I know I’ve talked about Bosco from the pulpit a lot recently, but having a 16-year-old in our home after being empty-nesters for several years definitely generates a lot of sermon fodder. Today I have to tell you about one of Bosco’s biggest flaws, and it’s easier to talk him about him today because he’s not here to defend himself.
And defend himself he does! Anytime we point out a mistake or something we need him to do differently, he immediately gets defensive and begins firing off blame for why he did what he did.
- We weren’t clear enough about when he should be home.
- The traffic was heavy.
- Too many deer stopped him.
- We set an unrealistic time for him to come home; we should have known better.
Perhaps you can identify with this maddening issue of someone who always blames others for their failings. I know my wife can. In fact, she probably would tell you that Bosco’s biggest flaw is simply a learned behavior – one he picked up from me a bit too quickly. However, I can’t be responsible for his actions. He’s old enough to know better.
Blaming others for our own faults and failures is as old as time. Today we’ll see where it came from. Then we can blame that person for bringing it to our world.
Adam the Good Guy
For the rest of our series we will look chronologically at some Bible heroes, and we must begin with the first hero, the first person to talk directly with God: Adam.
In Genesis 2, the Bible tells about how God created the first human ever.
Genesis 2:7 – Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
How cool is that? Unlike everything God spoke into existence, He actively formed our first ancestor. Genesis 1:27 tells us that Adam was made in God’s own image – in a form that represents God Himself! Then the very breath in his lungs was breathed into him by the breath of God. Adam’s life came from the only source of life: our Creator God! As the first human, Adam is the earliest ancestor for all of us. That’s why the genealogy of Jesus in Luke chapter 3 goes all the way back to Adam, who is called “the son of God.” As God’s creation, made in God’s own image, Adam is given the incredible responsibility of caring for God’s creation and naming it all. Let’s take a look:
Genesis 2:15-20a – The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
As we can see, Adam is a significant part of the story God was writing for this world.
Genesis 2:20b-22 – But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
Unfortunately, Adam is probably better known for what follows in the next chapter than he is for what we have seen so far.
An important key to understanding the story in Genesis 3 is seeing the exact order of what we just read. To summarize:
- God put Adam in the garden.
- God gave Adam one restriction: not to eat of the tree of knowledge.
- God created Eve from Adam’s rib.
The Hiding Blamer
Now let’s move on to the less flattering part of Adam’s story as found chapter 3.
Genesis 3:1-7 – Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Many of us in this room are familiar with this story, and you might think I am going to focus on Adam’s flaw of his first sin, his disobedience of eating the fruit. However, I will save that for another message.
Instead, I want to focus on his response to his sin once he knew he had done wrong. The way Adam responds is exactly how many of us respond to our failures.
Notice that yes, the serpent first spoke to Eve, who ate the fruit; but Adam was right there at her side. This account makes sure to let us know he was there. She didn’t have to take the fruit to him; he was near enough to see where this fruit came from.
And yet, here’s his response:
Genesis 3:8-12 –Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Adam Hides
First, Adam hides from God. His sin brings shame, and the shame causes him to be afraid of God – the same God he used to talk to right there in the garden. More than that, his fear causes him to hide from God.
Is that not a feeling we can all relate to? When we mess up, it’s human nature (AKA “sinful nature”) to want to hide what we did wrong.
- Toddlers can write all over the couch with a marker and cover their hands and faces with said marker, but they know enough to hide the marker under the couch in hopes Mom won’t know who did it.
- When teens smoke cigarettes or weed, they spray the car with air freshener thinking Mom and Dad won’t smell what they were doing.
- Even King David, as we saw several weeks ago, tried to hide his own adultery through a series of maneuvers so that Bathsheba’s husband would think her newly conceived baby was his own.
- And worse, we – as adults – may not have authorities in our lives we have to hide our mistakes from, but when we are making a mess of our lives we often deal with our guilt and our shame exactly as Adam did: by hiding from God.
Many of us know we can never truly hide from God, but that doesn’t keep us from trying. We take a break from church. Or we stop reading our Bibles and praying. When church family friends ask us about life, we give a generic response rather than sharing that we are struggling.
The problem with this flaw – this desire to hide our sin – is that it drives us even further from God. First, the very act of the sin separates us from God. Then, if we fail to confess and repent, our shame causes us to stay away from God.
If you are a Christian, if you have given your life to Jesus, this failure to repent right away won’t take away your salvation. I don’t believe we bounce back and forth over and over from saved to unsaved to saved. But being further from God certainly diminishes the abundant life God wants you to experience. It runs totally counter to the life of ongoing repentance we are all called to live out.
Adam Blames
Second, Adam shirks his responsibility and BLAMES everyone else for his disobedience, beginning with Eve. Remember, God gave the command to Adam. Eve didn’t even exist when the command was given. Adam was right there with her when she picked the fruit from the tree. He could have put a stop to it right away. And yet, he replies to God, “The woman you put here with me. . . .”
“That NASTY woman! It’s her fault, God. Don’t blame me. In fact, YOU put her with me, so I guess this is your fault too!” We can just hear the blame oozing from Adam. Everyone is guilty of this sin BUT him. And yet, in his next breath he admits he knew where the fruit came from: “. . . she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.”
It’s almost comical to watch someone who knows they are in the wrong do everything they can to blame others for their faults.
- When I get pulled over for speeding I blame Michelle for making me late.
- When I forget to pick up groceries on my way home, I blame Michelle for not calling to remind me.
- When I leave the garden hose running all night, I blame Michelle for not waking me up to go turn it off.
- When I forget to send my mom a Mother’s Day card. . . . Well, you can see where this is going.
But here’s the thing: although Adam blames Eve, it doesn’t make him less guilty. In Romans 5:12 Paul writes that “sin entered the world through one man.” Now THAT is blame! And it’s the truth. Ultimately it was Adam who was given the command and it was Adam who disobeyed. And rather than repenting, owning his sin, or apologizing, he hid. He blamed. He tried to get out from under the consequence of his sin.
Application
Hiding and blaming. That’s the story of almost every person in this world. Ever since Adam sinned, we are all born sinners. We all disobey God. We all do wrong things to other people. Sinfulness has become our first nature.
The good news of the Gospel is that God saw this and made a way to restore our brokenness and forgive us of our sin. He offers us HIS righteousness so that when He looks at us He sees the perfection of His Son, Jesus.
Romans 5:17 – For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
All we have to do to receive this abundant grace and eternal life with God is to put our faith in Jesus as our Rescuer and as our Lord. Doing that requires that we take responsibility for our sin. We have to face the fact that we are sinners rather than hiding from God and refusing to think about it. We have to be willing to recognize that we have a sin issue, that we hurt people, that we disobey God’s perfect commands.
We have to stop making excuses, stop saying we are “basically good people,” stop blaming our parents for screwing us up when we were kids, stop saying, “The devil made me do it.”
Everyone received the blame gene from Adam. That’s why so many of us blame everything and everybody for why we are the way we are. Instead, we need to take responsibility for our own actions, recognize the seriousness of the mess we have made, and grab the lifeline God has made available to us.
Following Jesus means our lives have to look more like King David, who repented after his sin, than like Adam, who did not. Adam’s failure led to his banishment from the garden and from God’s presence for the rest of his life.
Blaming other people for our failures is our way of trying to save face. We want to show that we are perfect – strong – good. But we’re not. We are broken. We hurt other people. We do and say evil things. Our only hope for ourselves is that we worship a God who is perfect and strong and good. It seems backward, but there is great freedom in not trying to act perfect but instead admitting to all our faults and failures. God already sees it all anyway. So does everyone who knows you.
If you haven’t ever taken responsibility for your sin, I encourage you today to stop hiding from God, stop blaming others for your mess, and ask Jesus for forgiveness. Tell Him you need His help and that you are ready to follow Him for the rest of your life.
If you make that decision, Jesus will not only forgive your sin, but He will give you the Holy Spirit inside you to help you live a life of victory over sin – still not perfection, but striving for it.
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