Matthew 25:35–40: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.”

Remember, this is part of my series as I explore this passage and reflect on the fact that Jesus Christ actually did all those things—for us.

Of course, I am not ignorant of the fact that this is not the immediate sense of the passage. The immediate sense is about Jesus Christ coming at the end of time and making a judgment between peoples. But it is striking to see it this way: we were hungry, and he gave us food. We were thirsty, and he gave us drink. We were strangers, and he invited us in. (That was my focus yesterday.) And we were naked, and he gave us clothing.

Look at what happened in the Garden of Eden. What happened to Eve? What happened to Adam? Nakedness. In a way, sin and the consequences of sin became typified by that picture of nakedness. Their eyes were opened. They entered into a new consciousness. Even though outwardly they were standing in the same place, spiritually they had moved—from a place of being under God’s favor to a place of being under his disfavor; from a place of life to a place of death.

God had said, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.” (echoing Genesis 2:17 NET) From a place of life, they suffered spiritual death, because God is the source of life. They cut themselves off from him and went into the camp of the enemy.

Nakedness, then, became a picture of everything that is wrong between humanity and God. We were naked, exposed, standing in a place of shame, a place of disfavor. That is why we speak of “the fall.” We cannot fully grasp it in our minds—what it means to fall from the perfection of unbroken connection with God to a place where you are suddenly trying to cut leaves for yourself, trying to cover yourself with fig leaves, to make up for what you have just lost—something that cannot be made up for by human effort.

Into that situation Christ speaks: “What was lost in the Garden of Eden, I am the makeup for it. I am the one who will bring you back into relationship with God.”

Look also at the Book of Revelation: “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:14 NET) He is the one who restores us to relationship with God, who reconnects us to God. Whatever was lost, he is the solution.

As Paul explains, “So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned…” and “through the obedience of the one man many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:12, 19 NET) Through one man, sin entered the world; through another Man, we receive the gift of righteousness.

We become clothed with his righteousness. That is the truth. We are no longer spiritually naked, desperately trying to cover ourselves. We have restoration. We have the reality of being brought back into relationship with God.

“And he made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NET) Our status has changed. We are no longer bearers of sin, because sin is incompatible with the presence of God. Christ bore our sin on the tree so that we can be freed from sin. The written code of indictment against us was nailed to the cross. Now we walk free, because we receive his righteousness as a gift.

That is the truth. God bless you.