Why Did God Create A World With Sin?

INTRODUCTION:

If God is all powerful and all loving, why did He create a world with sin in it?

Is there a more pressing question for our world?

At a time when our country is close to war with foreign powers and with each other.

At a time where homelessness and food insecurity is only rising in our own country—considered to be one of the most prosperous countries in the world.

At a time where our happiness is slowly declining (WHR).

We ask ourselves the question: how could an all powerful and all loving God create a world where His children would walk through this?

Many have often claimed that this is the most powerful argument against God’s existence.

Today, we’re going to answer this question (because it is your question).

Here’s what we’re going to do:

Can A Good & Powerful God Even Exist if Evil Exists?

We’re going to first figure out if an all good and all powerful God CAN exist if evil exists.

If God Exists, Why Create A World Like This?

After that, we’re going to figure out if an all good and all powerful God does exist, and since evil exist, why did He create the world in this way.

What Does This Mean For Us?

And then we’re going to talk about what that means for us.

DISCUSSION:

I. Can A Good & Powerful God Even Exist if Evil Exists?

This is going to be a little complex, but I want to kind of take you here.

Many are going to try and tear down your faith using things like the problem of evil.

Many smart people are atheists, but many intelligent people also believe in God and they’ve done a lot of study and work on this issue.

I’ll try and boil things down at the very end.

Scripture attests to God being both all loving and all powerful:

Jeremiah 32:17 “17 “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”

1 John 4:8 “8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Many atheists might bring up the fact that God can’t be all loving or all good because evil exists.

So He either can’t be all powerful to stop evil, but His heart loves people.

Or He is powerful enough to stop evil, but not loving enough to do that.

This is a false dilemma.

Think of it like “does your mom know you eat your boogers?”

If you say yes, then you admit to eating your boogers.

If you say no, then you admit to eating your boogers.

The question is missing vital information.

In the same way, phrasing the problem of evil in this way is missing vital information—free will.

We’ll talk about free will more here in a bit, but if God gives people free will to do what they want then that changes things for the problem of evil.

We could put it this way:

P1: God gave people free will, which means we get to choose what we do.

P2: If God forced us to always do good things, we wouldn’t really be free—we’d be like robots.

P3: But God wanted us to have real freedom, even if that means some people would choose to do bad things.

P4: So even though there is evil in the world, it doesn’t mean God isn’t loving or powerful—it means He values our freedom to choose.

Summary: God didn’t make us robots. He gave us the freedom to choose, and that means some people choose bad things. But that doesn’t mean God is bad—it means He wants us to love Him by choice, not by force.

Point being, the mere fact that evil exists doesn’t disprove the fact that there is a God, nor does it disprove that He is all-powerful and all-loving.

This leads us to ask our next question:

II. If He Does Exist, Why Create A World Like This?

We gave that away in our first point—God created the world this way so that we could freely choose to love Him.

When we open up the pages of scripture, it’s so clear that we are free to choose what we want.

In Genesis 2:9, 16-17, God creates the TWO trees. He then commands them to eat of any tree BUT the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Jesus famously said in Matthew 23:37 “37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

Joshua in this decisive moment declares to his people Joshua 24:15 “15 …choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.””

And more on the topic, Peter says in 2 Peter 3:9 “9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

What Peter said gets into the heart of the question.

The heart of God is that every person be in an intimate relationship with Him—one of love and trust. He doesn’t want anyone to be out of His presence.

Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 12:13 “13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.”

Acts 17:26–27 “26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”

God created us for the purpose of being in relationship with Him and to serve Him—but not as a robot that doesn’t have a choice.

Notice the language of Acts 17:27, Paul says that God did all of this so that we would “seek” Him. That we would want Him.

My wife is here tonight—I’m not forced to love my wife.

Her dad didn’t force me to marry her.

What happened was that my wife and I met and we fell in love with each other—I chose to love her because I thought she was someone worth loving and being with for the rest of my life.

I love my wife because of who she is—not out of force but out of choice.

In the mind of God in creation, He wanted to create humans with free will so that we could freely choose to love Him, because that love out of choice means more than love out of force.

By nature of the fact that He’s given us the choice to follow Him and to love Him, that means there had to be by necessity the choice to disobey—and thus sin entered into the world through our disobedience, not because God created it.

III. What Does This Mean For Us?

What does all of this even mean?

It’s good to know that God, all-powerful & all-loving, exists even though evil exists.

It’s good to know the reason and the heart behind allowing us to have free will—freely choosing to love and pursue God.

None of that changes the fact that life is hard and evil exists

Your Suffering is NOT Wasted.

The hard moments you’re walking through prepare you for life, even if you can’t see it in the moment.

I think about the words of Paul in

God is NOT Distant—He’s Been In Our Shoes.

We don’t walk alone in the suffering of life.

God came to this earth in the form of a man and walked in our shoes.

Hebrews 4:15 “15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”

There’s comfort knowing that God has been where we’ve been. He’s experienced the pain of life.

Psalm 46:1-3, 7, 10-11 “1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging…7 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress…10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” 11 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

The Lord has been where you’ve been and He offers himself as a fortress—the source of your strength. He offers you life!

There’s Hope Beyond the Hurt.

It is because Jesus entered into the world, endured the evil brought about by sin, that there is hope beyond this one.

Romans 5:3–5 “3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

CONCLUSION:

Why did God create a world with sin in it?

So that love could exist.

So there was an actual choice—so people wouldn’t be forced to believe in God, but they could freely choose Him.

To experience love to an even fuller degree.

When I walk through pain and evil, I don’t always understand it.

It doesn’t feel good.

What I do know is that Jesus paid it all—that He’s called me into a life where there’s victory over sin and death; where He has victory over my pain.

He’s called me to a life that brings purpose to my pain—that in Him there’s life and life more abundant than anything I could imagine.

The question that we’re left with is “will we trust Him?”

We’re invited to trust Him—to trust that He is the one with victory over sin, death, and pain.

Will you trust Him?