As noted, Adam was afraid because God’s perfect love – which casts out fear – had departed Adam. This does not mean God stopped loving him. It means that the perfect love was not present in Adam’s heart.
Perfect love is only able to cast out fear because of the relationship involved. When a child goes to a parent during a thunderstorm, they can feel comforted because of the relationship. At times, someone else can try to suffice. A monstrous thunderstorm several years back so terrified a camper at our church camp that her counselor had to take that girl in her arms and rock her to sleep. The child eventually got to sleep, but what might have been a couple minutes in the arms of her parents took longer because – while she sensed the love and care that young lady had – it wasn’t the same as the kind of love her parents had for her.
Adam, too, had Eve, but what comfort was that? That perfect love, that peace that passes understanding, that relation with the God of all comfort, had been damaged. Something had come between Adam and the Creator. Something called sin, which God can’t come in contact with, as God is perfect goodness. If He had come in His full glory, Adam would have been destroyed. This is why, even in His earthly ministry – and those times He appeared as the Angel of the Lord, as a Theophany, in the Old Testament - Jesus Christ, who was, is, and always will be God, had to come veiled in flesh. At His Second Coming, aas Revelation 19 shows, all evil will just melt away.
God wanted to restore that relationship, but Adam had a problem. He knew now that he was naked. The fact that he knew this now showed two things.
First, he was no longer innocent. This has been sovered in depth in the discussion of the last parts of Genesis 2, especially Gen. 2:25. However, it’s interesting that Adam says this without any statement from God about it. God never tells Adam he is naked. Adam not only knows this now, but he turns to his own methods to cover himself. Instead of what God will provide later, he made a leaf to cover himself.
Second, all of this was exposed before a Holy God. He had no need to fear before this, because he had that perfect relationship. Now, he realized he was totally undone. As David said, the Lord knows our thoughts afar off. He knows all about us, and is just waiting for us to recognize our need for Him.
Of course, Adam was still close enough to his innocent state that he realized he was a sinner, in need of God’s saving grace. Later, people willrebel with no concern for what God thinks. Now, however, Adam’s mind is still young, and full of life.
The situation, then, is not unlike a child who has been caught doing something wrong. They must be treated with love, mercy, and forgiveness, as well as with justice that is appropriate for their age. If the parent is too harsh, or doesn’t show love, or does something els ehta twill led that child to be discouraged (Eph. 6:4), there will be very negative consequences. That child may not know they are loved, for instance. Of course, it’s also true that if the parent ignores sin completely, they learn to get away with more. In the same way, God had to correct this. However, He also showed mercy.
