Genesis 3

(a)-In the third chapter of Genesis-after man has failed, entirely. failed, by putting himself into the hands of Satan-we find a remarkable inquisition and investigation made by the Lord as to the facts of the new state of things, their mode of introduction, and their source. Conscience-stricken, Adam and Eve had made them- selves a vesture; had tried to avoid the presence of the Lord, for they were naked (vers. 7-10). The cited Adam accuses Eve (ver. 12); Eve accuses the serpent (ver. 13); the serpent, then, first, gets a double sentence (part present and part future) pronounced upon him (vers. 14, 15); next, Eve hears the sentence of a present judgment to be inflicted upon her pronounced (ver. 16); and, lastly, the same is done as to Adam (vers. 17-19). It may be said, " What has this to do with confession?" Much, every way; because confession by man derives its whole value from the character and ways of the God to whom he confesses. The portion before us suggests, and the testimony of Scripture amply confirms the suggestion, that it is one of God's ways to make manifest the real character of that with which He deals; He who is light cannot have much to do with anything, or body, without its real character becoming manifest; for that that doth make manifest is light. In having to do with God, we may be pretty sure that what we were and are will be made manifest; no flesh shall glory in His presence, that is, in itself: glory it may, it ought, in Him; and that it, in all its ruin as a creature, has known Him who will have mercy, and will abundantly pardon. What should a marred, self-ruined creature glory in? In self? That would be really to rejoice in the enemy's work. If it glories in God-in what He has revealed Himself as Redeemer-God to be-its failure cannot hinder that glorying; but it shuts out all other. It cannot hinder that, because He is Redeemer-God only to those that need redemption. But if He rolls forth a tide of redemption's blessings for the lost, His glory and their liberty both demand that the character of the new relationship of the new blessings should be known.