Shining Like the Sun E-Book

David H. Wenkel

• Herausgeber: Lexham Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 358

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

This is the first sustained, whole-Bible treatment on the theme of meeting God face to face. Starting with Genesis and ending with Revelation, the author systematically covers the major events in salvation history, all of which reveal the beauty of encountering God's grace in abundance.

Leseprobe

SHINING LIKE THE SUN

A Biblical Theology of Meeting God Face to Face

DAVID H. WENKEL

Shining Like the Sun: A Biblical Theology of Meeting God Face to Face

© 2016 by David H. Wenkel

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

LexhamPress.com

First edition by Weaver Book Company.

All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at [email protected].

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Print ISBN 9781683591665

Digital ISBN 9781683591672

Cover: Frank Gutbrod

Editing: Line for Line Publishing Services

For Jean and Howard Wenkel

Contents

Foreword

Abbreviations

Introduction

1.Adam and Eve: Face to Face with God in the Garden of Eden

2.Jacob: Face to Face with God at the River Jabbok

3.Moses: Face to Face with God at Mount Sinai

4.Face to Face with God in the Wilderness

5.Face to Face with God in the Time of the Judges

6.Face to Face with God in the Psalms

7.Face to Face with God in the Exile

8.Face to Face with God in Jesus Christ

9.Face to Face with God at the Mount of Transfiguration

10.Face to Face with God in the New Covenant Community

11.Face to Face with God in the New Heavens and the New Earth

Conclusion

Bibliography

General Index

Scripture Index

Foreword

In Shining Like the Sun the author succeeds admirably in making a significant contribution to the church. Wenkel speaks eloquently of the dramatic changes that took place in the lives of those who came into direct contact with God as expressed in the pages of the Old and New Testaments.

Those familiar with the biblical stories might naturally think of Jacob, who wrestled with God just before having to face his brother Esau twenty years after he stole Esau’s blessing. Jacob found himself a changed man. As Wenkel points out, Jacob wrestled physically with God in human form, and the person of the Trinity who wrestled that night was Christ in a pre-incarnate appearance, often termed a christophany. Jacob found that after you’ve seen God face to face, you can meet any challenge—even a brother who once wanted to kill you. Meeting God changes everything.

Wenkel traces the biblical history of those who met God face to face beginning in Genesis with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. But there were many others as well. Noah, Abraham, Hagar, and Isaac experienced the same transforming vision. Wenkel rightly points out that the angel or messenger of the Lord was none other than Christ. The second person of the Triune God was the revealing person in the Old Testament appearances to human individuals, just as he is in the New Testament.

Wenkel devotes an entire chapter to the experience of Jacob at the Jabbok ravine where he met God. That particular meeting with God was transformational and clearly foundational for all that follows. Jacob’s seeing God face to face was the pattern for so many other such meetings, and it sets the tone for all that Wenkel presents in the succeeding nine chapters.

Chapters 4 and 5 uncover the theme of meeting God face to face at Sinai, in the wilderness wanderings, and in the book of Judges. Of course, Moses beheld the messenger of YHWH when he was called into service by God. Joshua had a similar experience just outside of Jericho, recorded in Joshua 5:13–15. Similarly, Gideon’s life was completely changed by his personal experience with Christ when he was threshing a little wheat in a hidden winepress (Judg. 6).

But Wenkel does not stop with the obvious appearances of God to these individuals. He continues with a chapter on the same theme in the Psalms, noting how frequently they mention meeting God, even if not always in a physical sense.

From the Psalms, Wenkel moves into the time of the exile where Israel corporately had to face God and his covenantal blessings and/or curses. Isaiah, Micah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are cited for their exposition of the primary theme in their writings.

But the highlight of the volume is that Wenkel continues to trace his theme into the life of Christ in the New Testament. Many first-century lives were transformed when they met Christ face to face. An entire chapter is then devoted to the transfiguration of Christ. The title of his book, Shining Like the Sun: A Biblical Theology of Meeting God Face to Face, comes from this supreme event.

Wenkel completes his writing with two additional chapters, one looking back on the new covenant community (the church) and another looking forward to the new heavens and new earth. In that future time, all who have trusted Christ for eternal life will behold Christ’s face throughout eternity. The transformation will have been completed, and the results will be permanently manifested.

James A. Borland

Professor of New Testament and Theology

Liberty University

Lynchburg, VA

Abbreviations

AB

Anchor Bible

AGJU

Arbeiten zur Geschichte de antiken Judentums und Urchristentums

AJEC

Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity series

BBR

Bulletin for Biblical Research

BCE

Before the Common Era (= BC)

BCOTWP

Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms

BECNT

Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

BibSac

Bibliotheca Sacra

BIS

Biblical Interpretation Series

BTCB

Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible

CCSS

Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture

CE

Common Era (= AD)

CEJL

Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature

EQ

Evangelical Quarterly

ESV

English Standard Version

FRLANT

Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments

FTECS

Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality

HAR

Hebrew Annual Review

HBT

Horizons in Biblical Theology

JETS

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JSOTSup

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series

JSNTSup

Journal for the Study of the New Testament: Supplement Series

JSPL

Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters

KJV

King James Version (Authorized Version)

LNTS

Library of New Testament Studies

LSTS

Library of Second Temple Studies

LXX

Septuagint

MT

Masoretic Text

NAC

New American Commentary

NCCS

New Covenant Commentary Series

NET

New English Translation

NETS

New English Translation of the Septuagint

NIGTC

New International Greek Testament Commentary

NovT

Novum Testamentum

NovTSup

Supplements to Novum Testamentum

NRSV

New Revised Standard Edition

NSBT

New Studies in Biblical Theology

NT

New Testament

NTS

New Testament Studies

OBT

Overtures to Biblical Theology

OT

Old Testament

PNTC

Pillar New Testament Commentary

ResQ

Restoration Quarterly

SBET

Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology

STI

Studies in Theological Interpretation

THOTC

Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary

TNTC

Tyndale New Testament Commentaries

TOTC

Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries

TU

Texte und Untersuchungen

TynB

Tyndale Bulletin

UBCS

Understanding the Bible Commentary Series

VT

Vetus Testamentum

WBC

Word Biblical Commentary

WUNT

Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

ZAW

Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

ZECNT

Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

THE HUMAN BODY AND THE IMAGE OF GOD

When people meet God face to face, they are changed. Sometimes this change is a physical disability, as in the case of Jacob’s wounded leg. Through the progress of salvation history, the emphasis of physical change gravitates to the face. And there is always a holistic approach to the person, both immaterial and material. The phrase “embodied holiness” is used to describe the event where a person’s face glows as a result of God’s presence. In some instances, the term “embodied” refers to the fact that the person’s face is the source of the emanations. The ultimate source of the shining emanations on the face and body of the people of God is God himself. God’s presence physically changes those in his presence. This physical change in God’s people reflects God’s own nature and character, that is, his holiness, which refers to his eternal state of being as love, purity, righteousness, perfection, and justice, etc.

Although this study focuses largely on the face, this does not diminish the importance of the whole body or the Bible’s concern for it. In fact, the Hebrew word (פנים, panim) can communicate either face or presence.2 What this study does is simply recognize that special attention is given to the face in several biblical texts throughout the Old and New Testaments. The goal of this volume is to pay careful attention to the details of the biblical data so that the text itself directs us. We will not be seeking to identify and develop every instance where people encounter God in some form or fashion.3 Even the book of Genesis alone contains a multitude of divine-human encounters.4

The capacity of people to physically reflect the glory of God in their bodies and particularly in the face has received little attention. It is true that the human body reveals God’s amazing power. In this sense, the body is part of general revelation and “an important form of God’s self-disclosure.”5 But what about the human body’s capacity for special revelation as God’s radiating glory? The lack of attention to this question is surprising given the vast amount of literature devoted to texts such as the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1–9) and Paul’s discussion of Moses’s shining face (2 Cor. 3).

The topic of the capacity of the body to physically reflect God’s glory leads us back to the book of Genesis. In the act of creating human beings, God created them uniquely by endowing them with the “image of God” (imago Dei): “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth’ ” (Gen. 1:26).6 Humans have a unique role and status in all of creation.

Just what is bound up in the words “in our image” is an important question in its own right. The context directs the reader of Genesis to think primarily of dominion or the exercise of king-like stewardship over the earth and its creatures. Beyond the capacity for image-bearers to exercise dominion, much broader theological issues need to be considered. These include the “potential for growth in likeness to God, communion with God, and collaboration in God’s creative and loving activities.”7

In addition to this, we might add that there is something unique about the physical nature of humans that allows their faces and bodies to become vessels of the divine nature. The human body, and especially the face of a person, is able to communicate one’s relationship with God. One recent pastoral treatment of this topic states, “Our relationship with God is profoundly connected to what is happening inside of us, in our bodies.”8 As we will see, the overwhelming testimony of the Bible is that the face is the “essence of a person.”9

The Old Testament reflects another interest in the human face, alongside our interest in reflecting one’s relationship with God. There are several passages that describe the human face as simply an outward expression of internal demeanor, emotional or intellectual, without direct reference to God. It is interesting that the ESV study notes connect Ecclesiastes 8:1 to both types of passages. The ESV suggests that the shining face of Ecclesiastes 8:1 (“a man’s wisdom makes his face shine and the hardness of his face changed”) is similar to the angelic face of Stephen (Acts 6:15). Such a relationship would mean that Ecclesiastes 8:1 is directly related to our study of the themes exemplified by Moses in Exodus.

But the ESV also suggests that Ecclesiastes 8:1 is related to Proverbs 4:8–9, a passage in which personified Lady Wisdom places a garland on the head of those who honor her. If this connection is true, then Ecclesiastes 8:1 is not drawing from the “shining face” texts and traditions about Moses, including the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6. Michael Eaton comments on this difficulty: “The shining face generally speaks of favor (cf. Num. 6:25). Here it speaks of the wise man who is visibly gracious in his demeanor, and (as the next phrase says) whose gentleness is obvious in his facial expression.”10 Wisdom literature draws from general revelation (truth found in the world and life) and special revelation (truth found only through divine communication). It is not always clear which one is the source and Ecclesiastes 8:1 is no exception.11

The shining face of those who come into the very presence of God are not incidental facts of biblical narratives. Paul’s second pastoral letter to the Corinthian church draws from the narrative of Moses’ shining face to encourage that congregation to have hope, boldness, and knowledge of the work of God’s Spirit, who is transforming those who are “with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). Tracing the theme of embodied holiness and the shining face reflecting God’s glory is both theologically rich and pastorally relevant to a world that needs the message of hope and God’s love through the redeeming work of Christ.

The book of Revelation has several scenes in which a glowing face or body appears. In the first instance, the book opens with a heavenly vision of “a son of man” (Rev. 1:13), whose “face was like the sun shining in full strength” (Rev. 1:16). This depiction of the risen Lord Jesus establishes him as the one who fulfills all of the promises made about a coming and glorious Son of Man whose dominion is everlasting (Dan. 7:13–14).

The second and third instances of the shining face in the book of Revelation are more mysterious. In the second scene, a “mighty angel” comes down from heaven. This angel is described in terms very similar to those ascribed to Jesus in chapter 1. Specifically, this “mighty angel” has a “face like the sun” (Rev. 10:1). In the third instance, “another angel” comes down from heaven and the earth is “made bright with his glory” (Rev. 18:1).

The identity of the angel in some of the scenes from Revelation is rather mysterious; the angel may be Jesus himself or a special angel dedicated to carry out his mission and spread his messages.12 Nevertheless, it is very clear in the scene from the New Jerusalem in Revelation that the body of the risen Lord Jesus radiates a glorious light.13 John reports that “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22–23).

The theme of meeting God face to face stretches across the Bible from Adam to Moses to Jesus. As more and more information is revealed through the progress of revelation, those who encounter God face to face reveal that they have been changed. In the Old Testament, the shining face is intimately tied to the revelation of God at the establishment of the Mosaic covenant at Mount Sinai. This had implications that echoed into the very warp and woof of life for Israel.

In the New Testament, Jesus appears on a mountain as a New Moses with a “face that shone like the sun” at the transfiguration (Matt. 17:2). This too had implications that worked its way into the very life of the early Christian community, as testified by Paul’s pastoral theology in 2 Corinthians 3–4.

Last, Jesus’ shining face appears in the description of the eternal state as the light of the New Jerusalem. If we are to make connections between these disparate but significant threads in the biblical storyline, we need to draw from the discipline of biblical theology.

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD AND JESUS

As our study progresses through the Old Testament we will see that the theme of meeting God face to face overlaps substantially with the difficult figure often identified as the angel of the Lord. What this study presupposes is that the angel of the Lord might be understood to be one of the divine persons of the Trinity, although each instance requires a consideration of context. For our purposes one question is worthy of a short consideration in this introduction: What does this appearance of YHWH as the form of a man have to do with Jesus?

First, the appearance of YHWH in the form of a man is not exclusive to the book of Exodus. For example, the “angel” of Judges 13:6 is also called “God” (אלהים, elohim) in 13:22.14 This unusual “angel of the Lord” also appears in other Old Testament texts such as 2 Samuel 24:16–17; 1 Chronicles 21:15, and Isaiah 63:9.15 In each case, the angel displays characteristics that are not like any other angel or being. Specifically, this angel of the Lord receives worship or is actually referred to as God in some way. The appearance of YHWH as a man-like figure appears not only in our text about Jacob’s wrestling match, but in Joshua 5:13; Judges 13:6, and Zechariah 1:8. This angel is often depicted as carrying a sword in his hand, such as Numbers 22:23; Joshua 5:13; Judges 6:22–23, and 1 Chronicles 21:16.16 Where it is clear that the angel of the Lord is actually YHWH rather than a created angelic messenger, these are best understood as a theophany or christophany.

There are two important qualifiers to make. First, not all appearances of the angel of the Lord are clearly YHWH. The discussion of these difficulties coalesce around two competing theories, although there is no widely accepted taxonomy of the various positions.17 The “representation theory” emphasizes that the angel of the Lord is a messenger who is distinct from YHWH and speaks on YHWH’s behalf.18 This approach favors the historical background of the ancient Near East—perhaps to the point of overwhelming the biblical text itself. The competing “identity theory” is espoused by my study and focuses on the similarity and equality between the angel of the Lord and YHWH. Some biblical narratives leave the identity of the angel of the Lord ambiguous as to whether it is YHWH himself or YHWH working through a special created creature (angel).

The second qualifier is that the only reference to the angel of the Lord in the New Testament is in Stephen’s speech in Acts 7. One scholar concludes, “Connecting Christ and the Angel of Yahweh does not seem to be a concern of New Testament writers.”19 However, the early church and theologians throughout church history have tried to make such a connection.

A christophany is related to a theophany because it is an instance where YHWH appears in the form of a human. Those instances in which the angel of the Lord is understood to be divine are also understood to be christophanies or appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ.20 Theologically, this is the work of the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. In the work of the Triune God, the person of the Father sends the person of the Son and the person of the Holy Spirit empowers. This is true not only of the New Testament, but of the Old Testament.

When we read Exodus within the context of the entire Old Testament, the best theological term to describe YHWH’s appearance as a man is “christophany.” A good case can also be made for using the term “angel of the Lord” to describe YHWH’s appearance as a man with Jacob because this term is used in so many other Old Testament texts. Other closely related names used for YHWH’s appearance include the “angel of his presence,” the “angel of God,” and the “angel of the covenant.”21

There are two key theological points to make about the angel of the LORD who wrestled with Jacob. First, at this point in redemptive history, the Son of God had not become Jesus the God-man. This narrative in Genesis 32–33 is an example of the Son of God taking on the form of a human. But this form of a human is not the same as taking on a human nature as he did when Jesus was a baby in Mary’s womb. What YHWH did when he wrestled with Jacob was temporary rather than permanent.

Second, this same Son of God who appeared to Jacob and to others throughout the history of Israel is the very same person of the Trinity who took on human flesh and was born to Mary as Jesus. Jesus is now and forevermore united to a human nature; the divine nature taking on the human nature is the hypostatic union. I suggest in this study that those who worship Jesus today are worshiping the same person of the Trinity that Jacob wrestled with at the river Jabbok.

THE DISCIPLINE OF BIBLICAL THEOLOGY

As mentioned above, the discipline of biblical theology is required to trace this theme of meeting God face to face throughout the Bible. The discipline of biblical theology seeks to describe and apply the themes of biblical authors throughout the whole canon of Scripture.

Underneath this approach is the belief in the unity of Scripture as the product of one Triune God, who used various authors and their respective unique attributes. The canon of Scripture has diversity because it was written by different people at different times and places. The canon of Scripture also has unity because those who wrote it were uniquely inspired and moved by Holy Spirit to write what they did. In a nutshell, the discipline of biblical theology seeks to give equal weight to the uniqueness of the human authors and the unity wrought by the divine author of Scripture.

A helpful image for understanding this discipline is a woven tapestry. As a tapestry, Scripture provides several interwoven narratives and texts of various genres. These different genres might be described as various textures.22 When one text uses another textual source, this is intertextuality or inter-texture. The patterns, repetition, narrative progress, and other literary features constitute the inner texture. The social and cultural aspects of the original audience constitute the cultural texture. The rhetorical dynamics related to individuals, groups, shared interests, and conflict is labeled as the ideological texture. Lastly, the God-ward aspects of the text that communicate elements of the Trinity is labeled the sacred texture. This study will seek to integrate and connect all of these various textures, even if implicitly. Developing a broad sense of biblical theology is important because the theme of the shining face appears in genres as variegated as the Pentateuch, Wisdom Literature, and Paul’s letters.

If we imagine that the Scripture is like a large tapestry with various genres, features, or textures, we can also imagine that themes run through the various books like threads. These themes are made up of similar words and concepts.

Although this focus on themes is largely literary, this is not meant to minimize historical matters. What we find as we trace the theme of the shining face is that this phenomenon appears at major events in salvation history, such as the inauguration of the Mosaic covenant at Mount Sinai. Our investigation will seek to integrate historical background information and literary elements. In its expanded form, the thesis of this present volume is this: a discernable thread runs through the tapestry of Scripture in which those who encounter the God of Israel face to face will be changed.

There is always a danger that those engaging in biblical theology might ignore certain textual datum that is conceptually related rather than lexically related. The path taken by my study is to establish a foundation in the narratives of Genesis and then look at the instances where a face-to-face meeting with God is explicitly stated in the text. This narrow focus on a specific expression allows us to trace a single ribbon through the tapestry of Scripture in an accessible way.

As we trace the face-to-face encounters with God, we will be doing so throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. This is also called a “canonical” or “whole Bible” approach because we are beginning with the theological unity and integrity of Scripture. This reflects the fact that God inspired all Scripture and stands behind it as its divine author. Together, all the books of the Bible constitute a single canon, or standard of measurement, which alone is the written word of God.

A canonical approach is also keen to listen to the progress of divine revelation from Genesis to Revelation. The progress, or development, in revelation is based on the fact that God has spoken and that the focus of this revelation was Christ.23 This means that our study will seek to identify where God progressively revealed more details about Christ until he publicly announced the presence of his kingdom. When I use the term “biblical theology” in this volume, I am referring primarily to the history of salvation, or the progressive movement of God in history to redeem and save his people for his glory.24 This process of connecting the dots in the history of salvation is “descriptive and historically considered.”25 The end result will hopefully be of value to the church and the academy.

The motif of YHWH’s shining face is related to the much larger theme of YHWH’s body. This language is often called “anthropomorphic” because it attributes the qualities of a human body to God, who is spirit. When God appears as a person in the Old Testament, this is called a theophany or christophany. The larger theme of YHWH’s body in the Old Testament includes God’s ears (e.g., 2 Sam. 22:7; 2 Kings 19:28), eyes (Deut. 11:12; Ps. 34:15, etc.), hair (Dan. 7:9), lips (Ps. 89:34; Isa. 11:4), mouth (2 Sam. 22:9; Job 15:30), and nostrils or nose (2 Sam. 22:9, 16). These select references indicate how large the theme really is and an analysis of all these parts is beyond the scope of this study. The few instances where I deviate to consider other body parts is because they are parallel to or related to YHWH’s face. What this study does do is connect the face to a holistic understanding of the image of God in the first chapter through a study of Genesis 1–4.

In order to accurately follow this thread of meeting God face to face through Scripture, we will first need to establish the context by looking at creation and the fall in the first five chapters of Genesis. The first chapter specifically examines the fall in the Garden of Eden and its effects upon the first human family in the first four chapters of Genesis, also known as the “book of origins.” This first chapter is foundational because it establishes the salient point that all people are made in the image of God and are uniquely capable of physically embodying God’s own glory in their body.

The second chapter examines the narrative of the patriarch Jacob (Israel) and his face-to-face wrestling match with YHWH at the river Jabbok. The third chapter focuses on Moses’ participation in the inauguration of the Mosaic covenant on Mount Sinai and his shining face that reflected the glory and holiness of God. The fourth chapter explores how Moses’ shining face and YHWH’s face became integrated into the messages of the prophets during Israel’s wilderness wanderings. The fifth chapter considers those who met God face to face during the time of the judges of Israel. The sixth chapter explores the myriad ways that God’s face is portrayed in the Psalms, and it looks for development in the way that the Psalms portray YHWH’s face. The seventh chapter considers the role of YHWH’s face as Israel confronted, endured, and hoped amidst exile from the Promised Land.

The eighth chapter marks a major turning point from the Old Testament to the New Testament. It elaborates on what it means to see God in the face of Christ. The ninth chapter focuses on Jesus’ shining presence on the Mount of Transfiguration. The tenth chapter explores the various ways that the shining-face motif impacted the early church as a community of the new covenant. The eleventh chapter demonstrates that the radiating face of Jesus plays a central role in the new heavens and the new earth, where God’s people dwell forever. The final chapter provides a conclusion that highlights some of the major findings of our study.

Together, these chapters span the four contours of the grand biblical narrative: creation, the fall, redemption, and consummation.26

CHAPTER 1

Adam and Eve: Face to Face with God in the Garden of Eden

The importance and nature of God’s people meeting him face to face can only be properly understood when we go back the beginning and the narrative of creation in Genesis 1–2 and the aftermath of the fall in Genesis 4. My chapter is intended to be foundational for the rest of the study that follows. The single thesis of this book is that those who meet God face to face are changed. In the end of this grand biblical story we will see God’s people reflecting his glory and holiness in their face and body. But how is this change possible? This chapter seeks to answer this question by building a theological foundation that establishes humanity as unique and exceptional among all of creation.

It is helpful to pause and observe that certain literary features, such as the repetition of divine names, indicate that Genesis 1–4 is, as a whole, “a book of origins.”1Ian Douglas Wilson even suggests that “divine face” in the Hebrew Bible has its origins in Genesis 3.2 The origin of humanity and the destruction wrought by Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God demonstrates that holiness or sin affects the whole body and is communicated through the face. When God addresses the members of the first human family he demonstrates concern for their internal state as well as their outward expression of their relationship with him.

FACE TO FACE WITH GOD IN THE GARDEN

The introductory scenes of Genesis are characterized by Adam and Eve in the presence of the Lord, enjoying and tending to the garden. The pleasant tone is clear. The very sight of Eve causes Adam to break out into poetry, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23). Before Satan enters the picture, the Bible narrates one last description of this primordial state: Adam and Eve were “both naked and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25). Before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve had an uninterrupted relationship with each other and with God.

This last descriptor of Adam and Eve in their pre-fall state emphasizes that their lack of awareness that they were naked and their freedom from shame about their unclothed bodies. One conclusion to underscore is that their purity before God was expressed through their bodies. They were free from the knowledge of sin and this meant that they embodied holiness. Unfortunately, this state did not last.

Eve’s response to the serpent’s temptation and Adam’s lack of leadership resulted in them both sinning against the Lord by eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After they both ate, the Bible describes a mental or psychological state that consisted of a new state of awareness: “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen. 3:7). This rebellion against God immediately plunged them into spiritual darkness as their freedom from the knowledge of sin dissipated.

The next effect is a response to their internal state of shame: “And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (Gen. 3:7). This external covering of their bodies reflected the shame and knowledge of sin in their minds. Nahum Sarna explains it this way: “The new insight they gain is only the consciousness of their own nakedness, and shame is the consequence.”3

The guilt and shame cause Adam and Eve to hide themselves from the presence (פנים, panim) of the LORD God among the trees of the garden (Gen. 3:8b). The word translated “presence” is the word for face. The context portrays them responding to the “sound of the LORD God walking in the garden” (Gen. 3:8a). Here, YHWH has taken on human form and is apparently walking as a human would in the garden.4 Thus, it is not just his spiritual presence they are hiding from but his physical presence as well—his literal “face.” They can no longer be “face to face” with God. As we trace the thread of this motif through Scripture, we will see that God’s redemptive plan allows his people to once again have this face-to-face intimacy with him.

My conclusion from this narrative in Genesis 2 is that the appearance of a person’s body will correspond to his relationship with God. In a state of pure righteousness, the body and mind is not encumbered by sin or shame and there is no need for clothing. In a state of sin, the body and mind seeks shelter from the view of others and from God himself. Moreover, nakedness is a sign of God’s judgment. The integration of the image of God makes the human body a vessel capable of reflecting righteousness or shame. This is very similar to the conclusion of Gerhard von Rad, “The marvel of man’s bodily appearance is not at all to be expected from the realm of God’s image. This was the original notion.… The whole man was created in God’s image.”5

This integrative view of the image of God and the human body may explain why the Old Testament views the human body as having “psychical significance.”6 This means that every organ in the body has the capacity for spiritual functions because they are a part of the whole. Examples of this would be the heart and kidneys. The kidneys were often described as the heart and mind of a person which could be troubled (Job 19:27; Ps. 73:21).

Theologically, this view of Adam and Eve’s embodiment of a state of righteousness or sin reflects the biblical view of personhood. Genesis unifies the soul and body of those made in the image of God. A biblically robust theology of personhood and identity will not divide soul and body. The early Christian theologian Augustine (AD 354–430) also arrived at the conclusion that intellect and matter, mind and body, “come together in irreducible unity to form the human being.”7 The response to holiness and sin in the body is a reflection of this unity.

The image of God (imago Dei) is integral to the unity of the human constitution. The status of being made in the image of God is what makes Adam and Eve unique among creation. Again, drawing from Augustine we may also conclude that “the image of God is at the core of the identity of the human person.”8 The exercise of dominion over the earth is carried out through the unity of soul and body, of intellect and matter. After the fall into sin, it is the status of being made in the image of God that allows persons to have a consciousness of their nakedness, of sin, and of righteousness.

This discussion naturally raises the question: What happened to the image of God after the fall in the Garden of Eden? This question has been the subject of many theological treatises. Here we may only address it in a short manner.

Martin Luther and Lutherans after him argue that the image of God consisted of righteousness and was therefore completely lost after the fall.9 John Calvin disagreed and saw the image of God as something more holistic, encompassing the natural abilities of the body and the spiritual qualities of original righteousness. Calvin stated, “The whole man was created in God’s image” (Institutes I, xv, 3). For Calvin, it is only the later spiritual qualities that were lost or require renewal. This view comports with the unified perspective of personhood we saw in Augustine’s theology. Whether or not people are made in the image of God today is a “yes or no” question and is not subject to degrees.10 I affirm (yes) that all people are made in the image of God, despite being spiritually dead apart from faith in Christ (Eph. 2:1–5).

Exegetically, this conclusion that all people are made in the image of God is supported by James 3:9: “With it [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.” The Greek word for “likeness” (ὁμοίωσις, homoiōsis) is the same Greek word used in the Septuagint translation of Genesis 1:26. Thus, James makes the argument that the tongue cannot be used to speak in one manner toward God and in another manner toward people, who bear God’s image. Further, Christ himself, is the goal of this renewal of the image of God. Those who are a new creation through faith in Christ, are “putting on the new man which is being continually renewed unto knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Col. 3:10, my translation).

The bodies of Adam and Eve first reflected their purity and righteous state before the Lord. Their bodies responded to their state of righteousness with God by being without clothes. They enjoyed a freedom from shame by being naked and unaware of their condition. They literally embodied holiness. After the fall into sin, the bodies of Adam and Eve are immediately objects to be covered because of their awareness of sin. The embodiment of shame and attempt to cover the body with leaves is just a small window into how sin later affects Adam and Eve’s family. The important conclusion here is that their bodies reflect their relationship with God and they had to hide from his face.

Using some imagination, one writer notes: “How awful it had been to face the Lord God when he had found them! How hard to look him in the face! And yet he has given them clothes to wear.”11

SIN AND GRACE OUTSIDE THE GARDEN

The aftermath of Adam and Eve’s rebellion against the Lord was not only a severed relationship with YHWH