I happened to hear R. C. Sproul teach this lesson on Family Radio today as I was getting ready to leave home for an appointment. It happens to be part 2 of a 6 part series titled, The Intimate Marriage, linked below video.
The following paragraph is from the video description on YouTube; after that, there is a list of sermon highlights for those who don’t want to spend 27 minutes hearing his lecture. If you find the points interesting, then listen to the video, I thought it was excellent.
I am guessing that the series was taught in the early 1980s; it is very relevant to a Christian’s relationship with God and spouse.
“In the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, we see the first game of hide and seek. Adam and Eve hid from God in the Garden because they realized they were naked, and because of that knowledge they were ashamed. In this case, their nakedness was more than skin-deep. However, God has since remedied the problem. Dr. Sproul thinks of this account as he discusses the institution of marriage as a safe-haven where shame need not exist.”
Lecture highlights:
- Review of the story of Noah after the flood, when Ham found him naked and told his brothers
- The significance of Ham’s conduct
- When Noah gave his patriarchal blessing, Ham received a curse
- What does the Bible say about ‘nakedness?’
- In times of war, conquered peoples were often stripped of clothes and made to walk naked into captivity, this increased the level of humiliation they experienced (they had already been defeated and had their possessions plundered)
- We must go back to the Garden of Eden to fully grasp the imagery of nakedness
- Genesis 2 ends with the statement that Adam and Eve were naked and UNashamed
- Before they sinned, they walked naked with God and experienced intimacy and communion
- After their sin, they hid from God: their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked
- The significance of that change explained
- Their first impulse was to hide; they experienced shame
- God asked why they hid, and they said because they were naked; God deduced that meant that they had eaten from the tree
- Present in that experience is a connection between nakedness and guilt – the significance of that was related to the American culture in the 1970s and 80s (the time frame of this teaching series)
- R.C. speculated that we are looking for a place wherein we can again be naked and not ashamed
- The first act of redemption in human history is when God clothed Adam and Eve – He covered their nakedness
- The whole concept of atonement in the Old and New Testaments centers around ‘covering’
- God allows us to wear clothes to cover our nakedness
- Psychiatry and psychology encourage people to risk vulnerability by removing their clothes – sharing secret things about themselves, God does not encourage that, except in the following two areas
- Since He knows us better than we know ourselves (see Psalm 139), He wants us to disclose the secrets of our hearts to Him and to experience intimacy and acceptance even though we will also be rebuked, admonished, corrected…
- His correcting judgment is tender and benevolent; such experiences cannot be had by unbelievers
- Secondly, God has given us the institution of marriage wherein we might know nakedness without shame; that is, we may know vulnerability and acceptance
- Divorce is devastating because therein one experiences rejection, betrayal – the opposite of what God intended the marital relationship to provide
- It is devastating because the person who knows you best has rejected you
- Thereafter, the rejected person will be fearful of becoming naked again in relationship
- Someone who is married and says, “My spouse doesn’t understand me,” still has not experienced the type of nakedness that God intended marriage to provide – a comfortable, safe place wherein the vulnerability, love, acceptance…might be experienced
- That is, they still have their clothes on
If you would like to listen to this 6 part series on marriage, then click the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xB7csoIe4s&list=PL30acyfm60fUDtIloxxPwlo7Jnh4hf4dY