‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.’ (Romans 5:12)

Whose fault is all this? Why is everything so horrible? Why do neighbors and families fight, why are there wars, and corruption, why do we suffer so?

Surely, it must be God’s fault, right? He made all this, didn’t he?

Actually, shifting the blame was part of the original sin. The bible clearly reveals that sin entered the world via man. ‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world…‘

Ah, but who made man? Surely God knew man would sin, so its ultimately his fault, right?

When God confronted Adam about his sin, Adam’s response is quite interesting. In fact, its easy to see that we’ve unwittingly inherrited his perspective:

‘And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?’

Now Adam does something here that all mankind relates to, he blames everyone he can think of EXCEPT HIMSELF:

‘And he said, THE WOMAN whom THOU GAVEST to be with me SHE gave me of the tree and I did eat.’

Wow, that’s impressive Adam, you managed to blame your wife TWICE, and God once before admitting that you disobeyed God… which was the question you were asked.

Now, God doesn’t make a big deal out of this though Adam actually blamed HIM for his own sin: ‘the woman that YOU gave me…’

Wait, who disobeyed though? And who was put in charge?

Let’s take a step back, and see:

Gen. 2:15-17

‘And the Lord God took THE MAN and put HIM into the gardenof Eden to dress it and to keep it.

And the Lord God commanded THE MAN, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’

Interestingly it is not until the NEXT verse that God even decides to create the woman.

God had made man, and put him in charge OF THE ENTIRE CREATED UNIVERSE, He then gave man ONE commandment before the woman arrived. The only way she knew it was wrong to eat of the tree to begin with is that Adam told her about it. He was the one who had been commanded by God, yet Adam blamed the woman, AND God when he, himself disobeyed.

But… its ultimately God who created the woman that led Adam astray though, right? That certainly was the logic of self-justification in the original sin.

Well how about the woman? God asks her if she disobeyed… bear in mind, now she only disobeyed Adam’s word, as far as we knoe she hadn’t heard the command from God herself as he had.

‘And the Lord God said unto the woman, What hast thou done? And the woman said, THE SERPENT beguiled me, and I did eat.’ (Gen. 3:13)

Wow! Is it just me, or did the woman do exactly the same thing her husband had just done? Well, yes I sinned, but really its someone else’s fault! In fact, they didn’t even admit to their sin FIRST, the first thing they did was blame, then, only after accusing someone else did they admit that they sinned.

‘Wherefore, as BY ONE MAN sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.’ (Romans 5:12)

Where does evil come from? Is it God’s fault? No, God forbad evil; had God been standing next to Adam as He did later when He came to find him in the cool of the day, the sin would surely not have occurred. Adam, of his own autonomy – granted him by God – wittingly did wrong.

What of the serpent? Did the devil create evil?

On problem with blaming the devil is that we are still ultimately blaming God. Who made the devil? See, again, if we follow the logic of self-justification its God’s fault.

The man, and the woman sought to justify themselves, wherefore they tried to put he blame on someone – anyone – else.

We do the same today, but the fact is God doesn’t hold the devil responsible for all the evil in the world. he hadn’t put the devil in charge of His creation. Who does God hold responsible for the evil in the world? Man. He’s jus4 in holding man accountable, He created us to rule over the created universe, he gave us authority and told us to have dominion over the earth (Gen 1:28), but we use our dominion as Adam did: to disobey.

‘From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, EVEN OF YOUR OWN LUSTS that war within your members? Ye lust and have not: ye kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain…’ (James 4: 1,2)

YOU, and I are to blame. Who created evil? We like to feel hopeless against it because very often oppression is made which we are subject to, but that oppression is made by other sinful men in the world, and in scripture we are told not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil wth good (Rom 12:21). Man created evil, not God. Satan is not the master of wickedness, man is. (See, also posts: Is Sin a Disease, or a Crime?)

‘Wherefore, AS BY one MAN sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.’ (Romans 5:12)

But wait a minute, that’s not fair! ADAM sinned, and now, somehow its MY FAULT?! Do you see how automatically we arrive at these ‘blame someone else’ self-justifying arguments?

Have you sinned? Did God equip you with a conscience? Yes is the answer to both of those questions. Don’t blame someone else, don’t blame Adam, don’t blame Eve, don’t blame the devil all that is self-justification: the carnal logic of the sinner who hopes not to be punished.

Thankfully, God is merciful, just and good! Did you know that God, Himself seeks to justify you?

Despite the fact that we have destroyed His creation with our wickedness, lust and carnality, despite the horrible condition that our fellow humans are born into because of man’s wickedness, yet God’s desire is to justify us.

He cannot justify us if we are busy trying to justify ourselves, but if we throw ourselves on the mercy of the court, stop blaming others, and confess our sins, He has prepared a sacrifice of blood that we may yet be justified in His sight.

God did not bring evil into this world, but YOU have. The devil didn’t bring evil to bear in the world, OUR disobedience to God, and that alone did. This world is corrupt because of US. Wars, and genocides tortures and thefts, abuse, perversion and sickness that exists in the world was brought in through man.

How can we look at the world, and all its corruptions, and think ourselves unworthy of death?

Yet you and I need not hide our shame. In fact, trying to do so is like clothing our nakedness with fig leaves.

Even when the first man sinned, God in His goodness made a provision to justify us. Death had to be met out for such a grievous wickedness which would allow evil to reign in the earth.We are deserving of death, not Adam and Eve, but US. They sinned once, and introduced death, corruption and evil into the world. How many times have you sinned?

If we seek to justify ourselves, we will perish, and justly so. Yet God made a provision through sacrifice – the death of Jesus Christ, His Son. Though He never sinned He was willing to die a greivous death in our place for all the wickedness we have perpetrated in the earth.

When He rose from the dead, He justified you. Believe in His sacrifice, and ressurrection and you will be saved from death: eternity in the lake of fire which we justly deserve for creating wickedness.

God wants to forgive you, and cleanse you from your sin, wants to bring you into the kingdom of His beloved Son.