As It Is Written . . .
Who, Me?
by Patrick Henry Reardon
A notable feature of the "reign of sin" (Rom. 5:21) is man's reluctance to blame himself; as a result of sin's introduction into this world, individual human beings are disposed to shift the responsibility for their moral failures to some other cause.
This disposition appeared pretty early. After his sense of shame, in fact, man's reluctance to assume responsibility seems to have been his most primitive response to the Fall. Adam should have answered, "Yes, Sir, and I am deeply sorry," when God inquired of him, "Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"
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Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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