The Greater Fashion Designer

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.  (Genesis 2:25)

Friends, I love seeing the infinite ways that Jesus is better than everything else, and in him everything is being summed up.  I love seeing the ways that he takes the longings of our hearts and reveals himself to be the one we were always looking for even when we were too blind to know it.  I love seeing the ways that Jesus fulfills his covenant with his people and proves himself to be the greater Adam, the greater David, the greater Abraham, the greater Moses.  They all were but dim shadows of the One who was to come.

From being with Nicole for awhile, I have learned of a world within reality television that I did not previously know about: fashion design.  All these people compete on Project Runway and other shows to be crowned as the top fashion designer.  And it is my aim in this entry to defend my claim that Jesus is the greater Fashion Designer!  (Haha, who would've thought?  You did in fact read that correctly.  I just see Jesus everywhere I turn.)

This flows from some thoughts on the first few chapters in Genesis.  We see God creating man, calling him very good, seeing that he needed a helper, seeing that none of the created animals fit this need, and creating woman by taking Adam's rib and transforming it.  In verse 24 of chapter 2 God provides the good design for marriage - that a man will leave mother and father and hold fast to his wife, and they will become one flesh.  Thinking about what it means for man and wife to become one flesh could be a whole entry unto itself, and so it will not be the focus here.  Rather we will focus on the last verse of chapter 2 and ask what it really means.  And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Adam and Eve were walking around naked, and they were not at all ashamed.  How could that be?  The first possibility is that they had perfect bodies and simply had nothing to be physically ashamed of.  God had called them very good, and before the Fall, death and decay had not yet entered the world, so this physical perfection thing may be true.  But even if you're physically perfect, a spiteful spouse may say words that shame you; physical perfection is not enough.  Jesus also quotes verses 24 and 25 about marriage post-Fall, and so being united in one flesh and therefore unashamed seems to be God's plan for marriage even after the Fall; therefore, we must think about how this works now in a time when we certainly are not physically perfect. 

What then is the more likely foundation for their being unashamed while naked?  I could be perfect and simply have nothing to be ashamed of; that was true of Adam and Eve before the Fall, but it is not true of us.  The other reason, and the one I want to examine is this: they were living within covenant love.  There is a link between verse 24 and 25 and a design that is true on both sides of the Fall.  In verse 24 we see the foundation of a covenant between man and woman secured by God.  In verse 25 we see no shame between man and wife.  Marriage was designed by God as a love-and-grace-and-forgiveness covenant to mirror the covenantal love of Christ with his church.  We can only re-approach this state of unashamed-ness when we do so within the context of covenantal love.

Of course, the Fall happened.  God told them not to eat the fruit.  The serpent tempted them.  They ate.  They distrusted God and rebelled and wanted to take his place, judging what is good and bad.  We have inherited this sin nature and its effects.

The foundation for horizontal person-to-person covenant-keeping love is our vertical relationship to God.  When this was messed up with the Fall, it did two things to us that brought about shame.  1)  We now know that the person looking at us is a sinner.  They have put themselves before God, and we now rightfully fear that they may put us down if it helps them to gain some better position because they have done this before.  I now feel vulnerable while naked because the person looking at me is a sinner and may say things to shame me, even if I had nothing to be ashamed of.  2)  But I also am a sinner and really deserve to be shamed.  Even if my wife is the safest person in the world to be around, and even if she operates fully with grace and covenant-love, I am ashamed because of the things I've done.  I am guilty before God.  And I want to cover them up...

And so we tried to cover up.  The origin of hypocrisy.  We unsuccessfully tried to pull one over on God.  It happens immediately after they have sinned - feeling shame over being naked and sewing fig leaves to cover it up.  Their nakedness felt too revealing and made them vulnerable.

And God provides animal skins for them.  God himself replaces their fig leaves.  What are we to make of this?  Obviously Adam and Even could not hide or make up for their sin by dressing up?  So was God aiding them in their hypocrisy?  By no means!  I think, by clothing them here, God was saying, "Yes.  You have sinned.  There is a great gap between what you are and what you are supposed to be.  Clothing is a right response, not to conceal your sin, but to confess it."  My wearing of clothes is a confession that I am a sinner.  The answer to our shame is not to create nudists colonies because God himself clothed us.  To walk around naked would be adding rebellion to rebellion.  To get rid of clothes altogether would be a sin, but it is also sin to use them as a means of seeking power, prestige, comfort, and attention.  Clothes are not meant to direct people to what is under them, causing them to lust, but rather, as a confession about what is really not under them... hands that serve with humility, feet that carry the Good news, and a face that has beheld God's glory.

Not only is wearing clothes a confession of our sin, but it points forward to Christ.  When God clothed Adam and Eve, he did it with an animal skin, which means that an animal had to be killed.  This is presumably the first shedding of blood.  From the beginning we see that sin requires the shedding of blood...  This is a significant foreshadowing of Jesus' coming sacrifice.  The killing of an animal could not atone for our sins and bring us back into right relationship with God and then each other.  It required the death and resurrection of the Son of God, who shed his blood once for all.  And only by clothing himself with our unrighteousness, taking the wrath of the Father on himself on the cross, does he then clothe us with his own righteousness.  We are Christ's bride, and his own righteousness is our beautiful wedding dress.  Our clothes are an insufficient cover-up that should point us to the greater clothing that God has designed for us his children, for Christ's bride.  Perhaps when you think of clothes now you will do so the glory and praise of God who has given us better clothes.  How beautiful are the designs of our Creator!  Jesus, indeed, is the greater Fashion Designer.

Gospel Coalition Panel on Rob Bell's "Love Wins"

The Gospel Coalition held a conference just a week or two ago, and one of the things they did was a panel discussion on Rob Bell's new book.  Again, this discussion may be something that has missed you, which is not all bad, but if you want to keep up with it, this is one of the best resources from a conservative perspective that I have found.  I deeply respect some of the guys on this particular panel, notably D.A. Carson and Tim Keller.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/04/14/god-abounding-in-love-punishing-the-guilty/

Glory

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
        Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements - surely you know!
        Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
        or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
        and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Or who shut in the sea with doors
        when it burst out from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
        and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
        and set bars and doors,
and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
       and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?

Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
       and caused the dawn to know its place,
that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
       and the wicked be shaken out of it?
It is changed like clay under the seal,
        and its features stand out like a garment.
From the wicked their light is withheld,
        and their uplifted arm is broken.

Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
        or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
        or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
        Declare, if you know all this.
        (Job38:4-18)


Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

And he was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."  (Revelation 21:1-5)


And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.  By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day - and there will be no night there.  They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.  But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. 
(Revelation 21:22-27)

Many people--I am one myself--would never, but for what nature does to us, have had any content to put into the words we must use in confessing our faith. Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word "glory" a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. I do not see how the "fear" of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags. And if nature had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by the "love" of God would never, so far as I can see, have existed.
(CS Lewis)

Reader, I pray that God would be pleased to awaken in you a greater awe and a greater apprehension of God's glory.  The following is a video I found because Evan van Peursem posted it on his facebook.  It would be idolatry to worship creation, but you should indeed worship the Creator of such a beautiful and magnificent creation.  I am amazed at what God has fashioned, and yet, I also know that we are to look forward to resurrection and New Creation.  The best is definitely yet to come, and so I enjoy seeing and savoring beauty in things like this video because they awaken in me a homesickness for a world that is coming that I cannot even fathom.  And I think that homesickness, far from ruining my part in this world, rather gives it focus and direction.  Like Paul, it would be better to go, but for fruitful labor, God-willing, I will stay.  And according to Revelation, our good and holy God will dwell with us as our God when we get to where we are going.  Let that thought grab you for awhile.

Short Poem on Crucifixion

The following is a short poem by Horatius Bonar, a Scottish hymn writer who lived from 1808 to 1889. This is fitting, I think, as we enter Holy Week.

'Twas I that shed the sacred blood;
   I nailed him to the tree;
I crucified the Christ of God;
   I joined the mockery.


Of all that shouting multitude
   I feel that I am one; 
And in that din of voices rude
   I recognize my own.


Around the cross the throng I see,
   Mocking the Sufferer's groan;
Yet still my voice it seems to be,
   As if I mocked alone.

Here also is a song in this vein by Christian hip-hop artist Shai Linne.  He has a whole album called "The Atonement", which of course deals with the atonement at the cross, and this particular song is convicting to me.  It is called, "Were You There?"



Finally, God forbid that I should boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
(Galatians 6:14 NEB)