They
say confession is good for the soul. However,
one of the hardest things to do is confess when we have done something wrong.
Why
is confession so difficult, and yet, so beneficial? In God’s reaction to Adam and Eve’s sin the
necessity, as well as the beauty and honesty of confession are revealed to us. If God were interested solely in judgment, as
many seem to think, then there never would have been a conversation between the
first human beings and God. God could
simply have wiped them out. We see
however, a very different response from a God who is so often described as
vengeful. Rather than destroying
humanity, God speaks to them. By opening
a dialogue with His wayward creation, God attempts to bring them around to an understanding
of the truth. In His justice God asks
questions, even though He already knows the answers. By asking the question, God gives Adam and
Eve the opportunity to confess their sins.
If God were only concerned with punishment, He has what He needs to
proceed. Fortunately, God is not
interested in punishment for vengeance sake, but rather is wants to see
humanity learn from their mistakes. So,
what lessons are there to learn?
They
learned that you cannot run from God. They
had hidden their nakedness from each other, and then they tried to hide it from
God. Despite Adam and Eve’s failed
attempt at flight, humanity has continued to believe that we can flee to a
place where God’s gaze does not fall. Adam
and Eve are just the first of many who try to escape God’s judgment. Jonah tried to run from God, and found
himself in the belly of a whale. While
our stories are probably not as spectacular, we have all had the same
experience. At some point in our life,
we have run and found ourselves in the belly of our own “whale”. Maybe you ran from an addiction, only to wake
up on a bathroom floor, with no recollection of what happened the night
before. Maybe you ran from marital
problems, only to find yourself opening the envelope containing divorce
papers. Maybe you ran from work and
responsibility, only to discover a life empty of meaning or fulfillment. We have all run from something, and eventually
we will all reach that point when we have to stop running. Running does not solve our problems; it just
creates more of them. By running, Adam
and Eve have taken the joy of communion with God, and transformed it into
something to be feared. By hiding, and
then lying, Adam and Eve have been shown to more closely resemble the serpent
than God. “I was
afraid” (v. 10), is an answer we will also hear from Abraham (20:11) and Isaac
(26:9). It shows fear, or a lack of
trust in God, which can quickly result in sin.
The dominance of the first-person pronoun is telling, “I heard…, I was
afraid…, I was naked; I hid…, I ate…, I ate.” Their responses show a
self-absorption that is abandoned only when the conversation turns to fixing
blame, and accepting responsibility.
Adam blames the woman that God gave him, implicitly attempting to shift
responsibility back toward God. Eve
blames the serpent. Everyone blames
someone else, no one learns anything from the experience, and the cycle seems
destined to repeat itself.
Seeing
all of this, one begins to wonder. Why
didn’t God just wipe them out? We know
that God does wipe out most of humanity with a flood, but even then He saves a
remnant whose only merits seem to be that they are less imperfect than their contemporaries. Adam and ever learn there will be judgment
and consequences. The process of bearing
children becomes a painful one. The ground
that Adam was supposed to rule over, now rules over him, to the extent that it
will eventually consume him in death. The
two who once ruled as one, Adam and Eve, now try to rule over each other. They are even forced to leave their home, Eden. Around the black clouds of God’s judgment: pain,
hard labor, exile, and eventually death, there are silver-linings to be
discerned. The pain of childbirth demonstrates that God
has not removed procreation from human possibility. Progeny is a means of grace. When writing to Timothy, Paul refers to women
saying, “Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with
self-control.” (I Timothy 2:15) If
we correctly interpret the story of humanity’s fall, and discern the grace
present in God’s judgment, we see that Paul is highlighting the special role
women play as a conduit of that grace. Even
death becomes both a blessing and a curse.
It renders all our physical efforts in vain, but it also provides an
escape from futility, and opens the way for salvation that extends beyond the
grave. God cannot allow man to live
forever in their fallen state, and for that reason in the words of Bruce K.
Waltke, “death is both a judgment, and a release.” Theologian Walter Brueggemann sums up God’s
approach in a way that is concise, and that also looks forward to the story
that will continue to unfold: “With the sentence given, God does for the couple
what they cannot do for themselves. They
cannot deal with their shame. But God
can, will, and does.”
When
we view the story in this light, we see that God is gracious, even in his
judgment. The miracle is not in the fact
that they are punished, but that they live.
Paul would sum it up in Romans by saying that by one man came death, but
life comes from God. (Romans 5:12) God opens the door to humanity’s further
existence, and even provides for them.
When we understand how God is acting in the story to bring about
redemption we see death itself as an escape, which allows for God’s granting of
eternal salvation. Humanity has learned,
even if we sometime forget, that there is wisdom in God’s commandments. God does not just make rules to be a kill-joy.
God’s rule is in our best-interest. When
we are motivated by selfishness and rebel against God’s reign in our life, sin
is sure to follow.
If
the story ended there, it would not be a happy one. Thankfully, God is not finished. God’s relentless love leads Him to fight to
bring humanity back into a relationship with Him. Just as things went so horribly wrong because
of the actions of one man (with a little help from his wife), God will also
make things wonderfully right through one man, a man like no other. I leave you with the words of Paul, written
to the church in Rome:
“Therefore,
just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so
death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world
before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like
the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
But
the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's
trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of
that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the
result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought
condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought
justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through
that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free
gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Therefore,
as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness
leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's
disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many
will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where
sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death,
grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.” - Romans 5:12-21
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