Sin Destroys Our Innocence
Last week we read in Genesis 3:7 that when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.”  I believe two things took place in the lives of Adam and Eve at that moment.
First, they experienced guilt and shame for the very first time.
Throughout the scriptures sight and blindness have been used as a metaphor for spiritual sight.  In John 9, Jesus heels the blind man, then says to His disciples, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (v. 5). He was telling His disciples that He is the one who gives spiritual sight and light to the world.
Most scholars agree that Genesis 3:7 is not an indication that Adam and Eve were born physically blind. But there were created in a perfect world, and they were blind to sin, and corruption, and evil. But yet they covered themselves with fig leaves. In the Garden there were no cultural norms to indicate how a person should be dressed. There was no peer pressure to suggest or promote the latest fashion. Adam and Eve were created naked, which is the living example of a childlike innocence, and belonged exclusively to those who knew no evil. Innocence was lost in the Garden, and it was replaced by shame.
Second, they experienced callousness to the things of God.
When they lost their innocence, this passage tells us that Adam and Eve hid from God. They hid from God out of fear that their sin would be exposed, which is “guilt”; and, they hid from God so that they would not be seen naked, which is their lost innocence, or “shame”. The impact of hiding shame from God is that it creates callousness to the things of God.  John 3:20 states,”Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” In other words, in our sin we choose to avoid the Light, which is Jesus Christ, so that our sins are not exposed. In this way, our sin and shame perpetuate, and we are drawn further and further away from the Creator.
How many times have we experienced this in our own lives?  Friends from our congregation fall, in a spiritual sense, and then avoid coming to church out of embarrassment, or shame. Perhaps you have experienced it in your own home, and have children like the prodigal son who have chosen the ways of the world over a life of obedience.
Just as sin destroys our innocence, it also destroys our relationships.