“But the LORD God called to the man, Where are you?
He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid. And he said, Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, The woman you put here with me— she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. Then the LORD God said to the woman, What is this you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Genesis 3 : 9 -13 (New International Version – UK)
“Observe the startling question, Adam, where art thou? Those who by sin go astray from God, should seriously consider where they are; they are afar off from all good, in the midst of their enemies, in bondage to Satan, and in the high road to utter ruin.
This lost sheep had wandered without end, if the good Shepherd had not sought after him, and told him, that where he was straying he could not be either happy or easy. If sinners will but consider where they are, they will not rest till they return to God. It is the common fault and folly of those that have done ill, when questioned about it, to acknowledge only that which is so manifest that they cannot deny it.
Like Adam, we have reason to be afraid of approaching to God, if we are not covered and clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Sin appears most plainly in the glass of the commandment, therefore God set it before Adam; and in it we should see our faces. But instead of acknowledging the sin in its full extent, and taking shame to themselves, Adam and Eve excuse the sin, and lay the shame and blame on others.
There is a strange proneness in those that are tempted, to say, they are tempted of God; as if our abuse of God’s gifts would excuse our breaking God’s laws. Those who are willing to take the pleasure and profit of sin, are backward to take the blame and shame of it.
Learn hence, that Satan’s temptations are all beguilings; his arguments are all deceits; his allurements are all cheats; when he speaks fair, believe him not.
It is by the deceitfulness of sin the heart is hardened. See Romans 7:11; Hebrews 3:13.
But though Satan’s subtlety may draw us into sin, yet it will not justify us in sin. Though he is the tempter, we are the sinners. Let it not lessen our sorrow for sin, that we were beguiled into it; but let it increase our self-indignation, that we should suffer ourselves to be deceived by a known cheat, and a sworn enemy, who would destroy our souls.”#
#Taken From Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary.
