What Have You Done?

It’s easy enough as parents to ask our children when they do something wrong, “What have you done?” It’s a simple, straightforward question that parents ask, even when they often know the answer. The question isn’t asked because we really need to know what they did – it’s asked to see if they understand what they did. To allow parents the opportunity to work on correction.

God asked a similar question of Eve in Genesis 3:13. He entered into the garden and was looking for Adam and Eve as He had done in the past. Unlike previous times though, He couldn’t find them. Adam and Eve were hiding. Adam came out first, admitting to hiding and quickly began explaining it away: they were naked and ashamed.

Unable or unwilling to admit why, he quickly blamed Eve for their situation. God then turns to Eve and asks the question, “What have you done?” (Genesis 3:8-13)

Placing Blame

It’s easy for us to pass the buck and place blame on others. Our kids do it and we do it too. We justify speeding by blaming the alarm that didn’t go off, the kids that held us up, or the traffic that was going to make us late. We try to explain our yelling by saying if the other person wouldn’t make us mad, we wouldn’t lose our temper. And we rationalize away our failures, shortcomings, and mistakes by placing blame outside of ourselves instead of owning up to the fact that we could have done better. Instead of correcting ourselves, we attempt to make others responsible for our poor actions and choices. We blame our reactions on their actions. It makes us feel better, less responsible somehow.

So it’s easy to understand how Adam first blamed his wife. Caught in his own sin and exposed in front of God, he was looking for an out and Eve was an easy one. In his own mind, Eve picked the fruit and gave it to him, and she was at fault. Adam wasn’t owning up to the fact that he chose to take that bite.

Likewise, Eve was quick to place the blame on the serpent. She claimed that the serpent “beguiled her (Genesis 3:13) ” or deceived her, and while the serpent did cause her to doubt and encouraged her to take that bite, she alone made the decision to eat of the forbidden fruit.

Would You Have Really Done Any Differently?

Centuries later, it’s easy to sit here in our modern world and think “they sure messed up.” It’s one of the most well known Biblical stories and one that is taught from an early age. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and caused the fall of all mankind. They broke the perfectness that God created and caused us all to live in this sinful world. It’s easy for us to justify our own shortcomings by placing the blame on Adam and Eve.

But the reality is, you and I, we wouldn’t have done any differently.

Romans 3:23 makes it clear that all have sinned. Jesus taught this in John 8 when the Pharisees brought Him a woman accused of adultery and they asked Jesus what they should do with her. The Law clearly stated stoning, and the Pharisees appeared to have no problem with this. Jesus, however, replied to them with a challenge of sorts when He states, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. (John 8:7)” Jesus wasn’t condoning her sin, rather He was emphasizing that each and every person who was quick to condemn this woman was also guilty under that same Law. After the crowd left and the scene was over, Jesus told the woman to “go, and sin no more. (John 8:11).”

Jesus didn’t excuse her sin, just as God doesn’t excuse ours. Instead, Jesus forgave her and instructed her to do better.

What Have You Done?

If you or I had been in the garden I am convinced that the story would have played out the same. We see the shortcomings of mankind all throughout the Bible and all around us every day. Big or small, we all sin daily as we attempt to get through life. As we work to balance lives and work and various commitments, even the most devout followers mess up.

Yet we don’t need to live stuck in that. Just as Romans makes it clear that all have sinned, and that the wages of that sin is death (Romans 6:23), we can have life and forgiveness as well (1John 1:9). Regardless of the life that you have lived up to this point, Jesus came not to condemn you but to save you (John 3:17) and to bridge the gap that mankind created back in the garden. To offer the payment for your sins and shortcomings and give you the opportunity to have a relationship with God that was created and intended back in the garden.

What have you done? It’s a simple enough question, one that has been asked almost since the beginning. And just like we expect our children to give us honest answers, just like we want them to take ownership, God is asking only the same thing and waiting for us to take ownership as well.