The LORD God Clothed Them

The Creation Narrative and the Fall in Genesis 2–3

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. Our text tonight.

Is taken from Genesis chapter 2 verse 5 through chapter 3 verse 21. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, no small plant of the field had yet sprung up. The Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.

And a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

And the Lord God planted a garden in the east in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant in the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there divided and became four rivers. The name of the first was Pishon.

It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Kush, and the name of the third is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria.

And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man, put it in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Then the Lord said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make for him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. And the man gave names to all the livestock and the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs, closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made, he fashioned it into a woman and brought her to the man.

And then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked. They were not ashamed. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, Well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, it was a delight to the eyes that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.

She took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. And the eyes of both were open and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to man and said to him, Where are you?

And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

And the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. And then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate.

And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field and on your belly you shall go. And dust you shall eat all the days of your life and I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.

And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall not eat bread until you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return.

Nakedness, Shame, and the First Clothing

The man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all the living and the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them. In the name of Jesus. So Genesis 2 is where the garment theology begins.

But it doesn't begin with garments. It begins with no garments at all. It's kind of strange to talk this way. I mean, if somebody were to take off all their clothes and start strolling down University Avenue where I live, well, the police would be on him like, well, lickety split, right?

And we're just not used to, nor do we like naked people walking around. Makes us very, very uncomfortable. I don't understand nudists one bit. For all their talk of it being natural, all I can think is that it's a criminal offense.

In order to properly get this, though, we have to learn how to think the way the Bible reveals things. And that is here in this wonderful text that we just read out from Genesis 2. We have this incredible picture of the earth prior to the fall.

God and man walking and talking together. God himself excited. If you were preparing for the wedding, you know, bringing Eve out and presenting her to Adam. And it's just this amazing, beautiful picture.

And then you get that strange, awkward verse. They were both naked.

Naked! Naked! And they were not ashamed. They didn't even realize they were.

Naked. You know, I kind of think about it, and you go, well, my dog is naked, I guess. As naked as dogs get, and he doesn't really care about his clothes. In fact, when we put clothes on animals, they look kind of silly, right?

And you know, all the animals just kind of are what they are and do what they do. And so here we have this picture of man and woman in a state that we don't get at all. Naked and not ashamed. So, first data point in our garment theology is that Eden, Adam, Eve before the fall, totally naked and it's totally fine.

Doesn't matter one bit. Nothing goofy about it. Nothing shameful about it. Nothing that junior high kids would giggle at. It's just right there. And it stares us right in the face. And I'm sure every time we read it, you sit there and go, hmm.

Well, there it is. But then the text takes a very dark turn. So dark that we are still impacted directly by what happens next. Chapter 3. Serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

And we all know the temptation. We've talked about it quite a bit recently. Sunday school as well as on Sunday sermons talking about how the devil attacks the very word of God. Did God really say, you shall not eat of any tree of the garden?

Woman said to the serpent, well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden but God said you shall not eat of the fruit that's in the tree that's in the midst of the garden, the middle of it, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

The serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. Nothing has changed. Nothing. All of the attacks against God always attack His word. Always. Just never stops. Serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die.

God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. Well, their eyes were opened. We'll see what happens. So when the woman saw the tree was good for food, she's looking inside not outside at the word of God that it was a delight to the eyes.

The tree was to be desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit and she ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. And now their eyes are opened. Their eyes were opened and the first thing they.

See. Look at the text.

That they were naked. First thing. You think that's an accident? It's not. This is an important bit of theology. They realized that they were naked and here it comes. The very first designer clothes, right?

They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. The first appearance of clothes is to cover nakedness. But nakedness wasn't a problem before the fall, was it? What is going on here? It's very difficult to wrap our minds around this.

So, what was their glory becomes their shame. Everything is flipped upside down. Inside out. Black becomes white. White becomes black. Up becomes down. It's like the whole world has completely been inverted.

And they sewed fig leaves together and they made themselves loincloths covering their shame. I don't know what. What do you make of this? They go from naked to clothed. First appearance of clothing, not a good thing.

Very bad thing. Watch what happens as the story unfolds. So, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. That's right. The Lord God goes for a stroll. Apparently, He goes on walks.

You say, well, how is that possible?

I have no idea. I think it's.

Good to think incarnation here. God needs legs to go on walks. Legs are available to Him, right? So, there He goes walking in the cool of the day. Smart man, not in the heat of the day, right? Smart God.

So, the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. How silly is that? But then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was, here it is, first thing again, I was naked and I hid myself.

This is not throw away data. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.

Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you've done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate, passing the buck. Man blames the woman, woman blames the snake, snake's left holding the bag.

Right? But notice, there's no confession on their part. Lord, we screwed up. None of that.

They are wretched.

And this is not how we operate ourselves. I mean, I saw this in myself, but let me talk about my kids instead because it's a little less embarrassing. Right? We would hear the blood curdling scream coming from my middle child.

Go running in to find out what was causing the commotion. What is going on? Tears and hair and it was just a mess. The first word out of her mouth was Joshua. I look at Joshua and he says, Christina, I'm not going to get a straight answer.

We're all children of Adam and Eve. I've done this. You've done this. Your kids have all done this. When we've done wrong, we're always innocent. They say the prisons are full of innocent people. Not one of them is guilty.

Right? I was framed.

The law was after me. But who confesses their sin? This is Adam and Eve. So what is this that you've done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me, I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you.

Above all livestock and above all beasts of the field, on your belly you shall go. Dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers, her offspring.

He shall bruise your head. You shall bruise his heel. And there it is. The first gospel. The promise that there would be an offspring of the woman, not of the woman and the man, but an offspring of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent and in the process have his heel bruised.

Mortal wound versus not mortal. Interesting. So to the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.

Man. That's pretty awful. On all fronts. How many of you women, when you were in labor, cursed Eve? Right? Or at least thought about it. But then even the marriage is all topsy-turvy. Vying for first spot in the marriage.

Do you think Adam ruled over his wife prior to the fall? I don't think so. So to Adam he said, because you've listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face.

You shall eat bread until you return to the ground for out of it you are taken. For you are dust and to dust you shall return. It's a farmer's life now. You farmers know how hard it is to work the ground.

Even with all of the modern implements that we have today. How long are your days? Start at sun up. Finish long after the sun's gone down. In the cold. In the heat. And then what happens? Seed time. Plants grow.

The harvest. Winter. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. Repeat. Older. And older. And older. And finally they put you in a box. And stick you out there. It's all toil. It all seems so meaningless.

And that's kind of the point. And then we have these words. The man called his wife's name Eve. Because she was the mother of all the living. And the Lord God, here's the important words, made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

God clothed them. There are some animals that died. Something had to die so that they can be clothed. And all of this points to the cross. Points to what Jesus was doing. Now I want to fast forward if you would.

The Naked Christ and the Fulfillment of Scripture in John 19

Garden. Tree. Naked. Clothed. Think in these terms. As we read from the Passion narrative from the Gospel of John. Note what's going on here. Gospel of John chapter 19 verse 23. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus they took his garments and divided them into four parts.

One part for each soldier. Also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, let us not tear it but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.

Pause there for a second. The text doesn't say it explicitly. It describes what happened to Jesus. If the soldiers took Jesus' clothes and they named all of them, which means there was nothing left. They took his pants.

They took his shirt. They took his underwear and his t-shirt. Oh and his baseball cap too. What does this mean about Jesus on the cross? He is stark naked. Every single crucifix that you've seen has that wonderful sash that floats in very strategic parts.

But while Christ was crucified, this text makes it clear that Jesus is naked. This is not a throw away bit of information. So they said, let us not tear it, cast lots for it to see whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the Scripture which says they divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.

This was such an important detail that the prophets themselves foretold it. They foretold that the Messiah would be naked. Without saying he's going to be naked, they basically said, well all of his clothes are going to be, well, divided up and lots cast for them.

So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sisters. Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Pause there for a second. Think back to the text we just read at Christmas time.

Luke chapter 2. The announcement of the angel to the shepherds. And this will be a sign for you and you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Keep that little note there.

The Greek here is actually quite specific. When we think of swaddling clothes, we think of like, you know, a blanket where you can take a baby and wrap it up. Well, they didn't quite have those. They had strips of linen.

Swaddling cloths were swaddling strips. And the interplay in the Greek makes it clear there's something going on here that actually foreshadows the very death of Christ and his burial. So his mother's there.

Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved. This would be the disciple John standing nearby. He said to his mother, woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there. So they took a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch, held it to his mouth.

And when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for the Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear.

And at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth that you also may believe. Pause there for a second. This is not the theme I'm picking up on, but it's important to note.

We just read in our text this evening from Genesis 2, how the bride of Adam was formed from the side of Adam. How is the bride of Christ formed from the side of Christ from which flowed water and blood, foreshadowing the Lord's supper and baptism, the means by which he made and sustains his bride, the church.

None of this is throwaway data. Genesis and John just do this. It's absolutely stunning. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled. Not one of his bones will be broken. Again, another scripture says they will look on him whom they have pierced.

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body, Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night and came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight.

So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in. I'm going to change it just a little bit. But it doesn't actually do any violence to the text. Swaddling clothes. That's really what's going on here. And you sit there and go, what?

Yeah, I know. Linen cloths with the spices as the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. Do you think that's an accident?

No. All of these little details.

Are signaling to you, pay attention, what took place in that garden long ago. I'm now flipping all of this around. I'm going to turn it right back on its head. Pay attention. In that place there was a garden and the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

So because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they've taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going toward the tomb.

Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Why did John have to put that in there? Yeah, I'm a young guy. Peter's old. I outran him, but I won't say what my name was.

Like we couldn't figure it out. Okay, side note, yes. Youth, right? Okay. So stopping, and here's the best part. Stopping to look in, he saw the linen cloths. He saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came following him and went to the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there. Notice it says it twice. Pay attention. And the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.

Now, Jesus is on the cross. What did they do with his clothes? They cast lots. So Jesus is naked on the cross. When he's dead, he's taken down from the cross, put into his swaddling clothes. I'm saying that to be provocative, but it makes the point, right?

After he's raised from the grave, where do his swaddling clothes end up? Folded up. There. What was Jesus wearing when he left the tomb?

Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's Eden restored. Everything flipped back to the way it's supposed to be. He's the first.

Born of the new creation. None of these little bits of data are there just to bore you. All of this makes perfect sense and you realize, oh my goodness, it is really a new creation. He really has done something amazing.

And all the details have been looking you in the face the whole time. You just need to be walked through it so that you can make the connection. Right? He's the first born of the new creation and we are in him.

And so the curse that we find ourselves in, that we languish under, that we ourselves have participated in, our own guilt has contributed to, Christ has conquered. Christ has taken our sins and bled and died for them and he walked out of the tomb.

The Adam. The second Adam. The first born of the new creation. Stark. Naked and not ashamed. So that someday we too can join him in the new creation. But, as we'll see in the book of Revelation in the weeks to come, we are not naked.

We will always be clothed. And so, something to keep in mind. But the clothing theology needs some more unpacking. These are just two data points that you can take a look at when you take a look at the Garden of Eden and the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

All of these things work together. And what was flipped in the curse, Christ flips it back to the way it should be with his death and resurrection. Something to consider and to meditate on this Lent season.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The New Creation and the Clothing of the Saints

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