Part 3: You Look Good Naked
David Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
Most people live with a devastating sense of loneliness.
There is a desire deep within the human heart to be
naked
and
unashamed.
This is not something we can repent of. This longing was placed inside of us at the beginning of time.
"Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame." (Genesis 2:25)
The human heart craves intimacy; therefore, the enemy seeks to exploit this by bringing us
down many avenues that offer a counterfeit intimacy which in turn brings shame. The irony is that when we accept what the enemy offers, we minimize our chances of experiencing real intimacy, leaving ourselves open to loneliness even when we are surrounded by people, even those who love us. Mother Theresa once said "There is no disease that kills quicker than lonliness."
Moses pointed to the glory of married love when he described how God brought Adam and Eve together to become one flesh.
He emphasized that they were naked and experienced no shame.
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
(Genesis 2:24-25)
Years after Moses wrote this, the Apostle Paul gave insight into Moses’ account. Paul knew something about God’s heart that Moses did not. Paul quoted Genesis 2:18 in Ephesians 5:31-32, applying it to the spiritual relationship between Jesus and the Church.
The creation of Adam and Eve to become one flesh is a prophetic picture of the way that Jesus will be joined to His church. Paul referred to this as God’s great mystery. Spiritually speaking, being naked and unashamed means all the secrets of our hearts will be
fully
unveiled.
After Adam and Eve sinned the first time, they recognized their nakedness and first encountered that crippling thing called shame. God then fashioned garments for them as covering (Genesis 3:21).
Six thousand years later, God still offers a covering for our shame, this time through the sacrifice of His Son.
God was and is fully determined to draw near to us in such a way that we would have no shame in our relationships with Him.
Oh! The privalege of being intimate with the living Christ!
Christ can, very tangably, fullfill every longing of our human hearts. The desire to know and be known. The desire to be close.
To be held.
To be fasinated.
To be comfortable.
To be silent.
He can even help us in ourl sexual desires, if we allow him.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because
the LORD has anointed Me to preach good
tidings to the poor…to give them beauty for
ashes… (Isaiah 61:1-3)
Ashes are the by-product and result of burning our passions on wrong things. Some believers’ lives are like ash heaps even after they have known the Lord for many years. Most people don’t realize how much they have lost by making sinful choices. They find themselves midway through life with nothing to show for it, or even worse, having accumulated a mess of wrecked relationships, terrible memories, and addictions. Regardless of how they arrived there, they come to a realization that they’re sitting on an ash heap and they wonder, “What would anyone want with me? What I have done is so…ugly.” Nobody wants our ashes.
Nobody, that is, except God. And when He takes them, He will trade them for His beauty.
"I am dark but lovely..." (Song 1:5)
We are darkened by sin, but we are still lovely to him. In romans 8 paul writes:
"There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ..."
God never turns his passion from the ones he loves. Even during sin.
Even while we type in 'hot chicks' into google.
Even while we tell that dirty little secret our friend's trusted us with.
Even while we are living in homosexuality.
Even while we make out 'hot and heavy' during the movie.
Even when our hand goes 'there.'
Even when our eyes stay 'there.'
Wherever our 'there' is, God calls us lovely even when we are going 'there.'
This is why we must quickly repent.
Because he sees our heart.
Our immediate repentance moves his heart dearly.
We are dark.
But lovely.
God says He will answer our core desire for intimacy now, in this life, as well as for all eternity. Taking the mess we have made of our lives, He will give us the very thing our hearts were meant to possess the beauty of God. When you became a believer, you weren’t merely saved from Hell. You were made to be beautiful and to show forth God’s beauty to the rest of creation forever. This is an intimacy far greater than anything we can hope for in each other. To be naked before the Lord.
Not holding anything back.
It's a relationship.
A divine marriage between divinty and humanity.
It's a Lover who says
"Marry me. What's yours is mine. What's mine is yours. Give me those ashes. I want them. What's yours is mine. Take my garments of light. Take my righteousness. Take the nations. You can even sit with me in heavenly places. What's mine is yours."
Christ's coming to the earth was
SO MUCH MORE
than saving us from sin. It was also much more than giving us healing or authority, though those things are beautiful. Many of us only know Christ as savior.
Or Healer.
Or Deliverer.
Or Provider.
Or Creator.
But there are only a handful who know him as
Lover.
Many people talk about it, but few understand it. His love is still something on the peripheral.
It is on the side.
It is something that is true, but few really grasp ahold of God's
intimate
deep
personal
whole-hearted
stronger than death
as enduring as the grave
ravished
timeless
bottomless
limitless
boundless
as wide as the east is from the west
LOVE
for us, His bride.
We are Christ's inheritance. We are his ONLY reward for
putting on skin, walking a blameless life, fasting for 40 days, being strongly tempted by satan himself, enduring pursicution, enduring immaturity, being falsy accused,becoming sin, and dying a cruel, harsh, and bloody death
for us.
"Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession." (Ps 2:8)
"For the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance." (Duet 32:9)
We overlook Christ's love so quickly. Think about this:
Jesus is a man. When he put on skin, he kept it on. He is still a man, in skin, in heaven right now before the Father.
Jesus has been praying for us
for 2000 years.
Praying furvently.
"Father, give me the nations! Father! Give me the nations! I desire your people. Oh, that they would be where I am! That they would be as one with me!" (Ps 2:8, John 17:21)
John 3:16 is a verse we are very familar with. It's even cliche. We often avoid even quoting it at the risk of sounding immature. But the truth of it is so piercing.
"For God so loved the world..."
He SO LOVES humanity. His heart is ravished by us, even in our weakness. Beloved, if God soloves something, it is very very important. We are the only beings in all of creation that God loves. Nothing else possesses his love. We can trust him in our nakedness. He is the only venue in which we can place our attention, affection, and love, and never be taken lightly.
He longs for us to be naked and unashamed.
You look good naked.
No comments:
Post a Comment