Naked in Public?

“Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” – Genesis 2:25

Humans were created in a state of freedom, not bondage. Freedom is the God-intended state of being. But, according to the story of the people of God as told in the Bible, we enslave ourselves and one another by our choices. Bondage is not a creation of God. Slavery and bondage come from brokenness and the fall. 

Adam and Eve chose to disobey the one simple command – don’t eat from this one tree – and bondage sprang forth. Among the many bondages that came rushing into the world was the bondage of shame. Think about this for a minute: we were created to be naked and unashamed of it. Yet this state of being human – the stripped down (literally) state of wearing no clothes – is lost. When was the last time you walked around naked in public and felt free?  

But that’s not the whole story. Even while things are not yet fully restored, God has made a way to freedom. It is indeed possible to be naked and free. There are God-ordained and blessed situations within which we can discover this. I have experienced this with my wife. This may seem a strange and wildly inappropriate way to think about freedom. But if we cannot reckon with this most foundational bondage, how can we hope to wrestle so many others that we see all around us? Here is a truth we should embrace: 

Freedom is possible right now and God has made a way because it is our intended state of being.

Freedom is not easy. It is not cheap. It is not what we see if we look around very long. But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible or that we can’t have it on this side of Heaven, even if imperfectly. So today let’s start or restart a journey to freedom by simply entertaining the possibility. The chance that God created us free – that this is our intended state of being – and that we can rediscover it in this life, right now. 

Perhaps most profoundly, we can experience freedom in our spirits – the place deep down where we connect with the God of the universe. We can experience this because He himself desires it and made a way for our spirits to be free. Our disobedience, like Adam and Eve’s, introduces bondage into our lives and separation and fear between us and God. But He wasn’t ok just leaving us helpless in this state. He came and dwelt among us and became himself the sacrifice in Jesus that makes a way to freedom, to reconciliation, to wholeness. Our reality may be bondage from time to time. But God’s intended state in His kingdom is freedom. And He has made it possible. So we pray…

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. In our lives as it is in heaven. Let your freedom ring and let it start in us today. Amen.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Joel & Jeff