More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP Gen 3; 12-13 Blame Shifting vs Honest Confession
Have you ever caught yourself making excuses instead of simply admitting when you're wrong? Dr. Robert Jackson unpacks this universal human tendency by examining Genesis 3:12-13, where we witness humanity's first blame-shifting moment.
Drawing from his medical practice, Dr. Jackson shares revealing parallels between Adam and Eve's garden excuses and our modern-day justifications. Patients who fail to lose weight blame allergies and weather rather than admit non-compliance. Those who skip medication create elaborate stories instead of acknowledging their choices. As Dr. Jackson pointedly observes, "An excuse is the thin skin of a lie"—a truth that cuts straight to our hearts.
The consequences of blame-shifting extend far beyond mere dishonesty. Through Psalm 32, we discover the profound physical and emotional toll of unconfessed sin: wasted strength, constant groaning, and vitality drained "as with the fever heat of summer." Conversely, honest confession brings extraordinary relief. The path forward is beautifully clear yet challenging: name your sins specifically without excuse, genuinely repent by turning from old patterns, and receive Jesus as your only Savior. Just as God provided a sacrificial covering in Eden, pointing to Christ's ultimate sacrifice, we find our hope in "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."
Ready to move from excuse-making to honest confession? This episode offers practical wisdom for experiencing the freedom that comes when we stop shifting blame and start embracing truth. Subscribe now and join us next week as we explore the consequences of sin and the curse upon humanity, Lucifer, and our planet.
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Speaker 2:Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Gather around, grab your Bibles and let's look into the written word, which reveals to us the living word, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, today we're at Genesis, chapter 3, verses 12 through 13,. And our topic today is blame shifting versus honest confession. I'm going to start with verse 11 to give us the context. And God said the serpent deceived me and I ate. Now pay close attention.
Speaker 2:My patients rarely accept personal responsibility for their poor health. For example, one of my biggest responsibility is helping patients to lose weight. As you can imagine, being overweight complicates everything. Blood pressure follows weight, elevated blood sugar follows weight. Everything is complicated by being overweight and losing weight makes blood sugar come down, cholesterol comes down, blood pressure comes down and comes closer to normal values. But when I talk to my patients about losing weight, of course we discuss diet and exercise. Sometimes I'll give them an appetite suppressant to help jumpstart the process, but when they come back to see me and they've lost no weight. They say things like well, doc, you know, my granddaughter got and I had allergies last month and it rained two weekends and the excuses begin, the blame shifting begins and they blame their circumstances rather than accepting responsibility for their failure to lose weight.
Speaker 2:Now, occasionally I have to be honest, someone will look at me and it'll be quite refreshing, and they say Look, doc, I just love to eat. And that honesty is quite refreshing, is quite refreshing. And you know, I have non-compliant patients who they just will not admit to me that they just don't want to take, for example, their blood pressure pills. And they make all kinds of excuses and they say things like I just can't remember to take my blood pressure medication. And I'll look at them and I'll say, well, don't you brush your teeth every morning? They'll say, well, yeah, I say well, just put your blood pressure pills by your toothbrush, don't you eat breakfast every morning? Well, sure, doc, I say, well, put your medication right beside your breakfast table and you can remember to take your medicine. Those are obvious solutions to me. But the truth of the matter is they just don't want to take blood pressure medication and they make excuses. Now listen, an excuse is the thin skin of a lie and when I say that to my patients they're terribly offended, but it's the truth. They're terribly offended, but it's the truth. Just listen, just man up, tell the truth and look folks in the eye and say no excuse, sir.
Speaker 2:Accept full responsibility for your failures and confess your faults. How many times in your whole entire life have you heard someone say to you I'm sorry, I was wrong, or I'm sorry I messed up, or I'm sorry I let you down? I bet it hasn't been a whole lot of times, has it? Most people drop into automatically drop into blame-shifting mode, just like Adam and Eve in verse 12 and 13 here. Listen to what they said. I'm going to read it to you again. The man said the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman what is this you have done? And the woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman what is this you have done? And the woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate.
Speaker 2:You know, I have a whole parcel of grandchildren and there's seven of them that live locally, and this weekend my daughter from Pennsylvania is going to bring five more. So that's going to be 12 grandkids living in my house probably every day for the next week. And when they're all together it's like all out warfare, with kids under all of them under 10 protecting their property rights, slandering one another, physically assaulting one another, and it's just a hullabaloo in my house and they're all blame-shifting. They're blaming one another for all of the physical assaults and the stealing of one another's property. And their parents, I'm sure, would like to shape shift, like the creatures do in the scary movies, and turn into a big bad wolf and just scarf up those little kids. Or maybe they would like to teleport themselves into another country when they hear those little kids screaming bloody murder. Well, you get the picture.
Speaker 2:But you see Adam and Eve here. They begin to blame shift and Adam, immediately he blames God by saying the woman whom you gave to be with me. And he blames God and he says, in case you already forgot, god, you gave her to me and besides that she was beautiful and she had no clothes on. What was I supposed to do? Give me a break. Well then Eve responded and says the serpent deceived me and I ate. She also shifted blame to someone else.
Speaker 2:Now let me ask you a question Did Lucifer, disguised as a serpent, deserve blame? Well, in 1 John 8, verse 44,. Well, in 1 John 8, verse 44, jesus speaking of I didn't mean to say 1 John, I'm sorry, it's John 8. Jesus speaking of Satan, he had this to say about him. Verse 44, he said to the Pharisees he says you are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. And then, speaking about Satan, he says he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. You see, that is Satan's nature he is a liar and the father of lies. More than that, in John 10.10, the Bible says the thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. That thief is none other than Lucifer, who deceived Eve in the garden. Does he deserve blame? Does he deserve his eventual punishment in the lake of fire? He certainly does. But until then, paul has warned you and me not to be unaware of the schemes of the evil, one who is a liar and a thief, who comes to steal and destroy and who is a murderer. Who comes to steal and destroy and who is a murderer.
Speaker 2:But could Adam and Eve successfully and legitimately shift blame to God or Lucifer or to one another? The answer to that is no, they couldn't. Could we, you and me, shift blame to our parents, our upbringing, our environment, our lack of education, our sorry friends? No, no, no, no, we cannot. Have you ever listened to a defense lawyer in court try to explain to the judge why his client committed his criminal acts? Have you ever listened? During the sentencing phase, after a guilty verdict has been rendered, in order to minimize the penalty, the lawyer lays it on thick, describing all manner of different circumstances involved His client has endured, such as difficult childhood or poverty or poor health, or economic setbacks or psychological problems, family issues you get the picture. Rarely does the defendant stand there in front of the judge and say I'm guilty, your Honor, no excuse for my criminal behavior. You see, everybody wants to shift blame. They want to blame their immoral behavior on something other than their personal responsibility.
Speaker 2:Now let me ask you another question. What would have happened if Adam and Eve had just immediately confessed their sin right from the start? Rather than blame shifting, I want you to remember that our God is quick and ready to forgive, that our God is quick and ready to forgive, that he deals with us not according to our sins, but according to His loving kindness and His tender mercy. The Bible says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness when we try to hide our sin. The psalmist tells us in the book of Psalms, in chapter 32, I've read this psalms to you many times, but it's important for you to understand what the Bible says here in Psalms, chapter 32.
Speaker 2:What happens when you and I try to hide our sin, like David did after he sinned with Bathsheba, like Adam and Eve did here, rather than immediately confessing their sin? What does the psalmist say about it? He says in Psalms 32 and verse 3,. He says in Psalms 32 and verse 3, when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. You know that feeling, don't you? You know what it's like to have the conviction of Holy Spirit upon your life when you refuse to fess up and admit to your wrongdoing. And then he goes on to say that my vitality was drained away, as with the fever heat of summer. You know what it's like when the heat and humidity of summertime just sucks the life out of you. Listen, when you and I fail to confess our sin to God, the Bible tells us that our vitality, our life force, is drained away, as with the fever heat of summer. But then, in verse five, the psalmist describes what happens when we confess our sin. He said I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Speaker 2:Back up to verse 1. How blessed, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered that word means atoned how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit? So let me ask you the question again what would have happened if Adam and Eve had immediately confessed their sin? Well, we have no way of answering that question. We have no way of knowing, because the truth of the matter is they blame shift. They tried to blame God, each other and Lucifer. Adam and Eve refused to acknowledge their sin, as the psalmist ultimately did here. Instead, they blame shifted, like you and I do so often.
Speaker 2:How often have you heard it said that confession is good for the soul? Confession of sin without excuse. Soul Confession of sin without excuse, without excuse making or blame shifting, is the first step in making things right between you and God. Lord, I'm sorry, I was wrong and you were holy and always right. Here's a suggestion Name your sins from beginning to end and if you forget, I promise you Holy Spirit will help you. Remember that's his ministry, that's his job.
Speaker 2:And then repent. That's his job. And then repent, turn your back on your old sinful ways and your old sinful attitudes and ask God to give you grace and say to him Lord, you give me the strength that I won't live that way anymore. And then, lastly, receive Jesus as your only Savior, your only hope and trust, only in the blood of the Lamb, acknowledging that only the blood of Jesus can cover your sins.
Speaker 2:In the garden and we'll get there eventually, in this same chapter, in the garden, god killed a sacrificial animal, probably a lamb, to cover their nakedness to cover or atone for their sin. That lamb in the garden pointed to the eventual, perfect lamb of God, whose blood would take away the sin of the entire world. Dear listener, put your confidence, put your trust in the blood of that Lamb saying Lord, I have no hope, I have no plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. O Lamb of God, I come. No more blame shifting, no more excuse, making Just an honest confession in the presence of Holy God, receiving Jesus as your only hope, your only Savior and the true King of your life.
Speaker 2:You're listening to More Than Medicine and I'm your host, dr Robert Jackson. If you like what you hear, I pray that you would follow, like or share, tell your friends and family about more devotions with Dr Papa, family about more devotions with Dr Papa. We'll be back next week, at which time we're going to talk about the serious consequences of sin and the curse upon man, lucifer and the planet. Till then, may the Lord bless you real good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
