“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. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:8-9)
After Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit in disobedience to the Lord’s command, they knew they had to hide from Him. They covered themselves with fig leaves but still felt guilt and shame. Human efforts to cover sin with our own means and our works are utterly ineffective and useless. The sin of Adam and Eve had broken their fellowship with God. Now they were afraid of Him and felt they could no longer trust Him. Consequently, when the Lord confronted them neither of them took responsibility for their sin. Adam blamed Eve and, by implication, God, because God had given her to him. Yet he could not blame her for fooling him because he should have known better. Similarly, Eve tried to shift the blame to the serpent, the devil. In doing so she admitted that she had disobeyed but claimed she had an excuse.
All of us sin. All of us think we know better than God when it comes to running our lives. And so, when we sin, we too try to shift blame as Adam and Eve did. We refuse to admit our guilt or claim some sort of excuse. But explanations and excuses do not remove the guilt. God’s Law condemns without exception, or excuse. There are no special circumstances that God allows us to claim to circumvent His Law. We are guilty.
This is why God promised to send a Savior. The Messiah would come and receive a severe wound. Yet that Messiah would conquer Satan the evil one decisively. Jesus is that promised Messiah who came to make us right with God, to restore us to Eden and into full fellowship with Almighty God. Now we no longer need to be afraid of God. Now by faith, we can trust in His promise of eternal life through the body and blood of Jesus.