I know it probably won’t end up being the number-one read ‘post,’ but let’s go back to Genesis 3 and our inherited tendency to blame. This runs deep, and the good news of the gospel is acknowledging our own sin is, while terrifying, also, the smooth path to living in the freedom of forgiveness. Hear an excerpt from Cornelius Plantinga’s devotion on this verse in Beyond Doubt:
“The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate,’…The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.'” Genesis 3:12-13
“At three I had a feeling of
Ambivalence toward my brothers.
And so it follow naturally
I poisoned all my lovers.
But now I’m happy; I have learned
The lesson this has taught;
That everything I do that’s wrong
Is someone else’s fault.
In this folk song, Anna Russell jabs at the no-fault ethics of certain psychiatrists, who have developed an allergy to personal guilt. The allergy has spread…
Deep in our fallenness is the urge to shrug off personal blame. We see it early on in the lineup of figures in the Garden — each pointing a finger at someone else. And we keep on seeing it in the familiar attempt to fix blame on heredity or environment…
Apart from the gospel of Christ, we are tempted to say we have no sin. We are tempted to see ourselves not as sinners but as victims, nto as fallen but frustrated, not as wrong but as misunderstood or underestimated.”
Cornelius Plantinga, Beyond Doubt: Faith-Building Devotions on Questions Christians Ask
