Genesis 3:13. And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
1Taken, with editing, from The Christian’s Daily Companion. Cooke (1788-1868) was then a minister in Belfast and a Presbyterian leader in Ulster.
An unconverted sinner is never found without some ready excuse for his sin, and every excuse has one of three objects. The first object is to satisfy the sinner’s own conscience or, at all events, to silence its accusations; the second is to silence the rebukes of others; and the third is to palliate or justify sin in the sight of God Himself. It is impossible to enumerate all the sources from which those excuses are drawn, but it may be useful to instance a few of the most common – not to suggest them for the use of sinners, but – merely by mentioning them – to demonstrate their futility.
For example, many seek to excuse themselves by admitting their sin but pleading, in palliation, that it is a little one. Others do not plead the littleness of their sin, but argue that they do not often commit it. Others plead their ignorance of the evil of their sin and urge that, whatever has been wrong in their conduct, they did not intend it. Others charge their sin to mere lack of thought, or assert that the temptation took them suddenly and unexpectedly.
Others will plead the imperfection of their natural temper, and pretend to deplore it as weak or ungovernable; while others produce, as a full satisfaction for all that is past, their purpose or determination to amend for the future. But of all excuses the chief is that which shifts the sin from the sinner’s own shoulders and lays the burden of the guilt on another. This was the first excuse, urged in reply to the questioning of God Himself. And, since then, it has been the great model for most excuses for sin.
Before we can fully understand the futility of the excuse, we must examine the circumstances that led to it as a final effort to escape from the accusations of conscience and the judgement of God. Our first parents, while in innocence, had freely conversed with God. But the moment they had sinned, they were smitten by their conscience and they hid from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. From this we discover that the object of every excuse is to hide our sin in some way. “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave unto me, and I did eat.”
Now in this reply it is not obvious whether Adam charges his sin more to the woman or to God Himself. While he says that the woman “gave to him”, he tells the Lord it was the woman whom He had given to be with him. So it would appear that he traces the evil back to God, and charges to His gift the shame and the guilt in which he now stands before his Judge. To this excuse, so frivolous and ungrateful, God does not pause to reply but immediately says to the woman, “What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat”.
The chief thing to be noticed in this excuse is great ignorance of God. To the trees of the garden our first parents had foolishly fled as a hiding-place from the eyes of omniscience; and now they have recourse to anything but the true account, hoping to evade His searching, yet merciful, examination. They do not confess to God that, in the midst of His bountiful profusion, they had coveted the only gift He had withheld; they do not tell Him that a little food had tempted them to disregard His authority; they do not tell Him they were discontented with their state of blissful innocence and happy communion with Him; they do not tell Him that, moved by ambition, they had sought to escape from the rank of subjects and claim an equality with their Creator. But, concealing these things in their bosoms, they answer as if God could find out no more than they are pleased to reveal.
But ignorance of God’s omniscience is not the only remarkable matter; there appears an equal ignorance of His mercy and His grace. To flee, to hide, to evade, to deceive are the objects of their every act and answer; but not a word of sorrow, not a prayer for pardon is heard from the lips of these sinners. How wonderful that one simple act of sin, within a period so obviously brief, could have produced a transformation of character so sad and so degrading!
But we need not wonder at this; the natural world can illustrate the process. One single cloud can obscure the sun; one single injury to the eye can render its glories invisible – so one single sin interposing between God and the soul becomes as a cloud which the light of His favour cannot penetrate, and it totally deprives us of that purity of heart without which no man can see the Lord.
Let us learn then the utter vanity of every excuse for sin. The ingenuity of our first parents was unsuccessful. Most probably they were unsuccessful in satisfying themselves; it is certain they were unsuccessful in satisfying God. Let us learn also the danger of abiding in the way of temptation – of standing in the way of sinners, of walking in the counsel of the ungodly, or sitting in the seat of the scoffer. Let us beware of the shallow selfishness that would lay down our guilt at the door of our neighbour. It is certain that we may be tempted by others, and theirs is the guilt of the temptation, for which they must give account to God. But ours is the guilt of compliance, and for this we must likewise give account.
Instead then of excusing our sins, let us confess our sins and flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. Though we have sinned, there is an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us in His blood from all unrighteousness.