Adam was involved in a coverup,

Note: This article is in a series called Two Roads. Previous articles are always available at http://www.webbweekly.com.

Then, the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Genesis 3:7-10

Achan was also involved in a coverup,

Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

Adam and Achan did what all men do when they first realize they have done something wrong — they try to cover it up. Coverup is a reflex response based on the human instinct for self-preservation,

“Who ate all the chocolate chip cookies?” Ask a three-year-old that question, and even though his face and hands are smeared with melted chocolate, he will shrug his shoulders and confidently give the instinctive human response, “It wasn’t me.”

Coverup gives time for the offender to assess initial damage and to figure out who knows what. In David’s case, it appeared that only a few palace staff and Bathsheba were aware of what had transpired. For a man with David’s power and influence, that coverup could be handled easily. No one else would know, and nothing more would need to be done or said. At first, it looked like David had gotten away with it.

For Achan, coverup was easy. No one saw what he took, so all he had to do was bury it.

For Moses, Aaron was the only other person who knew God had said to speak to the rock. Aaron was also there to hear God give the consequence of the failure. Beyond Aaron, no one initially knew that Moses had done anything wrong — another easy coverup.

Judas had nowhere to hide. He openly betrayed Jesus with a kiss. A coverup wasn’t an option. Judas tried desperately to undue his actions, but he learned the hard way that actions cannot be undone.

Peter didn’t know who all knew. His denials had been made in the dark, in an obscure area, around a small group of strangers. Maybe nobody knew. The problem for Peter was that Peter knew.

Coverup allows an offender to get away with their offense. It works. Some people are very good at coverup. The fact is, bad men cover up crimes every day. Many of them pretend to be good men, but a bad man who looks good only because he is good at coverup is not a good man; he is a hypocrite. Jesus had very strong words for hypocrites,

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside, you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Matthew 23:27-28

Truly good men, good men raised up by God’s grace, don’t get away with coverup or hypocrisy. God’s Spirit doesn’t allow it. Either the Spirit convicts until the man breaks under the weight and confesses, or the Spirit simply exposes the offense. That’s what happened to David. Twice.

The first exposure happened about six weeks later when Bathsheba sent word to David that she was pregnant. David was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He could have confessed. Doing so would have averted a series of tragedies. Instead, he chose to do a second coverup.

The effort David put into the second coverup is legendary. The full story is found in II Samuel 11. The bottom line is this: David got away with adultery and murder and ended up taking Bathsheba to be his wife. His coverup worked.

So did Peter’s. None of the other disciples mentioned knowing anything about his denials. There was no sense in telling them. He let the silence be his coverup.

Are you good at coverups and getting away with sin? Be honest with yourself. If you are pretending to be a good man, then you are not a good man; you are a bad man and a hypocrite. You may be fooling everyone else and even yourself, but you will never fool God.

Gravity has been controlling your life, but it’s possible this article is God’s awakening and convicting grace to you. Yes, my friend, God is still pulling on you, and you have a choice to make.

Will you choose to confess and come clean? Or will you continue the coverup? As you consider your options, don’t forget about God’s grace. If you don’t confess, you will be exposed. Let me assure you, confession is the better option. We’ll talk more about exposure next week.