The price of Imperfection
The origin of Evil • Sermon • Submitted
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As we have seen creation, by its sheer existance as creation is indeed good,, yet subject to limitations.
These limitations come in various form as such mathamatical constants, and cosmalogical constants.
The speed of light is set, it cannot go faster or slower.
The charge of an electron is set, it cannot change.
These are examples of the limits of creation.
However, this is fine when dealing with physics, cosmology and mathamatics, but the dynamic changes when sentient beings are introduced into the picture.
Sentient beings, like angerls (including Satan) as well as humanity (Adam and Eve) are subject to the same limits as the rest of creation as they are indeed part of creation.
However, “limits” to a sentient being are far more personal than the laws of nature.
I propose that limits to a sentient because do not manifest as limits at all.
Rather they manifest as vunerabilities.
A sentient beings limits ARE their vunerabilities!
For example: My good created body is held togther by various forces from the atomic level. These forces are not unlimited but limited.
So if my good but limited body where to fall off a high cliff, the limits of my body would go past their styrength and my bones will brteak, my skin will tear and i may even die.
This means that even althoufgh by body is good, its limits make me vunerable to a high fall.
I can die, and so could Adam and Eve.
17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”
These limits also effect created spiritual beings like angels but in a slightly different way.
Angels, as created beings are also not perfect. - They have limits.
Indeed it is in the recognision of these limits that Angels find their place or domain.
Infcat we are told in the bible that there existsa herachy within the angels themselves, perhaps due to theiur various limitations.
9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him an abusive judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
This is very enlightening becasuse we are told in scripture that the angels along with Satan who entered into rebellion did so becasuse:
6 And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
In other words: Satan, along with others, in recognition of their limits, did not embrace them but rejected them, which to be unlimited as the Giod who made them.
Satan shows his hand in Isaiah
13 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north.
This ties into the temptation of Eve as well.
If Eve was indeed good with no falled sinful nature, what could Satan possibly offer her to cause a desire of want?
Well scripture tells us:
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die!
5 For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”
Notice “you will become like God”. In other words, eat of this and your limits, your vunerabilities will go away.
This is very important because a sentient being who sees their limits and wishes to be better is not of itself an evil or sinful desire.
Dont you too desire to be better than you are?
Does not a begining artest desire to get better? Does not a yoiung preacher desire to preach better?
The desire to be better than we are is not an evil dersire and so the desire itself does not need evil to exist.
Andf t5his isb true of Satan too. His desire to be better in itself is not a desire that requires evil.
All this desire requyires is imperfection - and as we have seen, all creation is subject to imperfection even though it is good and not evil.
So how does desire turn to evil?
Well before we answer t65hat, let us clarify the implications of what we have already seen.
1: God did not create evil, nor did God “will” evil into existance.
2: Free will is not an answer ro the question as it does not answer as to how innocent, good beings would choose sin.
3: Creation is good, but not perfect - only God is perfect.
4: The imperfection of creation is not a design flaw or a design choice on God’s part. It is a neccesery condition for there to be any form of creation at all.
5: This imperfection manifests itself in sentient beings as vunerability.
6: It is not evil for a sentient being to desire to be better.
How then does desire manifest evil?
I believe the answer is found in:
16 You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The solution to our unsinful recognition of our limitations and vunerabilities as we desire to rise above them is to be found only in God Himself.
Adam and Eve looked to the tree as a solution when they should have looked to God.
Satan looked to self promotion when he should have look to God.
God is the answer to our limitations, our vunerabilities and our desires.