Saturday, September 26, 2015

Clothes

Clothes should be a reminder that the blood of Christ is a necessary covering for man.  What do I mean by this?
In the Garden of Eden, prior to the fall into sin, man did not need clothes.  In that sense he was naked.  But he was not actually naked, he was clothed with the glory of God, and unashamed.  When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost that glory and in response, tried to make their own clothes.  In this we see that it is unnatural for man to be uncovered.  God, in an act of mercy, provided clothes for them, in the form of animal sacrifice.  Some sort of animals needed to die in order to provide a covering.  This image points forward to the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant.
Jesus' work of death and resurrection fulfilled the need for animal sacrifice.  But that does not mean that man can now be naked.  Our wearing of clothing is a reminder to us that we need to be covered because of our sin.  God has provided the perfect covering in Jesus Christ.  It is not right at any point in time for man to be uncovered, either pre fall, during the Old Covenant or during our present day. 
I would suggest that the current trend toward nakedness, just like the same trend throughout time (Greece, Rome, etc.) points to man's rejection of Jesus Christ.  If a man thinks that he is okay, then there is no need for a covering.  If a man thinks that he is not sinful or in need of God's provision, he will tend towards nakedness.
An interesting side note, one of the OT curses for sin is baldness, ie, an uncovering of the head.  In other words, when someone rejected God's rule, God showed this rejection in a visible manner.  Kinda makes you wonder about the popularity of shaved heads today....

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