How Grace Covers Up Our Nakedness 

Genesis 2:25-3:1-13, 22-24 (NIV)

     The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame…Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  ² The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "  

⁴ "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" ¹⁰ He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." ¹¹ And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" ¹² The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." ¹³ Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"  The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."… And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." ²³ So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side ^[p] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

 
1. To be naked and unashamed means to be fully known and loved in all our vulnerabilities 
 
Nakedness and vulnerability after sin leads to a sense of being and feeling unacceptable 
 
Nakedness is being vulnerable and being unable to control other people's knowledge about our unacceptability, flaws and weaknesses 
 
We were originally built to be fully known and loved and now we believe that we cannot be both together, or we wish we can be both but the best we can do is to be loved 
 
Hebrews 4:13 (NLT) 
     Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable. 
 
2. We unconsciously create ways to cover ourselves because we believe that that is the only way that we will ever be loved 
 
The sense that we are not acceptable drives all of us towards using different fig leaves and coverings

 
Romans 4:7 (NIV) 
     Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count (impute) against him." 
 
Romans 4:22-25 (NIV) 
     This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." ²³The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, ²⁴but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. 

3. God invites us to come out from behind the tree, receive His covering provided in Christ in order to be fully known in all your vulnerabilities and fully loved 
 
Col. 3:1-3 (NIV) 
     Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.