Genesis 2:4-25 | Naked and Not Afraid

He had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said, 'This one at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. This one will be called woman, for she was taken from man. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.' But the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

Let's pray. Lord, we ask that as we read about the creation of the very first humans, that you would illuminate our hearts to understand our purpose, our meaning from your word. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to trust it. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Meaning of Life and God's Purpose for Man

What is the meaning of life? If you watch *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*, the answer is 42. But whether it's Billie Eilish asking, "What was I made for?" or Michael W. Smith wondering about his place in the world, this is the pervading question of all humanity for all of history: What am I here for? Genesis 2 provides the answer.

Last week, we saw how man is made in God's image. You see that in Genesis 1:26-27, but what does that mean? What are you and I supposed to do with our lives? What's the point of our existence here on this earth? Well, God doesn't just create us for the sake of existing; he creates us with a purpose, with intention. In chapter two, we get to see what God does for man and, by extension, what he commands you and I to do.

So this sermon is going to answer one question: What does God do for man? He does three things. First, God created man. Second, God commanded man. And last, God complimented man. I don't mean 'complimented' like said, 'You're so great.' I mean, 'complimented' as in 'provided a complement.'

God Created Man

If chapter one was a cosmic epic creation of the whole earth, chapter two kind of rewinds the tape and zooms in on a garden. You can see that in verse four. Read with me:

These are the records of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation. At the time that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, no shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. But mist would come up from the earth and water all the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. — Genesis 2:4-7 (CSB)

You could picture the movie scene: The camera pans up inches from the dirt, mist dampens the ground, and in the midst of this fog, God begins to act. But unlike the creation that we saw last week in chapter one, where God speaks and it happens, this creation is totally different. In chapter one, we see that God creates the entire heavens and the earth in seven days. In the first three days, he forms: he makes light, he makes the skies and the seas, and then he makes the land and the plants. Then in day four, five, and six, he creates the sun, moon, and stars, filling the light. He creates the sea animals and the sky animals, filling the skies and the seas. And then on day six, he fills the land with animals and with human beings.

Now, in chapter two, that story is told again but in a micro scale. If chapter one is zoomed out wide-angle, you can see the entire cosmos; chapter two zooms in. It has a focal point, a specific focus. If chapter one explains the creation of the entire world, chapter two exists to explain the creation of man. These details of the story are related, oriented around us understanding who human beings are, and it starts with the Lord creating, not with his words, but with his actions. He forms man out of the dirt.

This is tactile; God doesn't just speak and command the dirt to be shaped. He himself shapes the dirt. The master craftsman creates his crowning piece of creation, made in his image as we see in Genesis 1, created to reflect God's glory and to subdue the earth. In other words, everything that God is doing here is with intention. There is not one atom of who you are that wasn't formed with intention. I don't mean your morals; I'm talking about your body.

We live in a culture where our beliefs become the reality of our bodies, where a man can say, 'I'm a woman trapped in a man's body' and vice versa, where our simple desires get confused with our biological wiring. So much of how we perceive ourselves determines who we think that we are. Our beliefs become our being. And in our zeal to want to defend God's good design, we could forget sometimes that we're not just against bad stuff, we're *for* good things. We're not just against transgenderism or against homosexuality; we're defending the good design of what God himself created. We want to defend biological gender because we believe that God designed gender himself and that it is good. And not only does God form man from the dirt here, he intends it to image him in a way that is meaningful. Everything that he does is no accident. There is no person who's created in a wrong way.

For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. — Psalm 139:13-14 (CSB)

See, God doesn't just shape and form Adam here from the dirt; he also forms you and I. Every single one of us, none of you are an accident. No amount of cellulite or gray hairs or protruding guts changes the fact that you belong to the Lord, like we just sang this morning. But God doesn't just form us; he also fills us. It says here that he breathes life into Adam's nostrils. He doesn't do this for any of the other animals, but he does do this for man. The life, the breath that you and I have, is fundamentally different than other animals. I'm not talking about your respiratory system; I'm talking about the fact that you have a soul. You are a different human being. You are different from other animals because you are a sentient being made in the image of God, and we're filled with God-given breath, we're given life by God. He forms us and he fills us. And because he created us, it also means that God has the authority to command us, to tell us what obedience to him looks like.

God Commanded Man

Which brings us to point number two: God commanded man. Look at verse eight:

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had formed. The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river went out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. Gold from that land is pure; bdellium and onyx are also there. The name of the second river is Gihon, which flows through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which runs east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” — Genesis 2:8-17 (CSB)

God grows this paradise for man to live in. He grows a beautiful garden, teeming with food. And these rivers flow out from Eden to water the garden, and the rivers overflow with gold and other expensive minerals. In other words, this garden that God made is bougie; it's full of prosperity, of enjoyment, of harvest. And God intends it that way. God intended it for man's good, for you and I to enjoy. He takes man into the garden, he places him there. This is designed for him, and he commands him to obey him.

And when God gives us command, he doesn't start with a command to reject evil. He doesn't start with a command for you and I to choose between right and wrong. He begins with the command to enjoy what is good. He tells Adam that he is free to eat and to enjoy the pleasures of the garden. This is how God works. He never begins with just rules for you and I to follow. The Bible is more than just instructions for man before leaving Earth, or whatever the acronym is. God provides his blessings and he comes with instructions.

God leads the Israelites out of Egypt, and then he gives the Ten Commandments. God provides the gospel for you and I in Christ, and then shows us the right way of living. And with Adam, he places Adam in the garden and enables him to enjoy the fruits that he himself provided. And it's after that provision, after that enjoyment, that God then comes with the blessings, with the command.

And the command focuses in on these two trees. They're in the middle of the garden. One is the tree of life, and the other is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One provides life; the other brings certain death. And with these two trees comes a clear command: You can eat from any of the trees in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because if you eat from it, you will certainly die. And that choice makes all the difference.

Have you ever wondered why God would do this? Like, why would God put a choice in the center of this garden? Why set Adam and Eve up for failure in the coming in chapter three? Have you ever wondered that? Are you expecting to hit Adam in heaven with a Christian side eye, wondering why he messed everything up? I mean, why not just remove any threat so that man can continue to work and enjoy Eden for the rest of eternity? Why would God do this? Friends, because if there is no choice, there is no obedience.

Now, a couple of weeks ago, I went to an arcade to play some games with some friends. And while I was there, I got to see a parent kind of overseeing her kid who was running around the arcade. And I don't know if you've ever seen this: Have you seen those leashes for children where they're completely harnessed in and the parent walks them around like a dog? Have you seen this? And this kid was wild. He was like a Tasmanian devil. I mean, leaping, like lurching against his harness, throwing himself against whatever toys were ahead of him. And the mom was literally getting dragged by this kid on this leash. I think it turned into a horse and buggy situation.

Now, imagine if you're that mother holding that kid as he's leaping into these arcade games, and then you successfully deter him from doing all these dumb things and sprinting down a bowling lane. And then you come home and you look at the kid and you say, 'You know, son, I am just so proud of you. You didn't jump on a single one of those pinball machines. You didn't jump on the Skee-Ball or run down the bowling lane. You are such a good kid. I am so proud of you.' I would not be proud of that kid at all. He was an absolute terror. The reason why he didn't jump on the Skee-Ball machine wasn't because he decided not to; it's because he literally couldn't. The leash was holding him back. And when that's what's holding you back, that's not obedience. That's called restraint. You didn't have a choice.

And human beings, as creatures of the Lord, aren't just restrained from disobedience. We are commanded to obey. And the nature of this obedience means that you and I have a choice. Man, as a creature of the Lord, needs to obey the Lord, to submit to his authority, to recognize that there are limits to what you and I are permitted to do, which means within man's own agency, the choice is provided: two trees. And if God sets the rules, then that means that he's the one who rules over you. Does that make sense? There's a command for you and I to obey, and that means that God is the one that you need to obey.

And so man is not given free reign to rule over whatever he would like. It begins with his submission to God's ultimate authority. If you're not a Christian, you're here, this thought of dependence or obedience may be strange. It might even be off-putting. I feel like most of us live our lives trying to gain more independence, more desire to do whatever we would like to do. Let me ask you, would you want to live with anyone who wasn't disciplined and made good choices? I imagine a kid on a leash grows up. Would you want him as a roommate? I don't think so. You want people who recognize that there are consequences greater than your own selfish desires. Nobody wants to spend time with people that are purely selfish. A boss who doesn't feel accountable to his boss or his employees is a bad boss. A pastor who isn't accountable to the chief pastor, Jesus, or his congregation is a bad pastor. And a human being who isn't accountable to his Creator is a bad human. The Bible would call them sinners.

And this choice between good and evil is the eternal wedge that divides all of humanity. The psalmist says:

How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. — Psalm 1:1-3 (CSB)

Does that sound familiar at all? When you hear those descriptions, the image of this tree by this river that is bearing fruit and prospering and has no ailments, no withering at all? The psalmist is clear, he is associating obedience, trusting in the Lord's word, like this Garden of Eden-like flourishing that happens. You are like the tree of life planted by streams of living water that bears fruit in its season. You see, all of us have a choice, and the consequences between these two trees are deadly. Why do you and I obey the Lord or seek to obey him? Not just because of its benefits or because obedience brings about good stuff for us, but ultimately because you and I are under the authority of our holy God. When we believe him when he says that if you eat, if you sin and take the fruit from the knowledge of good and evil, it will lead to certain death. God doesn't leave Adam alone here to fend for himself. He also provides a helper, which leads to our last point.

God Complimented Man: The Creation of Woman

God complimented man. Let's look at verse 18 here:

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.” The Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said:This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame. — Genesis 2:18-25 (CSB)

Up until this point in the book, the vibes have been immaculate. God creates, he looks, he calls it good. When he finishes creating the entire earth, he looks at it and calls it very good. But in verse 18 here, the energy takes a u-turn. God looks at Adam and he says, 'It's not good.' Not Adam himself, but what Adam doesn't have: Adam is all alone. We know man and woman are created together, right? Man and woman are created in God's image, to show how all of us bear the image of God and how we're all equal in dignity and worth before Him. In Genesis 2, we see the chronological progression that the man is made first and then woman. And when God looks at man by himself without that woman, he concludes that it is not good.

And God says he will make a helper compatible or suitable for him. And then what he does is he brings every animal first. He brings every animal and bird to the man for Adam to name them. And this naming is more than just like a kindergarten exercise. This isn't like putting up an animal and Adam recognizing them, 'like that's a whale or that's a tiger.' It's more than that. The idea here is that Adam is looking at every single creature and he is declaring what their name would be. If he names it tiger, that means it's called tiger. Why is it called tiger? Because Adam decided that it would be called tiger. You understand what's going on? In other words, Adam is doing more than just naming animals; he is ruling them. He is ruling them under the authority of the Ruler of the universe by exercising authority in declaring what each animal should be called. It's not only that. Adam is able to see every single creature that God creates as he names them, and none of them are compatible to him. He is swiping left on every single creature that shows up in front of his face. And the reason is because none are fitting for him.

So God puts him to sleep, takes a rib, and then forms woman. God himself creates woman. And when Adam sees Eve, that's when he starts to sing. He breaks out into poetry, 'bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.' 'This woman will be called woman for she was taken from man.' 'This one, at last,' Adam turns into a poet, a hopeless romantic. And here we see the blueprint or the model of marriage. Woman is taken out of man, and for the rest of eternity, all men for the rest of history come out of women. What we see is a symbiotic, complementary relationship between men and women that define this good gift of marriage that God has provided for people. There's so many things I can say based on this chapter alone. The Bible references this everywhere. But I want to mention specifically three things.

The Purpose and Purity of Marriage

First, here you can see the principle of marriage, the definition of it. Marriage is between one man and one woman in a covenant commitment for a lifetime. Right, you see Adam and Eve coming together and becoming one flesh. Here you see the principle there in verse 24:

This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. — Genesis 2:24 (CSB)

They become a new family. That's the design of it. In a world that is so confused, it's easy for us to get trapped in just refuting all the wrong pictures. We stand up behind this pulpit and go *ad nauseam* about why same-sex marriage isn't God's design or why polyamory isn't God's design. And there are plenty of good arguments that you and I should understand and know about those things. But the place that you and I need to start in understanding what marriage is isn't what it's not, but what it is: to look at Genesis 2 to see what the intention of it is.

If marriage only exists to make you happy, then you would just do whatever makes you happy. It really doesn't matter. But if marriage has a deeper purpose, if it's meant to do more than just bring you joy, if the design of marriage itself brings glory to God's name, then that gives different cause for why we would be so zealous to preserve it. Why we care about making clear what the Bible teaches about marriage is not just that something is a sin or evil; it's also that God's good design is good. It does something that the other pictures don't do. A man and a woman joined together becoming one flesh is God's design and brings out the beauty of God's plan. We'll talk about that more later.

Second, here we see the practice of marriage. A man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife. They become one flesh. When you grow up, generally speaking, your family are the closest human beings to you. They're your family. But when you're married, that changes. Everyone gets demoted, and you now have a new family. You leave your parents and you join your spouse. Now, this verse is not talking about whether or not it's appropriate to continue to live with your parents or not. For example, in Korean culture, a lot of people would join—I think historically what would happen—is that the wife would then join the husband's family and live in their house to kind of learn how duties from her mother-in-law. And believe me, that's a seedbed of like 80% of Korean dramas that exist. You can imagine what disaster that looks like sometimes. This is not talking about whether or not it's appropriate to live with your parents or take care of your parents. It's not the idea. The point about leaving and cleaving is about the primary identification of that married couple. You are now one flesh. That is your primary identity as a married couple. That is your new family unit. That's what you're supposed to do.

Third, here you can see the purity of marriage. Verse 25 says that they were both naked and felt no shame. They were naked and not afraid. They weren't ashamed of each other. They weren't ashamed of one another. They were able to be fully bare with one another. And that kind of language might make you and I blush. It might even sound scandalous. My friends, that's not because of the inappropriate nature of their marriage; it's because of the distortion of our own hearts. This verse is not trying to advocate for nudist colonies; it's trying to point out the depth of the purity of their souls. That their consciences were so clean, so pure that they're able to stand before each other, fully naked and experience no shame. I don't mean that they've gotten comfortable with each other, like you might with your spouse. I mean that they had zero shame. Is that even possible?

I mean, you and I know this as sin has so entangled our hearts and minds that it would be impossible for any of us in this life to be found in this naked state and not experience some degree of shame. I know couples I counsel who have been married for decades who struggle with this. Even after being with each other for years, this shame that just won't wash away, no matter what they do. It's no wonder that the very first thing that Adam and Eve do when they sin is they hide. They cover their bodies and they hide. Before, immorality and immodesty were never in the equation, and now they're unavoidable. I mean, look at this picture from verses 18 and 25. It's a beautiful image of what marriage was supposed to be: this God-exalting ecstasy, this first couple. It could be so beautiful, so unfathomable that it can almost be disenchanting. I mean, like what did you and I lose? When we think about this choice between these two trees and the effect of sin that's had on us, we recognize all of us struggle with this. You don't have to be a Christian and hear the Ten Commandments to know that we are deeply ashamed of who we are. I talk about the choice in point two. All of us have chosen the tree of the knowledge of good and evil over and over and over again. And as a result, we are completely stained by our sin. What kind of hope do you and I have for our shame, for our nakedness, for the dark crevices of our heart that we hope that God and nobody else would see?

Christ: The Fulfillment of Marriage and Our Hope

There's a solution, because if you know the story in your Bible, even before you get to Genesis 3, the promise we talked about two weeks ago from Genesis 2, we actually find hope in this chapter, and it's in the purpose of marriage. The purpose of marriage. You see, marriage is not the ultimate point of our lives. The one-flesh union between man and wife is actually just a symbol. It's a picture of a greater reality, of a greater reality.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. — Ephesians 5:31-32 (CSB)

Every single marriage is pointing to a greater marriage between Jesus Christ and his bride, the church. But how can that be? I mean, if you and I are deeply ashamed of our sin, how can a holy God, how can Jesus unite with such sinful people? How can you stand with your sinful soul and be unashamed before a holy God? All of us fail this test. All of us have taken the air that God has breathed into us and used it to curse him. We've all chosen the sinful tree over the righteous one. All of us have failed in our abilities to subdue and fill the earth, and all of us are stained with that sinful shame.

But the good news of the gospel is not that you get to choose again, but that your Savior is not like you. A new Adam, Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man, never sinned. He chose righteousness perfectly. He always submitted to his Father's will. And though he certainly never sinned, Jesus certainly died on a cursed tree.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. — Galatians 3:13 (CSB)

Do you see the images being evoked? The cross is more than just two planks being nailed together. Christ is being hung on the curse tree, on the tree that brings about death, that you and I chose, so that through his death, through the sacrifice that he makes in our place, you and I may have access to the tree of life. The good news of the gospel is not that you and I get to go on our own redemption arc towards purity, but that Jesus purifies us. That marriage is not about us purifying ourselves, or making sure that we're clothed in white, but that our husband, our bridegroom, washes us with the water of his grace, so that we can stand spotless before him without an ounce of shame.

And as you in your marriage can unite with your spouse and become one, because of Christ's work in us as the church, we will be able to unite with Christ with all purity of heart. That's what marriage points to. That's the hope that you and I have, that we as a body of Christ get to be fully united to him, which means when you come to Christ, when you trust in him, the primary identification that you have as a Christian also changes. If you become one flesh with your spouse and everyone else in your life gets demoted, when you follow Christ, everyone else also gets demoted.

Not because you and your Jesus guy have a new relationship that kicks your spouse out of the picture, but because you in the body of Christ as the church are united with him in such a way that your primary identification isn't husband or wife or worker or even human; your primary identification becomes: 'I'm united with him. I am with Jesus. He saved me. I am a Christian.' See, when Jesus comes into the picture, everything that marriage pointed to got fulfilled. This is the reason why 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 8, Paul as a single man is able to exhort unmarried and widows in the church and says,

I say to the unmarried and to widows: It is good for them if they remain as I am. — 1 Corinthians 7:8 (CSB)

Realize how crazy that would sound to anybody who understands the Bible, that it is good for someone to be alone, right? It's the absolute antithesis to everything that you see there in Genesis 2. How can you say that? Only if a single, unmarried, or widow is not alone, because they're united with Christ. Every unmarried or widow person in our church has what marriage points to. We have Jesus. Isn't that the beauty of marriage disappears? It's that the ultimate beauty that marriage was pointing to has arrived. Jesus came. We have Christ. As Christ changes our heart, it changes everything about what you and I do.

How can we have access to the tree of life? Through Christ's work for us. How can you and I choose righteousness and the law of freedom and love? Because God commands it, and we are under His authority, and He richly provides all things for us to enjoy. And in providing Christ and showing us a better way and bringing us from death to life through the Spirit, He enables us to be able to practice a true, unashamed joy of living in obedience to Him without fear of repercussion, but out of delight, out of overflow of all the things that Christ has done for us.

What were you made for? You were made for Jesus. That's who you were made for. That's the delight of our eyes. Christ is who we're created for. Christ is the one whose command we obey, and Christ is the one who fulfills every true need and desire of our heart. Every single one of our marriages points to the beauty of this union between Christ and the church. Any enjoyment or delight or love that you have in your marriage is an *hors d'oeuvre* for the marriage supper of the Lamb. It is going to be so much better being with Christ. Every single, single, or unmarried person in the church points to the satisfaction and anticipation of this final fulfillment of union between Christ and the church. Every church that meets every Sunday gets to celebrate this new birth that we have, this new life that we've received as Christ breathes his life into us, as we wash ourselves with the water of the Word as we await the arrival of our bridegroom.

How can you and I stand unashamed before our Beloved on the day that he returns for his bride? Only if Christ has purified us and washed us clean. Marshall Segal gives us a beautiful picture of a wife filled with shame as she walks out on her wedding day. And he ends his book with this. I just want to read it for us. He says:

"As she stepped into the aisle, filled with fear and shame, she saw her groom. Suddenly it was as if no one else was in the room and just two of them staring into each other's eyes. He didn't say a word but his face said everything she needed to hear. His eyes told her that he knew it all: every inch of her past, every lonely night, every bad decision, every unhealthy relationship, every sexual act, and that he had still chosen her and loved her as his wife. She may not have deserved to wear white that day, but he had bought the dress for her to cover all her failures. His smile told her that she was forgiven and prized, the delight of his eyes. She forgot ever feeling unnoticed or unwanted. A tear fell out of the corner of his eye and rolled down his cheek, and it melted away all her shame and fear because she had found her groom, the one willing to die for her on a cross, that he might present her to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."

Friends, look forward to that day where we get to see our Groom face to face. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you've made us in your image. Help us, Lord. As we know you, as we know your word, to be able to better image you, to be able to live out your good design, and to be able to live out the new life that we've found in Christ. We thank you for his blood poured out for us. Help us to celebrate that. And we ask, God, that you would come soon. We want to see you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.