God formed Adam from the dust of the ground, and Adam was naked. Yet in the sight of God, there was nothing wrong with him. God looked upon all that He had made and saw that it was “very good.” Adam himself also felt no shame in his nakedness. Just as the uncovered bodies of animals appear natural to us, and animals themselves feel no shame in being uncovered, Adam had no reason to be ashamed before God.
But after Adam and his wife Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden them to eat, they became ashamed of their nakedness and covered themselves with fig leaves. Behind this change was the work of the devil, who appeared in the form of the serpent.
The serpent began by tempting Eve:
“Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1)
Eve answered:
“We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” (Genesis 3:2–3)
Then the serpent said to the woman:
“Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4–5)
Deceived by the serpent, Eve took the fruit and ate it. She also gave it to her husband, who was with her, and Adam ate it as well. Then, just as the serpent had said, their eyes were opened. They realized that they were naked, sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.
Once Adam and Eve came to know good and evil, they not only became ashamed of their nakedness but also became afraid of God.
When God called to Adam and said, “Where art thou?” Adam answered:
“I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:10)
God then asked Adam:
“Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” (Genesis 3:11)
There is something important for us to consider here.
God had created man in His own image, and man was a delight in His sight. There had been nothing about Adam’s nakedness that caused God to reject him. Why, then, did Adam suddenly become ashamed of his nakedness and even become so afraid of God that he hid from Him?
According to the knowledge of good and evil that Adam had acquired, was nakedness itself truly something so shameful and evil that he needed to fear God?
Not in itself.
Our sense of shame concerning nakedness is not experienced in exactly the same way in every circumstance. It is affected by context and relationships. A person may think nothing unusual about being unclothed while bathing alone, yet would experience great shame if standing naked on a street where everyone else was clothed. If nakedness were inherently evil in itself, a person would necessarily experience the same shame and fear even when bathing alone. Yet that is not how human beings ordinarily experience it.
When Adam and Eve came to know good and evil, they were the only two human beings in the world. There was therefore no social reason for them suddenly to be ashamed of one another. Yet they covered themselves and hid from God.
This points us beyond the mere fact of their nakedness. Something far deeper had happened. Sin had entered, their relationship with God had been broken, and the deceiver had already drawn them away from trusting God’s word.
Jesus said concerning the devil:
“He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)
The devil, the father of lies, had deceived Adam and Eve and turned their newly acquired knowledge of good and evil into an occasion for fear and separation from God. Adam now saw himself through fear and condemnation. Instead of running to God, he ran away from Him.
In this way, Satan sought to separate man from God and bring him into spiritual death. This helps us understand why Jesus called the devil “a murderer from the beginning.”
The fact that Adam and Eve were deceived and hid themselves from God has profound significance for us today, because the devil continues to deceive people in similar ways.
Jesus came into this world as the sacrifice for our sins in order to cleanse us from sin. Just as, under the Old Testament sacrificial system, animals such as sheep and goats were offered in connection with Israel’s cleansing from sin, Jesus bore the sin of the world and died on the cross, paying the wages of sin through His death.
Through His sacrifice, our sins have been forgiven.
Yet the devil, the father of lies, seeks to persuade us that even though Jesus truly died on the cross, there are still sins remaining for which Christ’s sacrifice was somehow insufficient and for which we must somehow make ourselves acceptable to God.
In this respect, those who are deceived into distrusting what God has accomplished through Christ resemble the Israelites who came out of Egypt. They had witnessed God’s mighty works with their own eyes—even the parting of the Red Sea—yet they were still led into unbelief and murmured against God.
Through Jesus Christ, believers have been sanctified and made acceptable before God. Yet Satan seeks to turn our eyes away from the cross and fix them only upon ourselves—upon our failures, weaknesses, and sins. He uses our own judgment of good and evil to accuse us, make us fear God’s judgment, and drive us farther away from God.
This is why Scripture tells us to resist the devil.
When Jesus had fasted forty days in the wilderness and was hungry, the devil came to tempt Him. Jesus answered the tempter with the Word of God.
In the same way, when the devil accuses us, we must not remain looking only at ourselves. We must look to Jesus Christ and to the cross where He shed His blood for us.
Jesus said:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14–15)
The answer to Satan’s accusation is not found in ourselves.
It is found in Jesus Christ, who was lifted up on the cross for us.