By: Tony Williams | July 9th, 2023
Editorial Note: The article below answers a question submitted by a reader at BellatorChristi.com. The question was: “Why did God make a flawed race of creatures and then require them to earn redemption to rejoin them in heaven? He holds all the cards? Or is he operating under the rules of some court? ” Richard M.
Introduction
I appreciate a question recently posed to Bellator Christi. “Why did God make a flawed race of creatures and then require them to earn redemption to rejoin them in heaven? He holds all the cards? Or is he operating under the rules of some court?” Sometimes in these discussions, we get opportunities to reflect on our own journey to faith. This question is a variation of what I was asking Christians about 25 years ago. I am so thankful this reader is asking good questions and seeking answers. I will do my best to help them find their way to an answer.
Flawed Race
Our questioner is certainly exactly right that our race is a flawed one. If you’ve known any human beings for longer than 10 minutes you already know we are a troubled bunch. In fact, the Bible itself declares what our questioner asserts:
“All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:11)1Unless otherwise noted, all quoted Scripture comes from the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016).).
While the assumption that mankind has always been flawed is understandable, the Bible says there is more to the story of our people. The Bible says God did not make a flawed race, but rather our ancestors chose to defy God, and we continue to follow in their footsteps and suffer the consequences ever since the Garden of Eden.
The Creation of Man
The first book of the Bible is Genesis and it describes the origins of the human race, especially as it relates to one man (Adam) and one woman (Eve). While there is no shortage of debate on the time and methods inferred in the story, it is undeniable that man was described as the last creature created by God, and that he was created in God’s image.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
God then set Adam and Eve over the garden He had created for them to exercise dominion over all creation.
“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:28-31)
After God had made all creation and all of the creatures, and assigned Adam and Eve their roles as really important gardeners and zookeepers, He gives one simple prohibition.
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat] of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)
There is a lot of speculation about what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was, but all we need to know is that Adam and Eve knew exactly which tree God meant, and they disobeyed the prohibition to eat its fruit.
Flaw, or Fall?
And here is where the questioner can take notice of something most people, even Christians, often miss. Things were not always as they are now. Things, in the beginning, were different. God calls all things He created, including, man who He made in His image, very good (Genesis 1:31). However, in only the third chapter of Genesis things change for the worse for humanity and all of creation. A certain snake enters the picture and tempts Eve to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree.
“But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” (Genesis 3:4-7)
As a result of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, both man and woman are cursed by God.
“To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:16-19)
Adam, Eve, and their offspring are now sentenced to death as a result of being expelled from the garden where the Tree of Life is planted.
“The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:20-24)
Unfortunately, the first chapters of the Bible are often the ones most dismissed by skeptics and Christians alike as being allegorical, or “mythohistorical”. I once shared the questioner’s question on this subject. I felt that, if the beginning of the story wasn’t true, what relevance does Christianity have on anything at all? What makes a sin a sin? From what, exactly, should Jesus save me?
The Bible continues the story from the fall to describe generation after generation that makes the same decision as Adam and Eve to defy God. To say that the first three chapters of the Bible are critical to understanding the entirety of the book is more than an understatement.
Why Laws?
The Bible makes it clear, it is God who created the material world, and thus all of the natural laws that go with it. The Bible also makes clear God is the one who made all of the laws relating to what is right and what is wrong. When it comes to laws of nature or the laws of morality, we find that there are consequences to violating both. This is not philosophical, but rather something every sane person understands from experience. If people defy the law of gravity, there are consequences. People stand a good chance of being hurt. If you violate the laws God provided to mankind prohibiting theft, marital infidelity, or murder, people will almost certainly get hurt.
If the Bible is true, as I believe it to be, why did God put all these rules in place? Was it to test us? Was it to see who would be loyal to a capricious god that likes to see humans suffer? Again, if we go back to the starting point of a perfect creation by a perfect God, followed by a fall into imperfection as a result of lawbreaking the picture gets clearer.
Earning Redemption
If the Bible is true, and humans are born into a fallen family with sinful dispositions, how can we possibly measure up to what is said to be a perfect God who is love? How can there ever be any hope of measuring up to the One who created the physical and metaphysical universe? The answer to this question is good news for all of us fallen men and women. In fact, it is usually called the “good news”.
God’s Plan Revealed In the Garden
In the Garden of Eden when God was cursing Adam with work that would become difficult and Eve with the pain of childbirth, God also cursed the snake who convinced Eve to take a bite at the forbidden fruit.
“The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:14-15)
The snake is assumed by many to be Satan, an angel who rebelled against God’s authority and “fell” to earth. He has been accused of providing bad ideas to men and women ever since Eden. But here, God makes the statement that the snake will bruise the heel of Eve’s offspring but this offspring would bruise his head.
God’s Solution
The Bible then winds through lots of mankind’s failures, but similar statements are made by prophets throughout. By some scholars’ count, there are over 400 predictions about a coming Messiah who would deliver the offspring of Adam and Eve from sin’s grasp. About 2,000 years ago, the man who Christians believe is the fulfillment of the promise in the garden of Eden and all of the prophets, arrived in Jerusalem. He was the source of much of the ideology in Western civilization, even though He was a poor carpenter who had a small following in a poor region of a country under Rome’s control.
For the trouble of many reported miraculous physical and spiritual healings, as well as promising people eternal peace with Him in heaven, Jesus Christ was crucified after three years of ministry. His heels would have been pierced by nails in the process of crucifixion, fulfilling God’s prophecy in Genesis. The death of Jesus wasn’t the end of the story, but rather a new and unexpected beginning. For those willing to investigate the claims of Christianity, a questioner will find that God Himself became a man. He willingly went to the cross to be tortured and killed so that mankind would not have to earn salvation on their own.
Why?
God did it for us in an act of love, even as mankind was still in open rebellion against the One who made him. The Supreme Lawmaker was given the full measure of justice on the cross to spare still rebellious mankind while they were, and are, still in rebellion. Then He was raised to eternal life to sit at the right hand of God and prepare heaven for those who would choose to follow Him.
Why did God do it? Certainly, it must be in part because God is love. (1 John 4:8) I would also refer once again to Genesis, which describes God making man in His own image. (Genesis 1:27) God cares for those who bear His image.
Summary
To give a very concise summary of what could be volumes of books on this question, the Bible says that men are flawed because they chose (and continue to choose) to rebel against the ultimate lawgiver, God. Like the law of gravity, if you break the moral laws of God people get hurt. People are made in God’s image, and the laws are there to protect His image bearers. Justice for harming an image-bearer is required. Because God loves His people, He made Himself like them. Lived a perfect life, and was willingly tortured and killed to take the penalty in the place of all humanity. This achieved both perfect justice and perfect grace for very imperfect people. All who decide to turn from sin and place their faith in Christ are delivered. Not just in the next life, but in this life as well from the curse of sin and death.
Your Choice
Christ said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). The Bible is clear when read in its totality. All that is necessary for salvation is to repent of sins and trust in Jesus, the Creator of the universe who takes away the sins of the world. The kingdom of God would come to all His believing image-bearers until He returns in all His glory to judge mankind and reign for eternity.
God made the laws, but we hold our own cards. The choice to sin or not sin belongs to all people. The choice to trust in men or trust in God belongs to every imperfect one of us. The option to be reconciled to our Creator is available to all who will only repent and believe Christ paid the price for our sins.
About the Author
Tony Williams is currently serving in his 20th year as a police officer in a city in Southern Illinois. He has been studying apologetics in his spare time for two decades, since a crisis of faith led him to the discovery of vast and ever-increasing evidence for his faith. Tony received a bachelor’s degree in University Studies from Southern Illinois University in 2019. His career in law enforcement has provided valuable insight into the concepts of truth, evidence, confession, testimony, cultural competency, morality, and most of all, the compelling need for Christ in the lives of the lost. Tony plans to pursue postgraduate studies in apologetics in the near future to sharpen his understanding of the various facets of Christian apologetics.
Additional articles by the author:
Copyright, 2023. Bellator Christi.
Notes
- 1Unless otherwise noted, all quoted Scripture comes from the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016).).
