“And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” — Genesis 2:25

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” — Colossians 3:3-4

Lately, I’ve been pondering on the idea of being hidden with Christ. What does that mean? How are we hidden? Hidden from what? Hidden for what purpose? (Until recently, I was also under the assumption that we were hidden in Christ, which is a little different meaning!)

As I was trying to get a picture in my mind of what this might look like, I was reminded of the state of humanity as God created it in the beginning. Adam and Eve did not live the kind of life we live. They were unaware of the existential nature of good and evil, of struggle and strife and pain. They had no need to fight for a cause, because there was no cause to fight for. They just were, living in a state of perfect bliss and right relationship to the Father. God was their covering, and they had no need to hide themselves.

But that all changed when they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, their eyes were simultaneously opened and blinded. They were opened to the reality of the cosmic battle between the forces of darkness and God’s heavenly host, and they were closed to the unfettered bonds of love and pure motive that existed between themselves and between God. They knew evil — they became intimate with evil and capable of committing it — and they knew good, which illuminated their shameful disobedience and willful rebellion. And so they did what we all do, and their reaction was a natural one: they hid. They hid from God and from each other. They didn’t cover themselves with fig leaves because they were naked — they covered themselves because they felt naked. They were lost, vulnerable, and afraid. And rightly so, for nothing they could say or do would be able to take back the evil they had wrought.

Little has changed in the thousands of years subsequent to the Fall. We are still trying to hide — hide from God, hide from ourselves, hide from each other. Our sins always find us out, but we still think we can get away with it. All things will one day be exposed by the Light, and nothing we do under the shadow of darkness will be left undetected. But we don’t need to keep running away. We have been blessed with a new hiding place, a special place, and that is within God Himself. In His great mercy, He provided a covering for our sins and clothing for our nakedness in the person of Jesus Christ. When we come into relationship with Christ, He opens the door for us to step across the chasm that was created when Adam and Eve sinned and enter into the fullness of life that God originally intended for us. Our eyes are still open to the knowledge of good and evil, but our blindness has been removed and we can look upon God and humanity with unconditional love and pure motive once again. We no longer need to be ashamed of our nakedness (in a spiritual sense!), for we can wrap ourselves in the glory of Christ and come before God’s holy throne with confidence and assurance, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:19-25