February 6, 2009

The Knowledge of Good and Evil Manifested in Self-Righteousness

“Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where [are] you?’ So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you [were] naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?’ Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave [to be] with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ And the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What [is] this you have done?’ The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” (Genesis 3:9-13 NKJV)

Adam, in his own mind, became his own judge in a sense. He gained the knowledge of good and evil and he destroyed his ability to commune and submit to God. His newly gained depravity made it impossible for him to judge himself accurately.

Adam reveals this by his blame shifting. God asked Adam a direct question, and Adam passes the blame off on God. He does that by implicating his wife in the crime, and including God as the ultimate source of evil by saying, “The woman You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

Listen, James makes it clear when we sin it is our fault. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” (James 1:13-14 NKJV)

This blame shifting is just a way to avoid the truth, which is, if you sin you will die. Isn’t that the truth the serpent twisted? He said to Eve, “You will not surely die.” However, they did die. It doesn’t matter how deep a person sticks his/her head in the sand, the truth is still the truth.

Be careful about passing the blame for your sin off on others or circumstances. Don’t do what Adam did. Don’t blame-shift. Don’t seek your own righteousness, but seek the righteousness of Christ. Seek to have His righteousness imputed to you by faith.

Your mind has been wrecked by sin. Don’t lean on your own understanding, but believe what God has said in His Word. Turn from your sin and cling to the Savior. If you don’t, God’s Word says you will have to suffer the consequences of Hell. In that horrible, never-ending torture, all your self-righteousness will mean nothing, and bring you no comfort. Confess your sins now and be saved. Amen.