“I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:10

Adam and Eve sin. They do the one thing that they were commanded not to do - eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then, they realize their nakedness and they hide.

God then confronts Adam with a simple question, "Where are you?"

It is at this point, where Adam blows it. It is at this point where Adam responds in the most tragic of ways, and man has been responding to sin against God this tragically ever since.

Instead of Adam saying that he hid because of God's power. Instead of saying that he hid because of God's wrath. Instead of saying that he hid because of God's disappointment...

Adam says that he hid because of his nakedness.

He hid because of his consequences. He hid because of his shame. He hid because of his embarrassment.

Maybe an illustration will help to explain how tragic this is.

A father tells his son he can have anything to eat in the kitchen except cookies. The son eats the cookies. He gets sick from eating the cookies. So he hides under his bed. When his father comes looking for him and asks, "Where are you?," the son replies, "I was afraid, because I was sick, so I hid myself."

How ridiculous would that be? How ridiculous would that sound?

Shouldn't the son be afraid primarily because he disobeyed his father? Shouldn't the son be afraid because he letdown his father? Shouldn't the son be afraid because of his father's authority to discipline him?

The great tragedy of man is that we don't truly fear God.

And because we don't truly fear God, we don't humbly repent. And because we don't humbly repent, we don't freely receive grace. And that...is a tragedy.