The Problem of Evil - Genesis 3

At some point in your life you have probably questioned why God allowed something to happen. When difficult times come we want to know why God allows it. When there are natural disasters or senseless acts of violence we ask why God didn’t stop them. These questions are difficult to answer, and we may never get a full answer to them. Our passage this morning raises the question behind all these questions—why did God allow evil to enter the world in the first place?

This morning we are going to look at Genesis 3, where we see the first sin of human beings. The entrance of sin into our world changed everything and is the reason all these other disasters exist. The question we may ask, however, is why did God even allow a world where sin could exist? Why did God create the world if he knew (or even suspected) it would be corrupted by sin?

These questions have been debated for millennia, and there is no obvious, clear-cut answer to them. God does not answer many of the “why” questions we have about Him. With that said, I hope to piece together some things we do know for certain that can help us to trust God even if we don’t have answers to all our questions.

The Beginnings of Evil

We see the beginnings of evil first in the snake,

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” 2“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3“It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” 4“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5“God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5, NLT)

This confirms my long-held belief that snakes are evil to their core. (Ok, that isn’t really a valid point here, but I still don’t like snakes!) The real point here is that somehow this snake could talk and was tainted by evil (after all, he told Eve God was lying!) Most people believe the reason this snake could talk and was spouting lies is because it was inhabited by Satan himself. It was Satan who was telling lies to Eve and trying to get the pinnacle of God’s creation to rebel against Him.

But this raises a big question, doesn’t it? Where did Satan come from? He isn’t mentioned in any of the days of creation, so how did he get there? The Bible doesn’t give us a great amount of backstory on Satan, but we can piece together a few things about him throughout the scriptures.

First, Satan was a created being (an angel). God created angels as spiritual beings who would serve Him. We don’t know exactly when God created them. We don’t know if they created before, after, or during the six days of creation we read about in Genesis 1. In truth, it doesn’t really matter when He created them. The important thing is to see that Satan (and the other demons) were created by God.

Second, Satan rebelled against God. By piecing together parts of the Bible, most agree that Satan led a rebellion amongst the angels against God and led a third of the angels astray with him. God did not create them as evil beings, but they rebelled against God and became evil.

Third, because of this, God will ultimately defeat Satan. Some people have this idea that good and evil are two equal and opposite forces in the universe. They are not. God is good, and Satan was created by God and became evil. This means Satan is subject to God. God ultimately wins, which means evil will ultimately be defeated.

So Satan was the source of the temptation delivered to Adam and Eve. Satan was the one who helped lead humanity into sin and rebellion against God. The question still remains, why did God allow Satan to do these things?

Why Allow Evil?

When we ask why God didn’t stop evil, why God allowed Satan to rebel, and why He allowed Satan to lead others to rebel, we are asking questions to which we may never fully know the answer. With that said, there are several facts we need to establish at the outset.

First, evil is real. Some people have tried to deal with this problem by simply saying that evil is an illusion. Evil does not really exist, it is just the way we are choosing to look at things. They say the problem is not that people are doing evil things, but rather that we are looking at them the wrong way. Evil is real. God sent Jesus into the world to overcome evil and restore His world to its sinless state. If evil were simply an illusion, the cross would have been unnecessary. God recognized the problem of evil and sent Jesus as the means through which He was going to solve it.

Second, God did not create evil. One line of reasoning says if God created everything that exists, and evil exists, then God must have created evil. But that is not really the case. Evil is simply the opposite of good. So if God created good things (which He did) then any corruption or deviation from what God created is evil. God did not create this corruption or deviation, it is a result of the choices of individuals. So God is not responsible for the existence of evil—we are.

Third, God was not surprised by evil entering the world. We are told in Ephesians 1 that God chose to save us “before the creation of the world.” This means that before God decided to create the world, He had decided to save the world from sin. This is kind of mind-boggling, isn’t it? God created the universe knowing we would corrupt it, and from the very beginning had a plan to rescue us from ourselves through Jesus!

This is not the same thing as saying God made us sin. He did not. We have used the freedom He gave us to rebel against Him. But God was not surprised at our choice. He had a rescue plan in place before He created anything.

Finally, we must have a proper definition of what makes something good or evil. We tend to view everything through a very human (and self-centered) lens. We tend to look at the things that happen and evaluate them based on how they make us feel. If we find something hard, painful, or frustrating, we conclude it must be evil. But that is not the right way to look at things. We must look at things from God’s perspective.

The real mark of whether something is good is whether it glorifies God or not. Sometimes we go through difficult circumstances—situations we would never choose for ourselves—only to discover on the other side of them that we have become more reliant on God, we worship Him more vibrantly, and we trust Him more completely. From a big picture view, that is ultimately good because God is glorified.

We must take a much larger view of the question of why God would allow evil to exist. Why would God create a world that He knew would need to be rescued? Doesn’t that make Him eminently evil? I believe the answer is no. Let’s talk about why that is.

Why Is This Ok?

If we know that God is good, then we know His plan is also good. We know God must have a good reason for allowing evil to exist. We also know God will destroy evil in the future. So what is the purpose of God allowing evil to exist for now?

This is where we step into the realm of speculation. God does not explain his purposes to us. He does not tell us why He created the world when He knew we would corrupt it with evil. With that said, I have some ideas (though admittedly most of these ideas did not originate with me).

One of the arguments most people make for why God created the world the way He did is that He wanted to ensure we had the freedom to choose to either love Him or reject Him. They argue that a world where we do not have choice is a world that does not have real love. There is some merit to this notion, though some take it too far. God created us with the capacity to make choices. This includes the choice to either obey Him or to reject Him. We have all chosen to reject God by sinning against Him.

As a result of our sinful choices, we are now bent toward sin, and we frequently choose to act in disobedience to God. But one day this will no longer be the case. Those who have trusted in Jesus will spend eternity in heaven with Him, in an existence where we have been freed of the burden of sin.

For years I wrestled with the question of if God gives us the freedom to choose in heaven once more, how we can be certain that we won’t begin the whole process over anew? How can we be sure that once God has removed the curse of sin in heaven we won’t simply rebel again?

I think it is possible that God has allowed us to experience the consequences of sin in this life so that once we have been fully delivered from that sin we will freely choose to follow Him. In other words, in Heaven, though we will have the choice to disobey God once more, we will not because we have been down that road and seen that it is empty. Instead of trusting our own judgement, we will trust God’s because we have seen the futility of disobeying Him, and having been spared from that, we will never want to go back.

This may be part of the reason God allows evil to exist for a time. As parents we sometimes do this with our children, don’t we? They choose to rebel against us, so we allow them to experience the consequences of their choices. Hopefully after they have experienced those consequences, they will choose to trust their parents instead of going their own way.

The greater reason I think God allows evil to persist for now is that it is the way in which He is most glorified. Think about it. We talk about the gospel message being “good news”. But until we understand the bad news that we are sinners who deserve to be eternally separated from God in hell, the gospel isn’t good news at all. When we see that we do not deserve God’s love, we do not deserve to be forgiven, and that we deserve condemnation, we appreciate God’s love and forgiveness that much more. In other words, God’s mercy, grace, and love are more clearly revealed in how he chose to deal with evil. I think it is possible that God allowed evil to enter the world because it causes us to see His character most clearly—and as a result, we should worship Him more fully.

Applications

In some ways this whole topic has been a very academic exercise. We are speculating at the answers to some questions that are “above our pay grade”. Though these questions are important and relevant, we must not miss the fact that this passage has more to teach us than just theory. There are some very practical applications we see in Adam and Eve’s decisions.

First, sin is irrational. Adam and Eve were placed in the most perfect place in all of the universe. It was a place designed specifically for them. They wanted for nothing. They had perfect fellowship with God. But somehow Satan convinced them that God was holding out on them, and there was something better for them if they would just go against Him. When you think about this decision, it makes no sense! Satan’s sin was irrational as well. Satan knew God’s power. He knew that he was subject to God. And yet, he rebelled against Him. And even though he knows God has defeated him, he continues to rebel. Sin is, at its core, irrational. It just doesn’t make sense.

If we understand this, we can use it in our battle against sin. Here’s how. When we face temptation, we can take a step back and ask ourselves whether the temptation will actually deliver on its promise. Will doing this really make me happy? Will I actually regret this later on down the road? Is God’s way really not as good as this way?

Think about much of the sin we engage in. We do so because it feels good in the moment. We need to think beyond that moment to the moments that follow. When we engage our minds, we can see the promises of sin are empty and hollow. Adam and Eve didn’t see this and neither did Satan. Most of the time we don’t either. But we should learn from their (and our) mistakes and think rationally about our sin. If we do, we will see that sinful behavior doesn’t deliver on its promises.

Second, we see the need to own up to our sin. It is interesting to see the responses of Adam and Eve when God confronts them with their sin. Adam blames Eve (and ultimately God—“that woman you put here…”), but he does not accept responsibility. Eve blames the serpent, saying the serpent deceived her. Neither one accepted responsibility for their actions—they passed the blame on to someone else.

We have learned that lesson well, haven’t we? When we get caught doing something wrong we have all sorts of ways of trying to weasel our way out of blame. Sometimes we just deny it. Someone asks if we did something and we simply say no. The crazy thing is that sometimes when we deny things long enough and loud enough we even manage to convince ourselves that we have done nothing wrong! When that happens we can confidently take a position of moral indignance, when in fact we are guilty and deluded.

The other thing we do is we try to rationalize our mistakes. We find all sorts of ways to justify why our sin was warranted—and of course it’s never our fault! Think about it:

I can’t help it, it’s just the way I am. We say this to justify our anger, sexual sin, or being mean-spirited. In essence we are shifting the blame to God—God made me this way, so I can’t help it!

The other person made me do it. I often hear people say, “They make me so angry!” No one can make us do anything. We choose to respond to their actions in anger. Their actions may be wrong, but we have a choice in how to respond to them. We always have a choice—and when we sin it’s because chose poorly.

My circumstances left me with no choice. We blame our upbringing, society, our friends, our lack of money, our depression, our illnesses, the stress we were under, or anything else to justify sin. We always have a choice. We are not slaves to our circumstances. We need to stop playing the victim and own up to our sin.

This is the lesson we need to learn from Adam and Eve. True healing from sin can only begin when we admit that the problem is us. It is only when we admit we have sinned without trying to blame anyone else that we can begin to deal with the problem.

Third, we must accept that sin has consequences. It is an unfortunate truth of life that our sin has unpleasant consequences. When we sin, we are corrupting God’s good plan for life and doing things our own way. Things don’t work as well when we go against God’s plan. That sometimes means hardships, broken relationships, and pain. Rather than blaming God for those things, we must recognize they are the consequences of our choices. Instead of looking for someone to blame, or wallowing in self-pity, we would be better served by trying to make changes in our lives so we don’t make the same mistakes in the future. We should make the best of the situation we are in, accepting that sometimes the consequences of our sin are painful.

Fourth, we must remember there is forgiveness in Jesus. When God told Adam and Eve about the consequences of their sin, He also told them there was one coming who would defeat sin once and for all. This is the good news we must remember. Though there are consequences to sin, God offers us forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 tells us that, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” When we own up to our failures, accept responsibility for them, and come to God seeking forgiveness for what we have done wrong, He forgives us. He does not continue to hold our past sins against us (like we do to one another), but He accepts us back into the fold. This is great news! And it means that once we have accepted responsibility for our sin and asked for forgiveness we don’t have to keep beating ourselves up—we are forgiven!

Finally, we should not despair at the evil we see all around us. It is tempting, when we see all of the evil and brokenness surrounding us, to conclude that God is not in control, that He does not love us, or that He is not good. None of those statements are true. God has allowed evil to persist for a time and for a purpose. We don’t know how long, and we don’t know exactly what purpose He is going to accomplish by allowing evil. But we know this—evil will not ultimately triumph. We know that God will. And we know that God’s way is always better. We must trust Him rather than despairing that we don’t understand.

The existence of evil in our world is an unfortunate consequence of our rebellion against God. God didn’t make the world evil, but He also wasn’t surprised by it. The good news is this—He also made a plan to rescue us from ourselves! Though at times the world seems hard and unfair, we must remember there is coming a day when God will reverse the curse. And on that day we will be grateful for God allowing us to experience the consequences of rebelling against Him…because we will never want to go back.