Sin had now entered into the world. This devotional reading looks at what happened next: realization and responses.
Nuggets
- It usually doesn’t take long after we have sinned to realize we have broken God’s laws.
- The man and the woman realized being naked meant than just the physical meaning.
- Sin does bring shame.
- The couple’s solution was to sew fig leaves together so that they could hide from God, but our efforts do not disguise sin.
In the last devotion, Satan got the woman to reevaluate the fruit. The woman made a choice to sin. She gave the man the fruit to eat, but she didn’t force him to eat.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Celebrating Creation’s Story series
Their Eyes Were Opened
At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves” (Gen. 3: 7 NLT)
It usually doesn’t take long after we have sinned to realize we have broken God’s laws.
At that moment refers back to what happened in Genesis 3: 6. “The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too” (Gen. 3: 6 NLT).
The way it is written says that she ate, he ate, and they knew. Boom, boom, boom.
The couple’s eyes were opened together. One wasn’t kept in the dark, while the other knew exactly what they had done.
You know, misery loves company. The misery was immediate.
We don’t see it until after the sin has been committed that, instead of being a good thing, it led to our ruin. And sin always leads to our ruin.
Think about it. Satan always tries to make temptation look like it is a shiny object that we would absolutely love.
It ends up being the most hideous thing possible.
Nakedness
The man and the woman realized being naked meant than just the physical meaning.
Before the sin, their state of undress didn’t matter. After sin, it mattered a great deal.
Their realization of their nakedness was their realization that they had been spiritually separated from God. It was about their moral nakedness.
I doubt they thought beyond to the spiritual meaning. “You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Rev. 3: 17 NLT).
Think about it this way. When God created us, we were naked; but it didn’t bother us.
Sin came into our lives and changed the way we look at ourselves. We don’t like what we see.
And we shouldn’t. We shouldn’t like a sinful us.
But the focus never was supposed to be on what we looked like — except that we looked like God. Our moral nature is more important than our physical nature.
Shame
Sin does bring shame.
It is like Exell said. He wrote, “Sin always brings shame, a shame it deeply feels but cannot hide.”
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Shame changed everything. It especially changed the couple’s relationship. No relationship — from theirs until any other relationship on the Day of the Lord — would ever be the same.
Who else felt shame? Jesus did, on the cross. Even that, He took away from us.
Even more than shame, the sin brought guilt with it. The couple probably spent many a long night berating themselves for caving to temptation.
No, God doesn’t want us doing that, either. He wants us to ask forgiveness, repent, and forget the guilt.
But that brings up the topic of self-reflection and self-evaluation. We need to take stock of our relationships with God. We have to make sure they are where they need to be — before the temptation blindsides us.
I know. How many of us really do that?
Fig Leaves
The couple’s solution was to sew fig leaves together so that they could hide from God, but our efforts do not disguise sin.
I know. In our minds, those wouldn’t cover us up very well. But hey, something is better than nothing, right?
But isn’t that like us? We try to fix things on our own – and end up making things worse because we either try to fix the wrong thing or the wrong way.
Oh, we may fix the surface – and we may think we’ve fixed everything. We haven’t.
Only God can fix the stain of sin. He can only do that when we believe that Jesus died just for that purpose.
Making the Connections #1
We may think that the biting part is the only sin committed by the couple. Watson listed ten sins.
- They didn’t see what God said as truth. It could be they didn’t know what death was, but they maybe didn’t think God would punish them.
- They weren’t thankful for the bountiful food they did have.
- That unthankfulness led to discontent with what they did have.
- Pride played a part because the couple sure weren’t humble. They didn’t depend on God.
- Yes, the couple didn’t obey God that one time, but they would have kept on disobeying Him. That is the way sin works.
- The woman was probably curious to see what knowledge the tree would give her. It did give her knowledge, but it was detrimental to their relationship with God. God wanted to keep this a secret from them for their benefit and wellbeing. They basically said, “God, You don’t get to keep secrets from us.” This one was better off hidden.
- They had access to the fruit from all the other trees, but they couldn’t restrain themselves from eating this fruit. They let their desire get the best of them.
- They disrespected God. They blasphemed Him through utterly destroying the relationship with Him. The tree held nothing good for them, yet they ate from it anyway.
- We might think it strange that murder is on the list, but it isn’t. Because of the original sin, humankind must now experience a physical death. Yes, it may be from disease and accident. Death is only in our world because of the original sin. The couple murdered us.
- The couple presumed they could become gods. Never going to happen. We aren’t even going to become angels when we die. We will get a spiritual body, but we will still be classified as humans.
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Making the Connections #2
Spurgeon told us the sad results of the fall. I read it to say that our focus is bombarded. Our focus on God, which provides peace, is assailed by everything Satan can throw at us.
Why is this? Spurgeon told us. He wrote, “The spiritual hearing became grievously injured, for man naturally no longer hears God’s Word, but stops his ears at his Maker’s voice.”
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Sin stops our hearing God’s Word. If we don’t learn what He says, we don’t know how to act. We become even more vulnerable to Satan’s darts.
Sin stops our discerning of that what is right and what is wrong. We choose to continue in sin.
Making the Connections #3
Why is it so hard to get sin back out of us? I like what Davies said. He wrote, “The mind of man, as disordered, corrupted, and clouded by sin, may well be compared to that confused and rayless obscurity which rested over the face of the abyss. It is enveloped in a thick, impenetrable mantle of ignorance, prejudice, and unconcern.”
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Let’s deal with the last part first. It reminds us of another abyss. “The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (Gen. 1: 2 NLT).
Look at the three words used to describe our condition. The first was disordered.
Darkness. Empty. Chaotic. Yeah, that is what we face before a relationship with Christ.
- “Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins” (Ps. 38: 3 NLT).
- “Therefore, I will wound you! I will bring you to ruin for all your sins” (Mic. 6: 13 NLT).
- “But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, ‘Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you’” (Jn. 5: 14 NLT).
- “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people” (I Cor. 14: 33 NLT).
God corrects all the chaos when we become His children.
Sin does corrupt us.
- “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned” (Rom. 5: 12 NLT).
- “You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil — the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else” (Eph. 2: 2-3 NLT).
- “Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God” (1 Jn. 3: 4 NLT).
- “For I was born a sinner — yes, from the moment my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51: 5 NLT).
First John 3: 4 in the English Standard Version says it a little different way. “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness” (1 Jn. 3: 4 ESV).
Yes, sin is contrary to the law of God. But it isn’t just being the opposite.
The breaking of the law of God is sin. It is a practice — a decision.
The eyes of our hearts — our faith — are clouded by sin. Neither can we see God’s love for us when we are mired in sin, nor can we see it clearly when we do get a glimpse from the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
- “Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him” (Eph. 4: 18 NLT).
- “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” (Isa. 59: 2 NLT).
- “I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.” (Isa. 44: 22 NLT).
Making the Connections #4
We talk a lot about what Adam and Eve lost. What did they gain?
They gained the knowledge that their lives would end. They had to live maybe 5, 6, 700 years knowing they would die. They knew what death was after Cain killed Abel.
I love how Davies called sin a shock to the system. It was sudden, violent, and painful.
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Ooo, baby. That wasn’t a gain.
But the gain was that they knew they could right the relationship with God. No, nowhere in God’s Word are we told that they specifically asked for forgiveness and its being granted.
Instead, we are given the promise of redemption. “And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike[a] your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3: 15 NLT).
We also know that Eve said … “Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, ‘With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!’” (Gen. 4: 1 NLT emphasis added).
Even with all of the bad stuff that came as results of sin, they learned a deeper understanding of the love of God. They learned about lasting love.
We can’t forget that our eyes are opened only because God opens them. He comes down to our souls that have been blackened by sin.
Only God can cut that sin out of us, and it isn’t hard for God. “Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin” (Ps. 51: 2 NLT).
Still, we know there are pitched battles on our behalf with Satan that are hard fought. Satan doesn’t give up willingly.
“Then he [the angel] said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia” (Dan. 10: 12-13 NLT).
There is a remedy. “But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 3: 22 NLT).
But it is only when God moves on the waters that we are created into our new beings. It is only when He works among us that we are purified through sanctification.
Making the Connections #5
Okay I have to process what Strong said. He wrote,
“While he retained the power of self-determination in subordinate things, he lost that freedom which consisted in the power of choosing God as his ultimate aim, and became fettered by a fundamental inclination of his will toward evil. The intuitions of the reason were abnormally obscured, since these intuitions, so far as they are concerned with moral and religious truth, are conditioned upon a right state of the affections; and — as a necessary result of this obscuring of reason — conscience, which, as the moral judiciary of the soul, decides upon the basis of the law given to it by reason, became perverse in its deliverances. Yet this inability to judge or act aright, since it was a moral inability springing ultimately from will, was itself hateful and condemnable.”
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- Even though the first humans choose what was wrong, we are still allowed to chose.
- We have limited God’s power in terms of His relationship with us.
- We are saddled with this evil nature.
- This nature clouds our ability to see God’s truth. “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God” (II Cor. 4: 4 NLT).
Ooo, baby. We like to relegate that verse to non-believers, thinking that it has nothing to do with disciples.
But what were we before we became disciples? Non-believers.
Moral and religious truth was veiled from us. Our reasoning was skewed.
- “There he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth” (Isa. 25: 7 NLT).
- “We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord — who is the Spirit — makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (II Cor. 3: 13-18 NLT).
- “This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6: 19-20 NLT).
- “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water” (Heb. 10: 19-22 NLT).
Ooo, baby. We can bite on ourselves for not understanding God’s Word, but doesn’t this help explain the why?
I told you a long time ago, when I was teaching my Ladies’ Class, that we read things differently because we aren’t the same person as we were the last time we read it. But I think there is something even more at work.
God is slowly pulling the veil back. That is why Pastor Steve and I are always going to the other and saying, “I’ve never seen this before” or “I’ve never read it this way before.”
How Do We Apply This?
- Approach temptation as a child of God instead of as a child of flesh.
- Confront the temptation in virtue.
- Memorize Scripture passages word for word to have handy when we are being tempted.
- Deal with our doubts before they turn into denial.
- Accept we are dead in sin and only repentance and forgiveness will save us.
- Recognize that God does not tolerate sin.
- Giving in to Satan’s temptation brings knowledge of nakedness and shame.
- Satan wants to make sinners as he is – but then, God wants to make us like Him.
- Recognize that sin comes from the corruption of the heart and colors the way we see it.
- Accept that we make poor choices for ourselves.
- Recognize the pull of that which is forbidden to us.
- Recognize that it is our choice to sin, not Satan’s.
- Be content in the place where God has put us.
- Be thankful to God for His unending mercies.
- Open our eyes and our hearts to God’s Truth.
- Don’t be ignorant and apathetic of God’s Word.
- Have an appropriate level of self-love and pride.
- Recognize Satan tempts us through our pleasures and delights.
- Recognize God’s favor.
Resources
What do you think?
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