Lesson 5 — Why Do We Hide? Why Do We Lie? | Genesis 3 and Truth
Updated: 5 days ago
Key truth:
A lie may feel like protection for a moment, but it cannot make us free. God calls us out of hiding—not merely to expose what is wrong, but to lead us into confession, mercy, and the freedom found in Jesus Christ.
Taking the Hard Questions to Jesus
— One Lesson at a Time
In Lesson 4, we learned that the flesh and the Holy Spirit are contrary to one another.
The flesh tries to protect, defend, justify, and remain in control.
The Holy Spirit leads us into truth.
That brings us to another difficult question:
Why do we hide?
Why do we lie?
Why does the flesh try to cover itself when truth is the very thing that can lead us into freedom?
To begin understanding that question, Scripture takes us back to Genesis.
Come sit with me awhile, and let’s keep learning
from Christ and the Word of God together.
The First Covering
After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, something immediately changed:
“And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”
— Genesis 3:7 KJV
They sinned.
They experienced shame.
And they tried to cover themselves.
Then they heard the voice of the LORD God:
“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.”— Genesis 3:8 KJV
Sin led to shame.
Shame led to fear.
Fear led to hiding.
Hiding led to covering.
And when God began asking questions, covering led to explaining and blaming.
This pattern still shows itself in us.
“I Was Afraid”
God called to Adam:
“And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?”— Genesis 3:9 KJV
Adam answered:
“And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”— Genesis 3:10 KJV
Adam tells us why he hid:
“I was afraid.”
Fear often stands very close to hiding and lying.
Fear of being exposed.
Fear of embarrassment.
Fear of rejection.
Fear of punishment.
Fear of losing someone’s approval.
Fear of consequences.
Fear of what the truth will cost.
The flesh tells us that hiding is protection.
A lie can appear to offer a quick escape from what we fear.
But hiding did not change what Adam had done.
The fig leaves did not remove his guilt.
And hiding among the trees did not hide him from God.
Explaining and Blaming
When God questioned Adam, Adam said:
“The woman whom thou gavest to be with me,
she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”— Genesis 3:12 KJV
Adam eventually admitted that he ate,
but he surrounded his confession with blame.
He blamed the woman.
And his words also pointed toward God:
“The woman whom thou gavest…”
Then Eve said:
“The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”— Genesis 3:13 KJV
The serpent truly had deceived her,
but Eve was still responsible for her choice.
Satan deceives.
The flesh desires.
Human beings choose.
Scripture does not allow us to blame every wrong decision on the devil.
James tells us:
“But every man is tempted,
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”— James 1:14 KJV
Satan is a deceiver, but human responsibility remains.
Adam blamed.
Eve blamed.
And soon Cain would murder Abel and answer God:
“I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?”— Genesis 4:9 KJV
Sin does not only lead people to do wrong.
It also leads the flesh to hide, deny, minimize, explain, and blame.
What Does a Lie Promise?
A lie promises protection.
It says:
You can avoid the consequences.
You can preserve your image.
You can keep control.
You can prevent people from seeing what happened.
You can make yourself appear innocent.
You can place the responsibility upon somebody else.
You can escape the truth.
But what does a lie actually accomplish?
It may delay exposure,
but it cannot change reality.
It may deceive another person,
but it cannot deceive God.
It may protect our reputation for a moment,
but it damages trust.
It may help us avoid one consequence
while creating many more.
And when a lie is used to cover abuse, cruelty, manipulation, or other evil, it protects the person doing wrong while adding to the suffering of the person who was harmed.
A lie does not heal what happened.
A lie adds another wound.
The Father of Lies
Jesus spoke plainly about the devil:
“…he is a liar, and the father of it.”— John 8:44 KJV
Satan works through deception.
He lies about God.
He lies about sin.
He lies about consequences.
He lies about identity.
He lies about what will bring freedom.
But we must not use the devil’s deception as an excuse for our own choices.
Jesus said the devil is the father of lies,
but Scripture still commands us personally:
“Lie not one to another,
seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.”— Colossians 3:9 KJV
And:
“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour:
for we are members one of another.”— Ephesians 4:25 KJV
The command is not merely to recognize lies in the world.
It is to put away lying in ourselves.
Lord, Is It I?
This is where the teaching must come back to my own heart.
It cannot become:
Why do those horrible people lie?
It must become:
Why do we lie?
Why does my own flesh want to protect itself?
Why do I sometimes want to explain
before I am willing to listen?
Why do I want to defend my intention instead
of acknowledging the hurt caused by my actions?
Why does the truth sometimes feel threatening?
“Lord, is it I?”— Matthew 26:22 KJV
Have I hidden part of the truth to control how someone sees me?
Have I allowed fear to lead me away from honesty?
Have I blamed someone else rather than confessing my own part?
Have I called something a misunderstanding when I knew what I was doing?
Have I used truth selectively to create a false impression?
Lord, search me.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
“And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
— Psalm 139:23–24 KJV
Covering Sin Does Not Bring Freedom
Scripture says:
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper:
but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”— Proverbs 28:13 KJV
There is a difference between covering sin and having our sins forgiven.
We cover because we are trying to prevent the truth from being known.
God forgives when we come into agreement with Him about our sin
—confessing it and turning from it.
David described what hiding did within him:
“When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.”
— Psalm 32:3 KJV
Then he said:
“I acknowledged my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid… and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”
— Psalm 32:5 KJV
Hiding did not bring David peace.
Acknowledging his sin before God opened the way to forgiveness.
Confession Is Coming into Agreement with God
John writes:
“If we say that 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 KJV
If I say I have no sin, I deceive myself.
That means the first person my denial may deceive is me.
But God does not tell us to confess because He needs information.
He already knows.
Confession brings us out of hiding and into agreement with what God says is true.
I stop renaming sin.
I stop blaming.
I stop pretending.
I stop protecting the image I want others to see.
I bring the truth before God.
And Scripture says He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse.
That is mercy.
Truth and Grace Do Not Excuse Evil
Coming into the Light does not mean pretending that sin has no consequences.
Grace does not make a wrong thing right.
Forgiveness does not require calling abuse, deception, or cruelty acceptable.
Truth may require confession, repentance, correction, restitution, changed behavior, and necessary boundaries.
Speaking truth does not mean that every person is entitled to every private detail of our lives.
Privacy is not the same as deception.
A boundary is not necessarily a lie.
And no one is required to remain in an unsafe situation to prove love or forgiveness.
But we must be careful not to call something a boundary when we are actually using silence or partial truth to manipulate what others believe.
Jesus said:
“But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay…”— Matthew 5:37 KJV
Truth and love belong together.
Grace does not help us hide from truth.
Grace gives us the opportunity to face truth with God.
Why Do We Resist the Light?
Jesus said:
“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”— John 3:20 KJV
We may resist the Light because exposure feels painful.
But the purpose of God’s Light is not merely to humiliate us.
Jesus had already said:
“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;
but that the world through him might be saved.”— John 3:17 KJV
Jesus does not join us in pretending darkness is light.
He brings truth.
But He also brings grace, mercy, forgiveness, cleansing, and life.
The flesh says:
Hide so that you will not be exposed.
Jesus calls us into the Light so that we no longer have to live hidden.
The Fifth Foundation
Why do we hide?
Why do we lie?
Because sin brought shame and fear.
Because the flesh wants to protect itself from exposure and consequences.
Because Satan deceives and is the father of lies.
Because we may value preserving our image more than acknowledging the truth.
Because a lie can appear to offer temporary protection.
But a lie cannot change reality.
A lie cannot cleanse the conscience.
A lie cannot repair trust.
A lie cannot forgive sin.
A lie cannot make us free.
God calls us out of hiding.
He calls us to confess and forsake sin.
He offers mercy.
And that leads us to our next question:
Lesson 6 — What Is Truth?
Is truth merely an idea?
Is truth determined by what we feel, what we prefer, or what most people believe?
Or does Truth have a name?
Jesus said:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life…”— John 14:6 KJV
And He said:
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”— John 8:32 KJV
What can Truth do for us that hiding behind a lie never can?
We will take that question to Jesus and the Word of God next.
Christ is the Teacher; I am a fellow learner.
Thank you for sitting with me awhile.
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