Sin's affects: not much has changed

 

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:8

Sin destroys relationships. It damages our capacity for intimacy and companionship. It makes us aware of our differences and forces us into relational hiding. This is clearly shown in the sin of Adam and Eve at the Fall of humanity. Immediately upon giving in to the serpent's lying temptation and eating the forbidden fruit the consequences of sinful guilt come storming upon them. They were uncomfortable with themselves and hid their differences from one another with fig leaf underwear. It didn't help their sudden loss of intimacy but only made things worse as they hid from each other first.

And then guilt led them to try to hide from God behind the cover of garden trees and bushes. Of course, both efforts at relational hiding failed spectacularly. Sin is a cruel failure experience at all levels. It promises so much. It leaves us so crippled. It damages the human heart from the inside while taking extreme external measures of personal protection that briefly fool us into thinking we've got sin covered.

As sin did in Adam, so it also works in me. The Puritans used to teach their children: "In Adam's fall, we sinned all." And unconfessed sin is a guilt-inducing, soul-debilitating personal obsession that keeps me from knowing the joy of relationships with God and with people. When I "remake" myself, driven by guilt, and try to hide my sin from God or others, I hurt God and other people just as Adam and Eve did in the very first sin. They only had trees and fig leaves as hiding tools. I have a much more sophisticated toolbox of choices to utilize for hiding my sin, given thousands of years of help from sin's history as it has warped humanity! But in the end I'm just strapping on another fig leaf. The first step in dealing with sin is coming out from the bushes and letting God confront me in confession.