God’s Goodness
Imagine a deer running through the woods at the very time a dead tree falls, trapping the deer helplessly alone. The deer starves to death in solitary confusion. An agnostic might ask and say, “If there is an all powerful, good God, why or how would He allow this to happen? This is immoral.”
In and with His sovereignty, God created and sustains heavens and earth. Everything was perfect and then man sinned against God. God allowed Adam and Eve to sin. Sin is wrong, but allowing them to sin is not. God does not sin and He does not tempt anyone to sin James writes (1:13):
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.
James says many other things in chapter one of his epistle that indicate the moral nature of God, that with God is only good. On the other hand, sin ruined men and all men sin. Paul writes in Romans 3:12 that there is no man that does good. Goodness does not characterize man, even as Jesus says in Matthew 19:17: “There is none good, but one, that is God.”
The Nature of the Fall of Man
An agnostic, again elevating himself above God, might question the Fall of man through sin. What did he do? He ate of a tree. It was worse than that. He disobeyed God, rebelled against Him, and put his self and even Satan above God.
God, the Lawgiver and Judge, commanded man not to eat of that tree. God would not have man to know evil. Later in Genesis 3:22, the Father speaking to the other two members of the Godhead, said, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” The agnostic again attacks the moral nature of God, as if God selfishly did not want man to become like Him. That’s not what God is saying in Genesis 3:22.
Adam and Eve are God’s creation. With His knowledge of good and evil, God has no ability to sin. Adam and Eve did. They became as God, but this does not mean they became identical to God. No. They knew evil internally and experientially. God is holy and separate from sin. He knows evil, but on the outside, not in a personal experience. The only future plan for eternal life must include redemption from sin and that would not occur with and to everyone.
The Morality of the Curse on Earth
The Single Eye of God
God does not see the heavens and the earth through a dark or evil lens, such as men do. The eye of God is single and He allows only light through it (Luke 11:34-36). The eye of man is by nature evil and so also is full of darkness. This incapacity and ruination disallow man from the same moral judgment as God. With God is no variableness nor shadow of turning (James 1:17). God sees everything in an untainted, single eyed, enlightened manner. He sees everything past, present, and future and with complete moral clarity, unfettered by sin.
As right and good punishment for sin, God cursed the earth that He created. It would no longer be the same until a later date when God would reverse all of this through Jesus Christ. This curse includes the animals.
Cursed Ground and Its Consequences
When God cursed the ground in Genesis 3:17-19, animals received and continue receiving the effects of that. Animals experience the consequences of the Fall, the fact that God has cursed the ground. All animals as a result of the Fall will decay. They get diseases, age, and die in many various fashions. The whole animal kingdom changed. In an uncursed state, Isaiah 11:6 reports:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
Furthermore, Isaiah 65:25 says:
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
Natural predators no longer predatory, the lion or the wolf not killing lambs any more. This new condition characterizes the earth with the curse lifted.
Creation Groaning
Romans 8:20-22 say that God’s creation groans under the impact of sin. An agnostic might say, “That’s not fair to the animals.” This is a moral judgment from a fallen creature on a holy God, who knows all things with perfect clarity or light, not impeded by darkness. God expresses the conditions for the animals in Jeremiah 12:4:
How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He, shall not see our last end.
John Gill comments: “Wickedness is the cause not only of the withering of the grass and herbs, but of the consumption of birds and beasts.” In this moral realm where God is Lawgiver and Judge, animals along with the rest of God’s creation suffer under the results of the entrance of sin. The purpose of God is pure in His inclusion of effects on everything. His grace still works in a manner that it is not as bad as it could be. This is the mercy of God. However, God is just in His dealings and judging God is not the right moral reaction to Him.
The Morality of God
The morality of God is morality. His assessment is the right assessment. His judgment is just.
Another aspect of the judgment of God is that He knows all possible outcomes. He can even answer the question, “What’s the alternative?” He knows every alternative. The one God chooses in fitting with His nature.
God is pure good with zero variableness. He gives every good and perfect gift. Humans enter and interact with whatever earthly scene with very limited perspective and context. One could ask, “What is the greatest good in every situation?” People don’t know that. God knows what will benefit the most people and He judges evil in an untainted manner related to its past, present, and future. Whatever He allows or causes is the greatest good for the most people.
In a sin-cursed world, no one deserves life according to the morality of God, but even with that outcome of sin, God allows or causes the greatest possible good for the most people. He also knows when no one or even just a few in a particular culture will turn from their wicked ways and He spares those who deserve sparing in this lifetime. God spared Rahab in Jericho, indicating this truth.
Deserved Outcomes
A cycle of life and death resulted from the Fall of sin that impacts all of creation. Everyone and everything suffers because sin is very bad. Sin is deserving of the outcome it receives, even as God governs morality.
A future new heaven and new earth will starkly contrast with this present age of doom and destruction. Why? Sin is gone, so the results of sin are gone.
The same agnostics most often justify immorality in a multitude of ways. They expect God to wink at sin and then continue winking at it. This manifests their immoral nature. They have a different set of expectations than God and for God, skewed by their own depraved nature.
More to Come
Recent Comments