This is a wonderful topic to discuss and thank you for beginning in Gen 3.
If God through Christ is restoring what Adam lost, and I think that is the idea if one compares the first chapters of Genesis with the last two chapters of Revelation. Here are two things that Adam did not seem to know before his fall. 1) That he was naked, and 2) good and evil. One has to wonder why he did not know he was naked. He walked with God. He was in his image. Intelligence wise, he must have been the smartest man who ever lived, at least until Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. God sure mentions restoration and regeneration in his New Testament. All things sure point to a renewal of the original status of God and man. So, why did he not know he was naked?
One must consider his creation. Soul and body and Spirit. The spiritual nature of Adam was his soul. The physical nature of Adam was his body. The divine nature of Adam was not of himself but was of God. God and Adam were in full accord through the Spirit and communed and had fellowship together. I am reminded just now of the last verse in 2 Cor, which says;
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
Of course he is not speaking to all men but all men in Corinth and by extension, all men everywhere who have the Holy Ghost dwelling in their bodies. Obviously men who did not have the Holy Ghost indwelling them through the new birth could not commune with him. The point is that the logical conclusion is that Adam and God communed through the Spirit that was in him in the garden. He was said to be the son of God. Lk 3:38.
The question now is, what kind of body did Adam have? I am going to suggest that his body was like the body of the glorified Jesus Christ. It makes sense to me considering that the hope of the Christian today who has the :earnest" of the Spirit while he waits for what scripture calls the "blessed hope' of the Christian, and the final stage of his salvation, the new body that is like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ. The apostle John, said in 1 Jn 3
Beloved, "now" are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Paul says this:
Ph 2:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
A glorious body is a glorified body. If it is like the body of Jesus then it will shine brighter than the sun.We have him described in several passages of the Scriptures.
1 Tim 6:16
Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
In Malachi 3 he is called the Sun of righteousness and when Moses was in his presence, hidden in the cleft of the rock, we have this said;
2 Cor 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
No one should think God cannot accomplish his eternal purpose because of the weakness of man or the wickedness of Satan. What he began he can accomplish and it is through the last Adam, the second man that he does it.
The glorious Adam was clothed with light until he sinned.
What do you think?
Just a few thoughts.
1. Genesis 3:7 does not mean that Adam and Eve did not know they were naked before they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They certainly knew their bodies were not covered. When they took of the fruit of the tree they immediately became intimate with sin and their consciences were tainted. They knew shame for the first time. Prior to that there was no shame in their nakedness.
While it is a bit lengthy, Matthew Henry writes:
III. The ultimate consequences of the transgression. Shame and fear seized the criminals,
ipso facto—in the fact itself; these came into the world along with sin, and still attend it.
1. Shame seized them unseen,
Gen. 3:7; where observe,
(1.) The strong convictions they fell under, in their own bosoms:
The eyes of them both were opened. It is not meant of the eyes of the body; these were open before, as appears by this, that the sin came in at them. Jonathan’s eyes were enlightened by eating forbidden fruit (
1 Sam. 14:27), that is, he was refreshed and revived by it; but theirs were not so. Nor is it meant of any advances made hereby in true knowledge; but the eyes of their consciences were opened, their hearts smote them for what they had done. Now, when it was too late, they saw the folly of eating forbidden fruit. They saw the happiness they had fallen from, and the misery they had fallen into. They saw a loving God provoked, his grace and favour forfeited, his likeness and image lost, dominion over the creatures gone. They saw their natures corrupted and depraved, and felt a disorder in their own spirits of which they had never before been conscious. They saw a law in their members warring against the law of their minds, and captivating them both to sin and wrath. They saw, as Balaam, when
his eyes were opened (
Num. 22:31), the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand; and perhaps they saw the serpent that had abused them insulting over them. The text tells us that they saw
that they were naked, that is, [1.] That they were stripped, deprived of all the honours and joys of their paradise-state, and exposed to all the miseries that might justly be expected from an angry God. They were disarmed; their defence had departed from them. [2.] That they were shamed, for ever shamed, before God and angels. They saw themselves disrobed of all their ornaments and ensigns of honour, degraded from their dignity and disgraced in the highest degree, laid open to the contempt and reproach of heaven, and earth, and their own consciences. Now see here,
First, What a dishonour and disquietment sin is; it makes mischief wherever it is admitted, sets men against themselves disturbs their peace, and destroys all their comforts. Sooner or later, it will have shame, either the shame of true repentance, which ends in glory, or that shame and everlasting contempt to which the wicked shall rise at the great day. Sin is a reproach to any people.
Secondly, What deceiver Satan is. He told our first parents, when he tempted them, that their eyes should be opened; and so they were, but not as they understood it; they were opened to their shame and grief, not to their honour nor advantage. Therefore, when he speaks fair, believe him not. The most malicious mischievous liars often excuse themselves with this, that they only equivocate; but God will not so excuse them.
(2.) The sorry shift they made to palliate these convictions, and to arm themselves against them:
They sewed, or platted,
fig-leaves together; and to cover, at least, part of their shame from one another, they
made themselves aprons. See here what is commonly the folly of those that have sinned. [1.] That they are more solicitous to save their credit before men than to obtain their pardon from God; they are backward to confess their sin, and very desirous to conceal it, as much as may be.
I have sinned, yet honour me. [2.] That the excuses men make, to cover and extenuate their sins, are vain and frivolous. Like the aprons of fig-leaves, they make the matter never the better, but the worse; the shame, thus hidden, becomes the more shameful. Yet thus we are all apt to
cover our transgressions as Adam,
Job 31:33."
