Adam did not need a RAM TOUGH truck

I was talking with a friend about my need for a nicer truck. "You can sell this one, and use the money towards the one you get into next."

The one I get into next. This seems to be a common phrase in the world of car sales. "The rig we can get you into ..."

We humans were meant to be clothed. It is just that the clothes we wear now have nothing to do with who we are. Our current clothing only covers up bodies that no longer radiate glory.

Hence the cliche "clothes make the man" -- because without the external cosmetics of the costume, we really are nothing.

This is why we need trucks that are RAM tough.

Because once you are in the costume of a truck with Ram Toughness, once we get you into that rig, all the associations ram toughness offers -- Powerful, Masculine, the Rugged Outdoors, Cowboy Boots, Those Sorts of Things -- all become you.

Or so you think. This is the endless fascination of clothes. All the world is a stage, and all of our coverings -- clothes, cars, trucks, houses, academic degrees, the book titles we dabble in and the vacations we take -- all of these are clothes we can get into to "make us."

Originally this was not so. Before the fall, Adam and Eve must have been clothed with a visible glory the radiance of which reflected an internal sinless human condition.

Adam did not need to get into a ram tough truck.

Paul referred to our present clothing as a kind of tent, that is, a temporary and movable covering serving the purposes of our dwelling in the world now. A tent is good for what it is, but there is a certain comfort in looking forward to getting into something more permanent. Paul referred to this anticipation as a kind of groaning.

A groaning not so that we can be done with clothing ("not that we would be unclothed"), but rather a groaning so that we can have our original clothes back ("but that we can be further clothed"). This being further clothed must hark back to that original radiance Adam and Eve had as they reflected, without blemish, the image of God.

The glory of God. Now that is the rig of all rigs to get into.

Logos2Go

2 Corinthians 5.1-5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

2 Corinthians 3.10-11 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

2 Corinthians 3.18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.