from God, so that he loved not to behold God or to retain Him in knowledge and did not want to see Him, and the same unwillingness marks those who accept Satan's sophistries in place of God's word. A sinner may turn his face so he cannot see God, but he cannot place himself where God will not see him, for darkness is as light to God who knows every secret thing.
Change Wrought by Sin
Hearing the divine voice with fear and hiding exposes the change brought by sin, for while innocent Adam delighted to meet God but after disobedience became afraid and ashamed of nakedness and hid himself. Before disobedience Adam and Eve were clothed with a covering of light as a garment of innocence and were glad when their Creator came to walk and talk with them in Eden, but after yielding to the tempter that covering was taken away and in sinfulness they were afraid to meet Him. Adam's answer to the call, Where art thou, confesses fear because of nakedness, and his fear, shame, and hiding among the trees expose guilt after breaking God's one prohibition, for which there is no excuse since all his wants had been generously supplied. That fall from a high estate came through listening to Satan's misrepresentation of God and opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, and when questioned Adam admitted eating the fruit but not out of repentance, instead beginning to shift blame toward God and showing what is natural for all human beings in throwing blame on someone else.
By disobedience Adam became a law to himself, and discord and unhappiness entered his life because separation was made between him and his God. Seeking knowledge God had withheld led the first parents into sin, and that disobedience estranged humanity from God. Sin marred humanity's likeness to its Creator and dimmed spiritual vision, bringing humanity under death.
The verse marks the end of open fellowship in Eden where with open face man beheld the glory of the Lord and talked with God and Christ and angels in Paradise without a dimming veil between. Man fell from moral rectitude and innocency, and in fear hid himself and was driven from the garden, from the tree of life, and from the visible presence of the Lord and His holy angels. Since that fall moral darkness like the pall of death has cast its shadows everywhere with the blight and mildew of sin, and man has wandered from the gates of Paradise for nearly six thousand years subject to sickness, pain, sorrow, tears, and death and subject to the temptations and wiles of the devil, with Satan reigning with almost universal sway.
God's plan for Adam was clearsightedness in all his work through cooperation between man and God, but transgression greatly interfered with that plan. After he sinned, God would not communicate with him as He did when he was without sin, and direct communication between people and God could no longer continue. Sin left humanity fallen and under the sentence of death, yet through Christ Adam and humanity were given a refuge and a way to approach God while the full execution of the sentence was delayed as He undertook to redeem humanity. Man's only safety is entire obedience to all God's words, for making the experiment of testing the evil course brings weakness through disobedience.
Guilt Without Repentance
When questioned, Adam admitted that he had heard God's voice in the garden and that he had eaten the fruit, but his answer was not an expression of repentance. His confession of fear and nakedness exposed guilt and loss of innocence rather than sorrow for sin.
His words began an evasion of responsibility, shifting blame toward Eve and indirectly toward God Himself. Instead of confessing with repentance he threw the blame upon another, which is what is natural for all human beings to do.
Consequences for Humanity
What appeared to be a simple thing unworthy of notice opened the floodgates of woe, disappointment, sorrow and suffering upon the world. That small transgression brought eternal ruin upon multitudes, and proves that sins that look small must be watched with constant vigilance. The fall caused the holy pair to fall, to lose beautiful Eden, to be expelled from it and to lose the right to their Eden home. Adam with all his posterity was placed upon probation, subject to sickness, pain, sorrow, tears and death, and has wandered from the gates of Paradise subject to the temptations and wiles of the devil.
The fall brought sin and death into the world with unutterable woe, bringing misery to the human race, poverty, sickness, suffering and diminished dignity. Man lost the elevated physical, mental and moral condition in which he was made, with complete faculties, perfect soundness and perfect health. The first arresting impression of sin has been perpetuated until truth fades from the mind, the intellect is darkened, conscience loses its sensitiveness through repetition of sin, and decay, deformity, disease and death increase as transgression increases. Disobedience is therefore given as a warning, for God's justice in punishing it does not fail and His creatures must obey His law.
Fallen man began loss of vital force, weakened energies, corrupted blood, inflamed passions, disease of every type, decrepitude, imbecility, enfeebled intellect and polluted morals, leaving the race feeble in mental, moral and physical power by comparison. That evil is transmitted from father to son and generation to generation as inherited inclinations, evil tendencies and disease from inflamed and corrupted blood, accumulating woe upon the race. Later violations of God's moral and physical laws aggravate those evils and pass their effects from generation to generation. The fall placed humanity under the power of the prince of darkness, fallen and helpless and under sentence of death.
The fall gave Satan ground to claim to be prince of the power of the air and to have control of everything in nature. God could have prevented this but permitted Satan to sow tares and work out his principles of evil, while protecting from his wrath those who desire to work out the principles of heaven. Even after the fall God in love and mercy preserved for humanity the beautiful handiwork first seen in Eden as specimens of its beauty and as an expression of His love to the human family. Transgression brought a blight upon the earth, came between nature and nature's God, wrought a change in nature itself and degraded beautiful Eden. Deprived of heavenly light, marred by the curse of sin, nature can bear only imperfect testimony and cannot reveal God's character in its perfection.
Law Justice and Mercy
Adam's hiding after eating from the tree of knowledge proves that God's law was binding when Adam and Eve were on trial in Eden and remains binding now. Before disobedience they welcomed God when He came to visit them in the garden, but after they became transgressors they were afraid and hid from His face, and when God called, Adam where art thou, He heard the answer and declared they had eaten of the forbidden tree. That law given in Eden is the divine rule of conduct and the basis of all right conduct, binding on everyone in responsibility and most of all on rulers of nations and those united with them, who must realize their amenability to it and obey all its requirements. Penalty follows disobedience as surely as reward follows obedience, for Adam's transgression introduced sin into the fair world God had created and men and women became more and still more bold in disobeying, leading God to exhibit His power against impenitent transgressors. The fall is therefore to be plainly brought out to magnify and glorify the law before all people, while the exposition of the law runs like golden threads through the fabric of the gospel and the blood of Christ stands as the sinner's only hope. Yet God did not leave the guilty pair in that fear without hope but gave them a star of hope to illuminate the dark future.
The verse belongs to the full and explicit account of disobedience and its consequences, given as a warning against breaking God's commands and showing the sad result of breaking the law given in Eden. It proves that the wages of sin is death and that sin brings death, for their transgression brought fearful consequences and bitter consequences with expulsion from Eden. God's justice in punishing disobedience does not fail and His retributive justice never fails, for He means what He says and would carry out His announced punishment of transgressors. He exacts strict regard for His commandments just as definite and sure as the penalty annexed to the law proclaimed at Sinai, and justice demanded that the penalty of transgression be paid for breaking the law and dishonoring the divine government.
Because God's law is unchangeable and could not be altered to meet man in his fallen condition, Adam could not be pardoned and kept in his home in Eden after Satan cautiously worked upon their minds and seduced them from loyalty until the sin was done. The penalty of transgression was death, so Adam lost Eden and was placed with all his posterity upon probation. In the transgression of the father of the race is revealed the justice of God, and the Son of God stepped in and pledged His own life as the penalty, becoming man's substitute and surety and giving Himself as a sacrifice to save the fallen race that man might have another trial. The provision made was not to abolish God's law so man could have unconditional pardon, for the Father did not put benevolence above justice, since that would set aside the principles of righteousness, exalt the sinner in impenitence and sin, and encourage transgression instead of lessening it.
Their retribution proves God does not overlook disobedience, and His mercy does not excuse the sinner, lessen guilt for transgressing His law, or allow continuance in sin. Mercy only covers guilt after sin is repented of and forsaken, which is why Jesus was suffered to come and die to pay the debt of man's transgression, exalt the law of God and evidence its sacred character, and make it possible for fallen man to be elevated by His merits and blood to keep God's law. What looked like a simple thing unworthy of notice opened the floodgates of woe to the world and caused the holy pair to fall, lose Eden, and be expelled from it. Violation of God's law brings terrible loss to the disobedient and the deepest injury to God, because every transgressor's influence leads and holds others in the same transgression that caused Adam's fall.
Christ and Restoration
God did not abandon the guilty pair in their fear but set a star of hope to shine into their dark future. After disobedience had made them afraid to meet Him, that hope pointed to One who would come to undo what had been done.
Christ came to the very ground where Adam fell and met and overcame Satan's temptations, especially of appetite and passion. By that victory He redeemed Adam's failure, fall, and disgrace. He thereby placed the human family on vantage ground with God, so that men may overcome in their own behalf through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. This work is the foundation of temperance.
Through Him fallen humanity, helpless under the power of the prince of darkness and under sentence of death with direct communion broken off, was granted another trial. Christ provided a refuge and a way to approach God, delaying the full execution of the sentence while He undertook to redeem humanity through His humiliation, obedience, and sacrifice. The Son of God stepped in and pledged His own life as the penalty for transgression, because the law could not be abolished to grant unconditional pardon without setting aside righteousness and exalting the sinner in impenitence. Belief in Him brings everlasting life instead of perishing, and it is shown by rectitude in keeping God's commandments, by overcoming as He overcame, and by obedience through which the lost Eden home is regained.
The nakedness that came upon Adam and Eve comes upon all who yield to temptation and give themselves to obey Satan. Sin strips away the garments of purity, brightness, light, and innocence, leaving the soul conscious of shame and afraid to meet God. Such need to buy from Christ gold tried in the fire and the white raiment of His righteousness to put on, obtained by repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. That righteousness never covers a soul still polluted with sin, so sin must be taken away by the Lamb of God for those who lay hold of His merits.
To do this the Son of God left heaven to save the fallen race from the penalty of sin. He laid aside His robes of royalty, clothed His divinity with humanity, and came as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, suffering insult, reproach, and mockery though He was the Majesty of heaven. He gave Himself as substitute, surety, and sacrifice, taking man's transgressions and their just penalty upon Himself and opening a way of escape.
Warning and Obedience Today
The record of disobedience in Eden and all that followed it stands as a warning against breaking divine commands, rejecting divine law, and repeating the first example, a beacon set at the byways from life to keep the young from carelessness in little matters or from moving on a liberal plan. That fall violated the law by indulgence of appetite and passion, brought sin and unutterable woe into the world, drove the guilty from Eden with loss of elevated condition, and led the Son of God to leave heaven and suffer to save humanity from the penalty. The sad result proves the wages of sin is death, that justice in punishing disobedience does not fail, that strict regard for the commandments is exacted as surely as at Sinai, and that creatures must obey, choosing either to repeat disobedience or to walk in the light through humble obedience. Men still deplore that transgression while repeating it themselves, so the warning remains against all disobedience.
The verse teaches all mankind that the Word is to be sacredly respected and its requirements implicitly obeyed, for there is no excuse when every want had been generously supplied and only one prohibition broken, and the fear, shame, and hiding among the trees expose the guilt that follows. Love is tested by having and keeping the commandments, so the family of man must obey the light that comes concerning the binding claims of the law and lift the cross before the whole world. To protect the human family from the same result, the light of the law is to be made known so clearly that it stands as a city set on a hill, and all intelligences can understand it if they will.
That first fall was not the last but the first in a succession of falls continuing since that time, and men deplore it while repeating it themselves whenever they indulge appetite, trample the law and the Sabbath, or disobey the commandments. The fall through indulgence of appetite and passion in breaking the law, which is the law of nature, began woe and suffering with loss of vital force, weakened energies, corrupted blood, inflamed passions, disease of every type, deformity, decrepitude, imbecility, enfeebled intellect, and polluted morals, leaving the race feeble in mental, moral, and physical power compared with the complete faculties, perfect soundness, and perfect health in which man was made. That evil is transmitted from father to son and generation to generation as inherited inclinations, evil tendencies, and disease from inflamed and corrupted blood, accumulating woe upon the race, and every indulgence in surfeiting, drunkenness, luxurious living, wine, licentiousness, excess, and violence repeats the fall and persists in breaking the law. Parents who disobey lead children to follow in the same path.
The first surrender was to appetite through seduction to disbelieve the word spoken, for the wily foe beguiled Eve to believe God would not do as He said, she ate and felt no death but only what she imagined was a new and more exalted pleasurable life as the angels feel, bore the fruit to her husband, and he let her experience stand against the positive command and was seduced to eat in fearful hiding afterward. Disregarding the prohibition set the laws of nature to work out their full penalty, for true experience is in harmony with natural and divine law while false experience arrays itself against the laws of life and the precepts of Jehovah. Since man lost his right to Paradise by eating what was forbidden, in preparing for Paradise restored perverted and depraved appetite must be brought under strict control, for indulgence weakens power to resist evil and enables Satan to fasten evil habits upon man and ensnare him in the net of his devices. Christ in the wilderness passed over the ground where Adam fell and redeemed that disgraceful failure, placing the family on vantage ground and making it possible to overcome through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour, which is the first portion of temperance, calling for decided reform in food preparation and habits of life in every family to restore physical, mental, and moral efficiency, sincere piety, and power to overcome temptation.
Disobedience brings disappointment, sorrow, and suffering as its result, as seen in Adam afraid and hiding after disobedience when the floodgates were opened upon the world. Parents are to keep this fact before tender minds to train children to be obedient to all the statutes and commandments. The fall leaves all on trial during probationary time, with the foe playing the game of life for every soul and Christ at work for every soul, and destiny depends on will and action and choice of character. Those who consent to receive the moral image become like Him in character and lay hold of the Saviour to receive by faith His merits and perfect a character like His, but if they refuse the character of Christ heaven is lost to them. Continuing in the same disobedience that caused loss of the right to the Eden home forfeits the right to Eden restored and proves that being once in grace does not mean always remaining in grace, for obedience came to be seen no longer as absolute necessity and men came to think they could choose either to obey or disobey, so the sinner must cease pleasing self, leave the rebel's side, repent for giving time and talents to the enemy, give the whole soul to God, seek the Lord without delay while He may be found, take a stand to choose the good and refuse the evil, and walk in humble obedience through overcoming as Christ overcame.
The apparently small transgression closed the gates of Paradise because no work with one thread of selfishness in it can be approved. Ever since then sin has increased in volume and prevalence and is still increasing. Yet divine benevolence has not been cut off, and love and care still flow earthward. This should make man afraid of his littleness and sin-loving propensities and move him to receive and impart the love which passes knowledge. The violation that brought woe upon the whole world thus shows the serious consequences of disobeying God.
Adam answered God's call after disobedience by saying he had heard His voice in the garden and had hidden in fear because he was naked, though in innocence he and Eve had delighted to welcome their Creator to walk and talk with them and now fled in terror among the trees. His nakedness was the loss of the covering of light and innocence that had enshrouded them, leaving their eyes opened not to godhood but to shame and ruin, with love and peace gone and dread of condemnation in its place. His words admitted hearing God and eating the fruit, yet they were no repentance but the beginning of evasion and shifting of blame to Eve and to God Himself. The fear and hiding lay bare what sin does, ending open fellowship without a veil, separating man from God, marring his likeness to his Creator, and opening the floodgates of sorrow, suffering, and death upon the world from what seemed a small transgression. God did not leave the guilty pair without hope but gave a star of hope in the dark future, fulfilled when Christ passed over Adam's ground and overcame, so that all who feel the same naked fear may obtain the white raiment of His righteousness through repentance and faith.
Setting in Eden Story
The words are Adam's answer when God called, Where art thou, in the garden after the transgression, when God manifested His presence to make known to Adam and Eve the consequences of their disobedience. He had fallen from his high estate after listening to Satan's misrepresentation of God, and through his transgression the floodgates of woe were opened upon the world. His fear, shame, and hiding among the trees expose guilt after breaking God's one prohibition, for which there is no excuse since every want had been generously supplied. Before disobedience he and Eve had been clothed with a covering of light, a garment of innocence, and the hiding proves God's law was binding when they were on trial in Eden and remains binding now.
In innocence and holiness they had delighted to meet their Creator and had joyfully welcomed His approach to walk and talk with them, but after eating the forbidden fruit they fled in terror, hid among the trees and in the deepest recesses of the garden, and were afraid to meet Him. While innocent Adam had delighted to meet God, after disobedience he became afraid and ashamed of his nakedness, and his awareness of being naked was part of the guilt and loss of innocence caused by sin. Before disobedience they welcomed God when He came to visit them in the garden; after they partook and became transgressors they were afraid and hid from His face, and refused to come to meet Him. God called, Adam where art thou, heard Adam's answer that he heard God's voice and was afraid because he was naked, and told him he had eaten of the forbidden tree.
The answer follows Eve's separation from her husband while laboring in the garden despite angels' caution to stay together for safety from temptation. She wandered alone, felt apprehension of danger, dismissed her fears trusting her own wisdom and strength to discern and withstand evil, gazed with curiosity and admiration on the forbidden tree questioning why God withheld it, and lingered instead of fleeing when the serpent addressed her. When the serpent tempted Eve and Eve tempted Adam, though privileged to behold Eden and permitted to eat of all its trees except one, they ate of the forbidden tree, broke God's command and became sinners. Sorrow spread through heaven where every harp was hushed, and angels feared they would again put forth the hand and eat of the tree of life and become immortal sinners, so God drove the transgressors from the garden and set cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way of the tree of life so man could not approach it and eat its fruit which perpetuates immortality.
The verse belongs to the authentic, inspired history of creation, the fall, and the introduction of sin and its results upon mankind. It is a grand truth of sacred history possessing amazing strength and beauty and reaching as far as eternity, a very pillar of the Christian faith, yet practically rejected by a large share of the professedly Christian world. It traces the race from standing in Eden in holy innocency enjoying communion with God and sinless angels to disobedience, impenitence, and just retribution. This true history of the beginning of the world gives true knowledge of the creation of man and his fall, keeps the mind from fables and conjectures, false theories, superstition and falsehood, and enfeebling of the intellect, so there is no need to be hampered by human conjectures and unreliable theories. Together with the telling of Christ's first advent, His incarnation, His divinity, His atonement, His wonderful life in heaven as our advocate, and the office of the Holy Spirit, it stands among the most important knowledge to be gained, as golden links in a perfect chain of truth revealed from Genesis to Revelation that should be exalted in every school in the land.
That meeting in Eden where God talked with Adam and Eve to give them heavenly instruction is the beginning of the gospel shining forth with clear light from Genesis to Revelation, a light that has continued to shine down through the ages since that time. Adam himself described that history of his fall to his children and children's children to the ninth generation, together with man's holy and happy estate in Paradise, the sufferings by which God taught him the necessity of strict adherence to His law, and the merciful provisions for salvation. He carefully treasured what God had revealed to him then and was commanded to repeat it to instruct his posterity in the way of the Lord, living nearly a thousand years among men as a witness to the results of sin and faithfully seeking to stem the tide of evil. Yet few gave heed to his words and he was often met with bitter reproaches for the sin that had brought woe upon his posterity.
Nakedness Fear and Hiding
The nakedness Adam confessed was the loss of the covering God Himself had given, garments of purity and brightness, of heavenly light and innocence and glory that had enshrouded the pair. Before disobedience they had been clothed with that light and glad to meet their Creator, but when they yielded to the tempter it departed and could no longer cover disobedience. His fear at hearing God's voice and his hiding among the trees confessed that guilt, for the same naked, afraid condition falls on all who yield to temptation and give themselves to obey Satan. The light that clothed them had departed, leaving poverty, sickness, suffering, diminished dignity, and the entrance of sin and death with loss of original purity.
That light had illuminated everything they approached and enabled them to see God's character clearly in nature. Deprived of heavenly light they could no longer discern His character in the works of His hand, God's brightness departed from nature, and the earth became marred and defiled by sin. Their transgression brought a blight upon the earth, came between nature and nature's God, and wrought a change in nature itself, so that marred nature bears only imperfect testimony and cannot reveal God's character in perfection.
Feeling unclothed they turned attention to their bodies and tried to fashion coverings of leaves to supply the place of lost innocence. Their fig-leaf covering could not replace that innocence or make them acceptable to meet God and holy angels. Human efforts to cover the shame and guilt caused by sin cannot restore what was lost.
Adam's fear and sense of nakedness reflected guilt and loss of innocence, dread of the future, spiritual want, and nakedness of soul. The love and peace and contentment known in innocence were gone, replaced by guilt and dread. Even the air, before mild and uniform in temperature, seemed to chill the guilty pair, who feared how they could face God and the angels unclothed. Their eyes were opened not to godhood but to their own shame and ruin, for they realized the garments of heavenly light that had protected them were gone and saw that nakedness was the result of transgression. They hid because they now anticipated what they had never known before, the condemnation of God.
No sinner can hide from God by turning away, so Adam's hiding must not be followed. Wicked works had separated him from God, so that he loved not to behold God or to retain Him in knowledge and did not want to see Him, and the same unwillingness marks those who accept Satan's sophistries in place of God's word. A sinner may turn his face so he cannot see God, but he cannot place himself where God will not see him, for darkness is as light to God who knows every secret thing.
Change Wrought by Sin
Hearing the divine voice with fear and hiding exposes the change brought by sin, for while innocent Adam delighted to meet God but after disobedience became afraid and ashamed of nakedness and hid himself. Before disobedience Adam and Eve were clothed with a covering of light as a garment of innocence and were glad when their Creator came to walk and talk with them in Eden, but after yielding to the tempter that covering was taken away and in sinfulness they were afraid to meet Him. Adam's answer to the call, Where art thou, confesses fear because of nakedness, and his fear, shame, and hiding among the trees expose guilt after breaking God's one prohibition, for which there is no excuse since all his wants had been generously supplied. That fall from a high estate came through listening to Satan's misrepresentation of God and opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, and when questioned Adam admitted eating the fruit but not out of repentance, instead beginning to shift blame toward God and showing what is natural for all human beings in throwing blame on someone else.
By disobedience Adam became a law to himself, and discord and unhappiness entered his life because separation was made between him and his God. Seeking knowledge God had withheld led the first parents into sin, and that disobedience estranged humanity from God. Sin marred humanity's likeness to its Creator and dimmed spiritual vision, bringing humanity under death.
The verse marks the end of open fellowship in Eden where with open face man beheld the glory of the Lord and talked with God and Christ and angels in Paradise without a dimming veil between. Man fell from moral rectitude and innocency, and in fear hid himself and was driven from the garden, from the tree of life, and from the visible presence of the Lord and His holy angels. Since that fall moral darkness like the pall of death has cast its shadows everywhere with the blight and mildew of sin, and man has wandered from the gates of Paradise for nearly six thousand years subject to sickness, pain, sorrow, tears, and death and subject to the temptations and wiles of the devil, with Satan reigning with almost universal sway.
God's plan for Adam was clearsightedness in all his work through cooperation between man and God, but transgression greatly interfered with that plan. After he sinned, God would not communicate with him as He did when he was without sin, and direct communication between people and God could no longer continue. Sin left humanity fallen and under the sentence of death, yet through Christ Adam and humanity were given a refuge and a way to approach God while the full execution of the sentence was delayed as He undertook to redeem humanity. Man's only safety is entire obedience to all God's words, for making the experiment of testing the evil course brings weakness through disobedience.
Guilt Without Repentance
When questioned, Adam admitted that he had heard God's voice in the garden and that he had eaten the fruit, but his answer was not an expression of repentance. His confession of fear and nakedness exposed guilt and loss of innocence rather than sorrow for sin.
His words began an evasion of responsibility, shifting blame toward Eve and indirectly toward God Himself. Instead of confessing with repentance he threw the blame upon another, which is what is natural for all human beings to do.
Consequences for Humanity
What appeared to be a simple thing unworthy of notice opened the floodgates of woe, disappointment, sorrow and suffering upon the world. That small transgression brought eternal ruin upon multitudes, and proves that sins that look small must be watched with constant vigilance. The fall caused the holy pair to fall, to lose beautiful Eden, to be expelled from it and to lose the right to their Eden home. Adam with all his posterity was placed upon probation, subject to sickness, pain, sorrow, tears and death, and has wandered from the gates of Paradise subject to the temptations and wiles of the devil.
The fall brought sin and death into the world with unutterable woe, bringing misery to the human race, poverty, sickness, suffering and diminished dignity. Man lost the elevated physical, mental and moral condition in which he was made, with complete faculties, perfect soundness and perfect health. The first arresting impression of sin has been perpetuated until truth fades from the mind, the intellect is darkened, conscience loses its sensitiveness through repetition of sin, and decay, deformity, disease and death increase as transgression increases. Disobedience is therefore given as a warning, for God's justice in punishing it does not fail and His creatures must obey His law.
Fallen man began loss of vital force, weakened energies, corrupted blood, inflamed passions, disease of every type, decrepitude, imbecility, enfeebled intellect and polluted morals, leaving the race feeble in mental, moral and physical power by comparison. That evil is transmitted from father to son and generation to generation as inherited inclinations, evil tendencies and disease from inflamed and corrupted blood, accumulating woe upon the race. Later violations of God's moral and physical laws aggravate those evils and pass their effects from generation to generation. The fall placed humanity under the power of the prince of darkness, fallen and helpless and under sentence of death.
The fall gave Satan ground to claim to be prince of the power of the air and to have control of everything in nature. God could have prevented this but permitted Satan to sow tares and work out his principles of evil, while protecting from his wrath those who desire to work out the principles of heaven. Even after the fall God in love and mercy preserved for humanity the beautiful handiwork first seen in Eden as specimens of its beauty and as an expression of His love to the human family. Transgression brought a blight upon the earth, came between nature and nature's God, wrought a change in nature itself and degraded beautiful Eden. Deprived of heavenly light, marred by the curse of sin, nature can bear only imperfect testimony and cannot reveal God's character in its perfection.
Law Justice and Mercy
Adam's hiding after eating from the tree of knowledge proves that God's law was binding when Adam and Eve were on trial in Eden and remains binding now. Before disobedience they welcomed God when He came to visit them in the garden, but after they became transgressors they were afraid and hid from His face, and when God called, Adam where art thou, He heard the answer and declared they had eaten of the forbidden tree. That law given in Eden is the divine rule of conduct and the basis of all right conduct, binding on everyone in responsibility and most of all on rulers of nations and those united with them, who must realize their amenability to it and obey all its requirements. Penalty follows disobedience as surely as reward follows obedience, for Adam's transgression introduced sin into the fair world God had created and men and women became more and still more bold in disobeying, leading God to exhibit His power against impenitent transgressors. The fall is therefore to be plainly brought out to magnify and glorify the law before all people, while the exposition of the law runs like golden threads through the fabric of the gospel and the blood of Christ stands as the sinner's only hope. Yet God did not leave the guilty pair in that fear without hope but gave them a star of hope to illuminate the dark future.
The verse belongs to the full and explicit account of disobedience and its consequences, given as a warning against breaking God's commands and showing the sad result of breaking the law given in Eden. It proves that the wages of sin is death and that sin brings death, for their transgression brought fearful consequences and bitter consequences with expulsion from Eden. God's justice in punishing disobedience does not fail and His retributive justice never fails, for He means what He says and would carry out His announced punishment of transgressors. He exacts strict regard for His commandments just as definite and sure as the penalty annexed to the law proclaimed at Sinai, and justice demanded that the penalty of transgression be paid for breaking the law and dishonoring the divine government.
Because God's law is unchangeable and could not be altered to meet man in his fallen condition, Adam could not be pardoned and kept in his home in Eden after Satan cautiously worked upon their minds and seduced them from loyalty until the sin was done. The penalty of transgression was death, so Adam lost Eden and was placed with all his posterity upon probation. In the transgression of the father of the race is revealed the justice of God, and the Son of God stepped in and pledged His own life as the penalty, becoming man's substitute and surety and giving Himself as a sacrifice to save the fallen race that man might have another trial. The provision made was not to abolish God's law so man could have unconditional pardon, for the Father did not put benevolence above justice, since that would set aside the principles of righteousness, exalt the sinner in impenitence and sin, and encourage transgression instead of lessening it.
Their retribution proves God does not overlook disobedience, and His mercy does not excuse the sinner, lessen guilt for transgressing His law, or allow continuance in sin. Mercy only covers guilt after sin is repented of and forsaken, which is why Jesus was suffered to come and die to pay the debt of man's transgression, exalt the law of God and evidence its sacred character, and make it possible for fallen man to be elevated by His merits and blood to keep God's law. What looked like a simple thing unworthy of notice opened the floodgates of woe to the world and caused the holy pair to fall, lose Eden, and be expelled from it. Violation of God's law brings terrible loss to the disobedient and the deepest injury to God, because every transgressor's influence leads and holds others in the same transgression that caused Adam's fall.
Christ and Restoration
God did not abandon the guilty pair in their fear but set a star of hope to shine into their dark future. After disobedience had made them afraid to meet Him, that hope pointed to One who would come to undo what had been done.
Christ came to the very ground where Adam fell and met and overcame Satan's temptations, especially of appetite and passion. By that victory He redeemed Adam's failure, fall, and disgrace. He thereby placed the human family on vantage ground with God, so that men may overcome in their own behalf through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. This work is the foundation of temperance.
Through Him fallen humanity, helpless under the power of the prince of darkness and under sentence of death with direct communion broken off, was granted another trial. Christ provided a refuge and a way to approach God, delaying the full execution of the sentence while He undertook to redeem humanity through His humiliation, obedience, and sacrifice. The Son of God stepped in and pledged His own life as the penalty for transgression, because the law could not be abolished to grant unconditional pardon without setting aside righteousness and exalting the sinner in impenitence. Belief in Him brings everlasting life instead of perishing, and it is shown by rectitude in keeping God's commandments, by overcoming as He overcame, and by obedience through which the lost Eden home is regained.
The nakedness that came upon Adam and Eve comes upon all who yield to temptation and give themselves to obey Satan. Sin strips away the garments of purity, brightness, light, and innocence, leaving the soul conscious of shame and afraid to meet God. Such need to buy from Christ gold tried in the fire and the white raiment of His righteousness to put on, obtained by repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. That righteousness never covers a soul still polluted with sin, so sin must be taken away by the Lamb of God for those who lay hold of His merits.
To do this the Son of God left heaven to save the fallen race from the penalty of sin. He laid aside His robes of royalty, clothed His divinity with humanity, and came as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, suffering insult, reproach, and mockery though He was the Majesty of heaven. He gave Himself as substitute, surety, and sacrifice, taking man's transgressions and their just penalty upon Himself and opening a way of escape.
Warning and Obedience Today
The record of disobedience in Eden and all that followed it stands as a warning against breaking divine commands, rejecting divine law, and repeating the first example, a beacon set at the byways from life to keep the young from carelessness in little matters or from moving on a liberal plan. That fall violated the law by indulgence of appetite and passion, brought sin and unutterable woe into the world, drove the guilty from Eden with loss of elevated condition, and led the Son of God to leave heaven and suffer to save humanity from the penalty. The sad result proves the wages of sin is death, that justice in punishing disobedience does not fail, that strict regard for the commandments is exacted as surely as at Sinai, and that creatures must obey, choosing either to repeat disobedience or to walk in the light through humble obedience. Men still deplore that transgression while repeating it themselves, so the warning remains against all disobedience.
The verse teaches all mankind that the Word is to be sacredly respected and its requirements implicitly obeyed, for there is no excuse when every want had been generously supplied and only one prohibition broken, and the fear, shame, and hiding among the trees expose the guilt that follows. Love is tested by having and keeping the commandments, so the family of man must obey the light that comes concerning the binding claims of the law and lift the cross before the whole world. To protect the human family from the same result, the light of the law is to be made known so clearly that it stands as a city set on a hill, and all intelligences can understand it if they will.
That first fall was not the last but the first in a succession of falls continuing since that time, and men deplore it while repeating it themselves whenever they indulge appetite, trample the law and the Sabbath, or disobey the commandments. The fall through indulgence of appetite and passion in breaking the law, which is the law of nature, began woe and suffering with loss of vital force, weakened energies, corrupted blood, inflamed passions, disease of every type, deformity, decrepitude, imbecility, enfeebled intellect, and polluted morals, leaving the race feeble in mental, moral, and physical power compared with the complete faculties, perfect soundness, and perfect health in which man was made. That evil is transmitted from father to son and generation to generation as inherited inclinations, evil tendencies, and disease from inflamed and corrupted blood, accumulating woe upon the race, and every indulgence in surfeiting, drunkenness, luxurious living, wine, licentiousness, excess, and violence repeats the fall and persists in breaking the law. Parents who disobey lead children to follow in the same path.
The first surrender was to appetite through seduction to disbelieve the word spoken, for the wily foe beguiled Eve to believe God would not do as He said, she ate and felt no death but only what she imagined was a new and more exalted pleasurable life as the angels feel, bore the fruit to her husband, and he let her experience stand against the positive command and was seduced to eat in fearful hiding afterward. Disregarding the prohibition set the laws of nature to work out their full penalty, for true experience is in harmony with natural and divine law while false experience arrays itself against the laws of life and the precepts of Jehovah. Since man lost his right to Paradise by eating what was forbidden, in preparing for Paradise restored perverted and depraved appetite must be brought under strict control, for indulgence weakens power to resist evil and enables Satan to fasten evil habits upon man and ensnare him in the net of his devices. Christ in the wilderness passed over the ground where Adam fell and redeemed that disgraceful failure, placing the family on vantage ground and making it possible to overcome through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour, which is the first portion of temperance, calling for decided reform in food preparation and habits of life in every family to restore physical, mental, and moral efficiency, sincere piety, and power to overcome temptation.
Disobedience brings disappointment, sorrow, and suffering as its result, as seen in Adam afraid and hiding after disobedience when the floodgates were opened upon the world. Parents are to keep this fact before tender minds to train children to be obedient to all the statutes and commandments. The fall leaves all on trial during probationary time, with the foe playing the game of life for every soul and Christ at work for every soul, and destiny depends on will and action and choice of character. Those who consent to receive the moral image become like Him in character and lay hold of the Saviour to receive by faith His merits and perfect a character like His, but if they refuse the character of Christ heaven is lost to them. Continuing in the same disobedience that caused loss of the right to the Eden home forfeits the right to Eden restored and proves that being once in grace does not mean always remaining in grace, for obedience came to be seen no longer as absolute necessity and men came to think they could choose either to obey or disobey, so the sinner must cease pleasing self, leave the rebel's side, repent for giving time and talents to the enemy, give the whole soul to God, seek the Lord without delay while He may be found, take a stand to choose the good and refuse the evil, and walk in humble obedience through overcoming as Christ overcame.
The apparently small transgression closed the gates of Paradise because no work with one thread of selfishness in it can be approved. Ever since then sin has increased in volume and prevalence and is still increasing. Yet divine benevolence has not been cut off, and love and care still flow earthward. This should make man afraid of his littleness and sin-loving propensities and move him to receive and impart the love which passes knowledge. The violation that brought woe upon the whole world thus shows the serious consequences of disobeying God.