The Bible tells us that someday we will all give an account of ourselves to God.
Rom. 14:12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
In 21st century Christianity, we don’t think about that event very often. However, we should because it is our thoughts and actions of daily life that will be the subject of that accounting. One way to think properly about that event is to have a picture of what it will be like. Genesis provides a picture of what it will be like to answer God by telling us about Adam and Eve facing God after their first sin. Let’s look at Genesis 2 & 3 and see what we should be doing now based on Adam and Eve’s experience.
Genesis 2 tells us that God gave the man a command.
Gen. 2:16-17 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Gen 3 tells us that the man and woman disobeyed.
Gen. 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate
Next, God came to visit. Read about God’s visit and pay attention to the three questions that God asked, particularly the last one.
Gen. 3:8 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.
Gen. 3:9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
Gen. 3:10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
Gen. 3:11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
God very bluntly asked the man if he had eaten from the forbidden tree. Now read Gen 3:6 again, which tells us the true answer to God’s question, then read Gen 3:12 which is the man’s answer to God. How honest was the man?
Gen. 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate
Gen. 3:12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
Some people interpret the man’s answer as the man passing the buck, but I disagree. The truth is that the man was totally honest with God. Everything the man said was completely true. The man ended by admitting that he ate.
Next, Yahweh confronted the woman. Compare the woman’s answer with what actually happened.
Gen. 3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Here again, some believe that Eve is passing the blame, but she also was totally honest. She told it exactly how it happened. She ended by admitting very bluntly that she ate.
The point is that when Adam and Eve were confronted by God, they told the exact truth. As we go through life, we are often tempted to fudge the truth. If the truth is embarrassing or detrimental to us, we might mislead, lie, or leave things out in an attempt to hide the truth. We can often get away with this because we are in situations where the other party doesn’t know the truth. Another thing we are guilty of is denial. If we don’t like the truth about something, we pretend that reality is something different than it really is.
With God, neither of these are possible because He knows everything.
1John 3:20 … for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
When God confronted the man and woman, He focused right away on the tree, and the man and woman had to be totally honest about what had happened because God already knew what had happened.
When we stand before God someday and give an account of ourselves, we will not be able to get away with lies, half truths or denial. We will be face to face with Yahweh, the one and only true God, and we will have to admit the whole truth and the exact truth about our sins and shortcomings because God will already know all of our sins and shortcomings. Since we will have to admit the truth when we stand before God someday, we are better off being honest now. We are better off if we work hard now to tell the truth, to avoid denial, and to view things as they really are.
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“Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.”
