WHY DID GOD CREATE HUMANS WITH THE ABILITY TO SIN?

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The age-old question of why God created humans with the ability to sin leads us into a deep biblical discussion. It invites us to ponder not only the nature of humanity but also the very character of God and His divine plan. To better understand this, we need to delve into Scripture, examine the purpose of free will, and explore God’s omniscience and sovereignty.

First and foremost, we need to acknowledge that God is all-knowing. He is omniscient and eternal, existing outside time and space. According to 1 John 3:20, God knows everything, and Isaiah 46:10 tells us that God “knows the end from the beginning.” Before the creation of the world, God already knew the fate of mankind. He knew that we would fall into sin.

Yet, this raises an important question: If God knew humanity would sin, why create us in the first place? To answer this, we must look at the nature of love.

God’s creation stems from His love. The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. In John 15:13, Jesus speaks of the greatest expression of love: laying down one’s life for the one you love. This kind of love, however, cannot exist without Free-will.

Love, by its very nature, requires the ability to choose. Without free-will, love is meaningless. For love to be genuine, it must be freely given and freely received. Thus, God endowed His creations—including humans and angels—with free will so that they could choose to love Him. Without free will, we would be no different than robots, pre-programmed to follow commands without the capacity to express real love.

Before we turn to mankind, it’s essential to recognize that sin did not originate with humanity but with the angels. Lucifer, who is full of wisdom and beauty among all the angels, was given immense responsibility and power. God loved Lucifer greatly that He gave him much wisdom, thus, revealing much to him, but with that also came greater free-will and responsibility.

The Bible speaks of Lucifer’s fall in Revelation 12:3-4, where a third of the angels followed him in rebellion. Jude 6 mentions that these angels left their first estate. God knew that Lucifer would rebel, but the fall of Lucifer was necessary to demonstrate that even those closest to God have the freedom to choose their path, whether it be for good or for evil.

The same free-will granted to angels was also granted to mankind. When God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in the Garden of Eden with everything they needed for life and fellowship with Him. However, Satan also place the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden. God commanded man not to eat from it. Although Adam and Eve still have a choice to exercise their free-will in choosing between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge and Evil.

What our Lord God is doing here is an act of love to Adam and Eve. He wants them to exercise their freedom to choose and to love Him in return. But they don’t choose Him. They choose Satan. They choose the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The fall of mankind paved the way for the ultimate demonstration of God’s love— the Lord Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. This event revealed not just God’s love but His grace, mercy, and compassion. The Bible says in Revelation 13:8 that Jesus is the “Lamb slained before the foundation of the world.” This means that God’s plan for redemption was in place even before the creation of the world. The cross was not an afterthought but part of God’s eternal plan.

The fall of humanity allowed us to experience God’s limitless grace. Through the cross, we see how far God was willing to go to redeem us from sin. Without sin and the need for redemption, we could never truly understand the depths of God’s love.

One of the toughest questions we face is: Why are we born with sin if we didn’t ask for it? Why should we suffer for something that happened long ago?

The answer lies in the nature of humanity. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve, and because of their sin, we are born into sin. Psalm 51:5 states, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Romans 3:23 echoes this, saying, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Sin entered the human race through Adam’s disobedience when he ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result, all human beings are born with a sin nature—a propensity to rebel against God. This sin nature is passed down through our physical bodies, from generation to generation, just as we inherit genetic traits from our parents.

While our bodies are tainted with sin, our spirits are a different story. The spirit comes from God, as seen in Genesis 1:27 and Ecclesiastes 12:7, and is not inherited from our earthly parents. This is why we must be born-again spiritually. Our physical birth places us in a state of sin, but our spiritual rebirth through the Lord Jesus Christ restores us to a right relationship with God.

Though we are born into sin, we are not without hope. The Bible promises that when the Lord Jesus returns, we will be freed from sin entirely. 1 John 3:2 says, “We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” Philippians 3:21 further promises that our lowly bodies will be transformed to be like His glorious body.

In the resurrection, we will receive glorified bodies, free from the corruption of sin. This transformation will mark the final defeat of sin and death. Until then, we live in a fallen world, but we have the assurance that one day we will be completely free from sin’s grasp.

God created humans with the ability to sin because He wanted us to have the capacity to love Him genuinely. Love, to be “agape” love, requires a choice, and with that choice comes the possibility of rejection and rebellion. Through humanity’s fall and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can see the fullness of God’s love, grace, and mercy.

While we are born into sin because of Adam’s disobedience, we are offered new life through our Lord Jesus Christ. Though our bodies are corrupt and sinful, our spirits can be born-again, and we have the hope of glorified bodies when Christ returns. In the meantime, our task is to live in faith, trusting in God’s eternal plan, and knowing that He has prepared a glorious future for those who love Him.

The fall of man is not the end of the story but the beginning of our journey toward understanding the fullness of God’s love towards us.