Introduction: How do we deal?
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Today is the first Sunday in Lent, the day of the church year when we usually focus on the temptation of Christ and hear a sermon about resisting temptation. But today I want to focus on what happens on the other side of that temptation—after we cave in. What happens after we actually commit a sin? What do we do when we are caught by our conscience or accused by God’s Law? In essence, how do we deal with sin? This morning I would like to look at the two wrong ways that Adam and Eve tried to deal with their sin in the Old Testament reading, as well as the more helpful approach that David offers in our psalm. I hope that today’s message will help you break free from the burden of your sins so you can enjoy the freedom of God’s forgiveness.
First Wrong Approach: Hide
The first way we often try to deal with our sin is to hide it. We cover it up and bury it as deep as we can, hoping that no one will dig it up. Sometimes this is quite literal, such as when a murderer disposes of his victim’s body. But children do it too! I remember as a child burying candy wrappers deep in the trash can so that my parents wouldn’t know I’d partaken of forbidden treats.
But hiding never works. Just as a fox can always find a freshly buried corpse, so also God always finds out your sin.
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they immediately saw their sin for what it was. They felt naked and ashamed. So they tried to cover up their sin by sewing together fig leaf coverings (Gen. 3:7). Then when they heard God walking in the Garden, they hid from him in the bushes (v. 8).
But you cannot hide from God. He knows all and sees all. In Lucas Cranach’s painting, The Garden of Eden (1530), God glares down on the sinful couple as a beam of light with the intensity of a laser beam bears down upon them. You cannot hide from an omniscient and omnipotent God. Even the secret thoughts of our hearts lay bare before the Lord (Prov. 15:11).
But covering up our sin hurts us physically too. When we bury our burden of guilt and shame deep within us, it rots and fosters in our hearts, killing our conscience and even troubling our bodies. Perhaps you have had the experience of getting a pit in your stomach or your skin bristling when someone you have wronged walks into the room. You want to avoid them because their presence is a constant reminder that you have sinned.
King David’s guilt made him physically sick in his body: “When I kept silent,” he writes, “my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer” (Ps. 32:3-4). A guilty conscience has physiological impact—not just psychological and spiritual.
Second Wrong Approach: Blame
Since hiding doesn’t help, the second way we try to deal with sin is by playing the blame game. We make up excuses and point the finger at someone else. We love to see others take the fall when we mess up. Children do this all the time. At home, when I walk into a room that looks like it was hit by a tornado, I will ask, “Boys, who made this mess?” Benjamin immediately shouts, “Michael did it!” Michael, in turn, blames the baby. But Rachel is too young to point the finger yet. Maybe when she is older, she will blame the cats!
It was no different with Adam and Eve. They played the blame game with exquisite skill. When God asked Adam if he ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam blamed both God and Eve: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12). It’s your fault God, because the wife you gave me tempted me to sin!
So God turned to Eve and asked her, “What is this that you have done?” Her answer was even better: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (v. 13). In other words, the devil made me do it! (Aside: Next God turned to the serpent, but the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on!)
Adam did something he wasn’t supposed to do. He sinned against God. But instead of “manning up” and admitting his fault, he pointed the finger at Eve. She in turn pointed the finger at the serpent. God gave them the opportunity to confess their sins (that’s what his questions were for), but because they refused, he laid a curse on them instead. They would suffer pain in this life, and then they’d die—and literally bite the dust from which they came (Gen. 3:16-19).
Like Adam and Eve, we also blame others for our sins. Families do this when grown children blame their parents or siblings for all of their problems instead of taking ownership for their feelings and actions. Churches play the blame game in the midst of conflict when they scapegoat one person and claim that everything would be just fine if that one person went away. Employees blame their bosses or coworkers, and students blame their teachers or classmates. Nobody wants to take responsibility. But when everybody points their finger at somebody else, the system remains sick and unhealthy. It gets gummed up with guilt and sin.
When we assign our sin to others, it ruins our relationships and gets in the way of health and meaningful change. Blame is a form of self-deception, and as long as we keep lying to ourselves, our sin will undermine our relationships with God and each other.
Correct Approach: Confess
The third way to deal with sin—and the only healthy way—is to “get it out,” to confess it. When we own up for our failures and say to God, “I’m sorry,” we discover an incredible joy and freedom in God’s forgiveness. As David sings:
“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Ps. 32:1-2).

There’s nothing so wonderful as being able to stand before God with a conscience cleansed and covered by the blood of Jesus. As long as we hide our sin or blame others for it, our sin remains, poisoning our spirits and contaminating our conscience. But when we confess our sins, God cleans house and heals our hearts.
As it says in the New Testament, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9). When we confess our sins to God and say we’re sorry, we can count on his forgiveness. David says:
“I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgression unto the LORD,’
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Ps. 32:5).

When we confess our sins, God forgives us. Because of Christ’s death on the cross, our sins are washed away in the blood of Jesus. Because of Christ’s Word of absolution, he removes our sin from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103:12). It’s as simple—and wonderful—as that! It’s not that hard! Getting right with God is as simple as saying, “I’m sorry,” and receiving his forgiveness in faith.
When we confess our sins, God covers our sin (v. 2) and God becomes our hiding place (v. 7). Instead of hiding our sins, we hide in the mercy of Jesus. “You are a hiding place for me,” David sings. “You preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance” (Ps. 32:7).
Sometimes private confession to God in prayer will be enough to cleanse your conscience. But often we still need to go beyond that and actually apologize to the people we’ve hurt or offended. Jesus places such importance on reconciliation, that he says getting right with others has greater priority than giving an offering to the Lord (Matt. 5:23-24). That comes only through confession and forgiveness. But when you go to the other person, be sure that you make an actual apology and not one of the “non-apologies” so famous among politicians (e.g., “I’m sorry if I hurt you,” or “I’m sorry that you were upset by what I did,” etc.).
“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Ps. 32:1). That’s the blessing of forgiveness! In the name of the Father and of the Son and of + the Holy Spirit. Amen.