WHY Does God allow Sin? What is its purpose?
What is sin, and why are we
surrounded by it and must fight to remove it? Many people do not
recognize sin or cold even define it today. For those who can
define sin, the bigger question to consider is, why is it here?
Let's look at some reminders of what we are dealing with:
Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked, who can know it?
Human minds are not stable, to say the
least. Paul discusses this in Rom 7 and goes to great length to
describe the battle he recognizes in his own life, and why. He stated...
Rom 7:18 "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good
thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that
which is good I find not." Jump down to... :23, Paul is continuing the description of this unending battle...
Rom 7:23 "But I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members. :24 "O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? :25 I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
He further discusses this issue in Rom 8:7 "Because the
carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be."
We could go through many
more scriptures to remind us of sin and its grip on humanity,
however, the most important aspect of sin is our developing
God's nature and mind... becoming like He and Christ in the
end. So again, the question to ask is, WHY this struggle?
Let's step back and look at history for a minute. We must
begin before the creation of the earth or humanity. What did God
create in the beginning? He created the angles before anything
else. One in particular we want to look at carefully. Ezekiel
speaks of someone God originally created in a "perfect"
way... but obviously not "complete." Read the entire
chapter for context, but let's look at :15...
Eze 28:15
"You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were
created, till iniquity was found in you."
The word translated as
"Perfect" means "entire (literally, figuratively or
morally); integrity, truth: - without blemish, complete, full,
perfect, sincerely, sound, without spot, undefiled, upright,
whole."
Do you feel your were created at that level, or are
even at that level now? Let's look more to scripture to tell
us about this same being God created...
Isa 14:12 "How are
you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are
you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!"
This chapter goes on to describe more of this angel's
eventual nature. Now, we know God always calls things what they
are... The word translated "Lucifer" is a mistranslation of the
Hebrew "Hilel" which comes from Haylel, and is defined
as... "A primitive root; to be clear (originally of sound,
but usually of color); to shine; hence to make a show; to boast;
and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causatively to
celebrate; also to stultify: - (make) boast (self), celebrate,
fool ,glory, be mad, rage, shine."
Does this sound like a
good thing, or a bad thing? Do those definitions sound like
someone who is a good example, or something else?
Why did God create mankind as he is... weak, subject to
temptations, imperfect?
Rom 8:20 "For the creature was
made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who
hath subjected the same in hope."
Scriptures tell us that
God created things, including mankind, subject to vanity. God could
have created us without this "carnal nature" so why
didn't He? He created Hilel in a perfect way, didn't He?
Why not us? He has a reason for all this... Let's step
forward a bit in time to Adam's creation. God created Adam
and Eve on the 6th day and God rested the 7th Day Sabbath, (What
we know as "Saturday") and then we hit the first
day of the week, what we know as Sunday. (NOTE, the days of the
week we have been using for centuries are all named for pagan
gods).
Now, the time line for this 8th day of creation, the first
day of the second week, seems to be presumed to go something like
this... Adam and Eve sleep in on this second day of their lives,
wake up around 9 am, get their cappuccino and take a nice walk.
They are now two days old. Things are going well. They get
separated in their exploring of the garden. Around noon, the
serpent (who apparently was walking upright at the time, (Gen
3:14) entices Eve to eat of the forbidden tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. By 3 pm, Eve found Adam and got Adam to eat of
the forbidden tree as well, and they both had some kind of
consciousness shake up and were embarrassed about being naked. By
6PM, God confronts them about what they did, curses the serpent
to spend the rest of its days on its belly, and they were driven
out of the garden, and you know the rest of the story.
Well, I somehow don't think that was the actual time line for that
horrible first day of the week. Traditional Christianity views
Adam and Eve as having "fallen" from their original
created status... that is, somehow they were pretty alright,
good, and then lost that goodness and became evil by
disobeying God. A legitimate question exists regarding why Adam
and Eve didn't eat of the Tree of Life in all their eating
prior to disobeying God. It is obvious that they didn't up to
that disobedient point because of what Genesis 3:22 says about
reaching forth their hand and eating of that tree and living
forever after sinning. (That will be a question for God later...)
Here's a different scenario of what took place back then, based on scriptures.
We actually don't know the original time line, but it would appear it isn't likely Adam and Eve had just one chance to NOT
eat of the wrong tree. That is, they may have had multiple looks
at the tree over weeks or months. The choice to NOT eat of it was
always there, but they remembered what God had instructed them
about it, so they left it alone. Besides, they had "every"
other tree for food, so they didn't really need to eat of it,
right? However, enter Satan, he lies to Eve, and the "inevitable" result was that they
DID eventually eat of it and sinned. Again I ask, WHY? What was
missing in their created state that opened the door for this
inevitable event? Christian material in the past has suggested
that "if only Adam and Eve had NOT eaten of that tree,
we'd all be in a much better place" or, "If I were
back then I would have done a better job," but that
isn't a realistic expectation, as we'll see.
What was
missing in Adam and Eve? WHY did they sin? What is sin???
Scripture tells us what sin is...
1 Jn_3:4 "Whosoever commits sin
transgress also the law: for sin is the transgression of law."
What law? God's way of living laws... or, another way of
saying it, sin is "wrong (or incomplete) thinking and being." So, when
God created Adam and Eve, it is obvious they were created is such
a way that sin was a possible outcome of their thinking. One more
hop back to the past... God had created that first being, (whose
original name we aren't given) but was Hilel and now Satan,
perfect, but obviously with free will and free choice. God could
have created other beings with pre-programming to not sin. They
would be like computers, simply following a program telling them
what to do, what to think and how to perform. However, God told
us what His plan was...
Gen 1:26 "And God said, Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creeps upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him; male and female
created he them. God is now creating a family of beings like He
and Christ. All humanity has the opportunity to be molded and shaped in their minds to be like they
are...
Eph_4:13 "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
God couldn't
reproduce Himself by simple creation of perfect minds that would
be like He and Christ. That would take a special plan. That
brings us back to Satan... He was created perfect but obviously
still had free choice and was not yet "complete" in his
character through right decision making.
John 8:44 "Ye are of your
father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was
a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speak a lie, he speaks
of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."
His
rebellion convinced one third of the created angels to rebel with
him (Rev_12:4 "And his tail drew the third part of the stars of
heaven, and did cast them to the earth." (Stars... Job_38:7 "When
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
for joy?" Isa_14:13 "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will
ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of
God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the
sides of the north.")
So, let's begin to bring this together.
Satan did not have anyone to tempt him, and he did not have a
body of sin... physical lusts, carnal nature or a heart deceitful
or wicked in the beginning, and he did NOT have someone else
around him tempting him as we do today. He was without excuse yet
when tempted, when right decision making was required, he caved
and he SINNED. This wasn't a single event, but most likely a
process that began in him and culminated in his corrupted nature.
From God's standpoint, what would He conclude about creating
these angels and allowing them to make free-willed decisions? Two
thirds made the right decision, but one third (millions) did not.
They were NOT created like God as spirit beings, with perfect
character. God cannot sin...
James 1: 3 "for God cannot be tempted with evil"
Tit 1:2 "...In hope of eternal life,
which God, that cannot lie..."
So, given all that Satan had
going for him, and what he did, are we going to imaging for one
second that God had even the slightest question as to what Adam
and Eve were going to do when allowed to be tempted, being of
such a lesser nature? (Rom 8:7) Adam and eve did not
"fall" as many believe. They were not created complete.
God knew that for perfect, righteous, spiritual character to be
formed in a created being to be like God's nature, it would
take a process... a plan. Even the angels learned from
Satan's rebellion, and are likely still learning from our
experiences...
Mal 3:2 "But who may abide the day of his
coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a
refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: :3 And he
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall
purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that
they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness."
Read all of Jeremiah 18 about this process... Jer 18:6 "O
house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the
LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you
in mine hand, O house of Israel."
Let's look at some
hints that God knew full well what He would have to accomplish,
and how... This is speaking of Christ and His purpose and
mission:
1 Pet 1:20 "Who truly was foreordained before the
foundation of the world..."
"Foreordained" for
what? To pay the death penalty and make possible the creation of
God's own family in the ONLY way that could be designed to
fully succeed and NOT lose millions or billions of children. But
why did He have to die? What was God's command to Adam and
Eve? Gen 3:3 "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the
midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it,
neither shall you touch it, lest you die." Adam and Eve
"were" souls, they did not, nor do any humans,
"have" an immortal soul ...all flesh are
souls...
Eze 18:4 "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul
of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that
sins, it shall die."
Eze 18:20 "The soul that sins, it
shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,
neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the
righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him."
So, given that
sin suffers the eternal death penalty, (Not living forever in
heal fire), and that God knew full well mankind would sin and
would require redemption to accomplish His will for a family,
they had a plan...
Eph 1:4 "According as he has chosen us in
him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love..."
In other words, the
Father and the Word both knew full well that if Satan and
millions of demons turned from God and His way, WITHOUT all our
fleshly baggage and without anyone tempting them to sin, then what chance would flesh have to do what
the angels couldn't, given our purposefully created nature, and
given Satan's temptations? Any betters here? God designed
this entire physical scheme for the purpose of teaching
free-willed and "free-choiced" beings HOW NOT TO SIN and how to
make right choices, while having the way to pay for the ONLY
result of sin, which is death.
Christ came to do
what no other being in the universe could
do... To be tempted, yet not actually fall to sin, and became our way to being
as they are through this calling... They both know the perfect
way to mold and shape us... refine us, and we need to merge
ourselves into that process... be one with it as best we can. In
a way, we have to be presented to the Father just as Christ was
as our wave sheaf offering and sacrifice... perfected and without
spot. Someone once said, "What's in the way, IS the
Way." Trials, temptations, joys, the ups and downs of life
all work together for our good.
Rom 8:28 "And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them who
are the called according to his purpose."
We are begotten of
spirit at baptism, and the struggle to achieve that "stature
and fullness of Christ" is what the process of salvation and
sanctification is all about.
Heb 4:15 "For we have not an
high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin."
This means that Christ had the same
human nature as all humanity has because as we know, "God
cannot be tempted" (James 1:13) and yet Christ WAS tempted,
making Him fully human in His physical nature, but with God's
spirit without measure, and had His own previous experience as the
eternal Word of God (and God of the old testament) to do what is
impossible for any of us to do.
When you were baptized, then
raised out of that watery grave, did the old man stay in the
grave? Did sin suddenly cease for any of us? NOPE! That battle
Paul spoke about still wants to rage on, but we are "more
than conquerors" as scriptures tell us in John 16:33...
John 16:33 "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye
might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be
of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
That "tribulation" is the
growth process we are now under way with, with the foreknowledge
that we are "more than conquerors" through Christ as we
recommit to this process for the sake of the whole world every
year at Passover. The plan of God will be fulfilled as we submit
to His word and laws... to be the very nature of God and Christ
themselves...
2Pe 1:4 "Whereby are given to us exceeding
great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in
the world through lust."
Do you want that future or
Satan's future?
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