Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but 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.’ ”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When 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.
Genesis 3:1-6 NIV
That was mankind’s initial rebellion, which we’ve been reenacting ever since. Satan had tapped into a paradox in human nature: we crave power beyond what we can actually handle. God created us with the abilities we need to manage the earth as his stewards. But we’re not able to do it on our own; we need God’s wisdom. Satan cultivated and then took advantage of our desire to “play God” and take control on our own, outside the boundaries of God’s will. That human longing for control, “playing God”, is at the heart of the worst forms of evil that history has recorded. It’s a symptom of pride, a primary source of sin.
Nearly everything the serpent told Eve was a lie. First, God hadn’t said not to eat from any of the trees in the garden. Second, the serpent said Eve would not die, and even though she didn’t experience physical death immediately, this was also a lie. And finally, Eve would not be “like God”, and Adam and Eve wouldn’t just know about evil, they would experience its full force. So would their descendants.
The serpent implied that thumbing your nose at God was an option, and that wasn’t a lie. Before they yielded to the serpent’s temptation, God was making wise decisions about what was good and what was evil. Adam and Eve’s wills were naturally aligned with God’s. After the fall, mankind would be making decisions about those things on their own, and our will was free to wander into the weeds.
Then 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. Then 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.
Genesis 3:7-8 NIV
Adam and Eve didn’t drop dead physically on the spot. Physical death would come later, but most theologians believe that Adam and Eve did immediately experience spiritual death. Genesis 2:7 tells us that God “breathed into Adam the breath of life; and man became a living soul”. Some part of mankind’s soul died that day.
The passage says their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked. The term naked could be a metaphor that represents everything they experienced at that moment. They realized they had been deceived, and they may have realized that they had just unleashed unspeakable evil on the world. They knew they were now exposed, vulnerable, and unprotected in a suddenly dangerous world. They didn’t know what the future held for them, and they felt fear for the first time.
Scripture tells us that before they disobeyed, “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” (Genesis 2:25 NIV) Now, they had defied God and had something to feel shame about. They were no longer innocent and they didn’t want to face God. Their immediate reaction was to hide, starting with hiding their bodies. Isaiah had the same reaction when he saw a vision of God. I think he knew he wasn’t worthy of that honor.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
Isaiah 6:5 NIV
Revelation has clues about what their nakedness really signifies:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. … I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”
Revelation 3:15-18 ESV
This passage in Revelation is talking about works, not physical nakedness. The “shame of their nakedness” relates to how they are living, not just to their bodies. The clothing they needed to buy from God was white garments, which represent righteousness.