It's All Your Fault!

Genesis 3:8-13

⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

In the verse before our passage (v. 7), we read that the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened and so they sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, which they were never aware of prior to their disobedience. Instead of living in complete innocence, they now had to rely on their conscience to distinguish between good and evil. While it can be stated that any act of disobedience towards God is dishonoring to Him, look how God responds: verse 8 displays Him walking alongside of them as He did before their disobedience, displaying His goodness, kindness, and love. Despite their disobedience, God still walked beside them as their Shepherd and made mankind's mortality a blessing because of sin's curse (Gen. 3:22-23; Matt. 24:22; Mark 13:20). Thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ who, by living a sinless life and dying an atoning death, broke sin's power over His children; the effects of sin end when His children depart from this life on earth and eternally dwell in His divine presence.

Regardless of the sins that you have committed and those sins that are still in the future, can you not say that God's grace covers you in order that you would repent and press on toward holy living (Rom. 5:20-21)? 1 John 1:9 confirms that if you confess your sins to Him, God will forgive you because He is faithful and just. This statement holds true for both Christians and those who have yet to embrace Christ. Even though God loves you very much, He also holds you accountable for your choices. In Gen. 3:9, God calls out to Adam, not because He didn’t know where he was, but because He wanted Adam to explain for himself why he was hiding. Verse 11 shows God giving Adam an opportunity to confess what he did, but he remained reluctant to do so. Repentance is the issue at heart: where there is no repentance, there is judgment; where there is repentance, there is also forgiveness. After Adam chooses to not repent, he immediately chooses to blame God for giving him Eve (Gen. 3:12). Even though the serpent was deceptive, Adam already knew that He was to not eat from the tree of knowledge. Likewise, when God asks Eve what she has done, she immediately blames the serpent who supposedly deceived her. Like Adam, she also knew prior to not eat from this specific tree. Both individuals chose to not take responsibility for their decisions, which only highlighted their sinful ways and their disobedience toward God.

Considering this “blame game” that Adam and Eve started in Eden, we should be able to honestly think to ourselves and realize that we have done the same thing at some point if not many times in our lives. It seems that when a person is confronted with the truth, it is natural to point to something else as the reason for any shortcomings. Let us be reminded of Rom. 8:1, which states that there is “…no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Therefore, when we are in the wrong and another brother or sister in Christ confronts us with the truth in love, let us embrace this as a gentle rebuke and repent, in order that Christ might be glorified.

Especially with His promise made in Gen. 3:15, may the story of Adam and Eve serve as a reminder that God’s intentions are pure and holy when chastisement comes down our path. While it is up to us to assume responsibility for our own sinful actions, we must also look to God who cheers us on toward a life that resembles His own Son, Jesus Christ.

“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (2 Thess. 2:16-17), Amen.