HIS TOUCH OF HOPE
Copyright 2006 Elizabeth Burgard Fulgaro

                                     clothed in christ

All of us have times when we clearly recognize how vulnerable and powerless we are without
God.  The realization of our innate incompetence may make us feel as if we are naked and
exposed.  Initially, we may be ashamed and even want to hide from God.

That’s how it was for Adam and Eve.  Before they ate fruit from the forbidden tree they were
unaware of their nakedness.  After they sinned, immediately they realized it and it embarrassed
them so they sewed coverings for themselves hurriedly from fig leaves.

We are the only ones in God’s creation who need clothing.  Animals have fur or hair; birds have
feathers; fish have scales.  Each has the exact covering they need to live in the environment into
which they are born. We are born naked – without the physical covering we need. In many
climates, if a covering or shelter is not provided, we will die.

Since everything which occurs in the visible, natural realm is symbolic for God’s way in the
invisible, supernatural, perhaps our physical need for a covering is representative that we
require a spiritual covering as well.

Adam and Eve suddenly realized their physical nakedness the moment they disobeyed God,
because when they followed their own will instead of His, they walked out from under the divine
covering God had provided since creation. Suddenly on their own, they knew they were naked:
incapable, unprotected and vulnerable.  

Like Adam and Eve, we are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. But we are not
God.  We are the created, not the Creator.  Without the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us we
can do NOTHING.  We are naked spiritually and need to be clothed.

This realization initially may embarrass us and make us want to hide because it takes us by
surprise.  Most of us begin by thinking we are something.  We may fear that God will notice our
nakedness and reject us.  But this is ridiculous.  Our need for His covering is not news to God.  He
has always known we are naked without Him.  He created us this way.  He knows we require His
garment to cover us.  He is waiting for us to figure it out as well.

God has always loved us despite our innate inability to do anything on our own.  The Bible tells us
we can only love God because He first loved us, not vice-versa.  God desires to clothe us
spiritually with Himself, if only we will recognize our nakedness – our fundamental need for His
power in our lives.  

Even when God cast them out of paradise, God still loved Adam and Eve so much He clothed
them better than they could clothe themselves.  They had sewn garments of fig leaves.  God
made them garments of animal skins. As a consequence of disobeying they could no longer live
in paradise under God’s perfect covering, but God provided for them anyway.

How much more will the Lord clothe those of us who seek to live in His will?  The Bible tells us that
as believers we are clothed in Christ.  Webster’s third definition of “to be clothed” is to “cover
over as if with a garment; provide or equip”.  Thus to be clothed in Christ is to be equipped
(clothed) in gifts of Himself so that we have what we need to fulfill our purposes on earth AND
enter eternity with Him.

God knows we are capable of nothing on our own and He uses this truth to reveal Himself to
others through us.  God clothes us in the “garment” of Himself (His character and power) instead
of our own.  His salvation worked out for us, not our own.

Then when the world looks at us, they see the supernatural God at work in our lives instead of
human effort.  Once others have encountered the power of the unseen God in us, they in turn,
can better recognize their own nakedness, seek God, become believers and become clothed by
Him as well.  This is the way God expands His kingdom anew and when we believe and are
thereby clothed in Him our lives have purpose for we are blessed to be part of His plan.

Oh Lord, thank you for clothing us in our nakedness! Thank you for loving us as we are.  Lord
God, our only wish is to remain clothed by You and in You!

Gen.1:25
25God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their
kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And
God saw that it was good.

John 15:5
5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear
much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Gen. 3:2-11,17-21
2The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but
God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden,
and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
4"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5"For God knows that when
you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil."
6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the
eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave
some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them
were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together
and made coverings for themselves.
8Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in
the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees
of the garden. 9But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I
hid."
11And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree
that I commanded you not to eat from?"

17To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about
which I commanded you, `You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life. 18It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field. 19By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."
20Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.


Isa. 64:6
6All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

1 John 5:19
19We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control
of the evil one.

Isa. 61:10
10I delight greatly in the LORD;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Zech. 3:1-7
31Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the
LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. 2The LORD said to
Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem,
rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?"
3Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4The angel
said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes."
Then he said to Joshua, "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments
on you."
5Then I said, "Put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his
head and clothed him, while the angel of the LORD stood by.
6The angel of the LORD gave this charge to Joshua: 7"This is what the LORD
Almighty says: `If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will
govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these
standing here.

Gal.3:22-27
22But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what
was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who
believe.
23Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith
should be revealed. 24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might
be justified by faith. 25Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the
supervision of the law.
26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were
baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
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Elizabeth  Fulgaro
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