By: Dale Weckbacher
Gen 3:15
And I will put enmity
Between you and the
woman,
And between your seed
and her Seed;
He shall bruise your
head,
And you shall bruise
His heel."
NKJV
One objection often incurred when sharing the Gospel with a
nonbeliever is why a loving God would allow evil in the world. This is a tough question and I admit I do not
have a complete answer. Fortunately,
since the Gospel is accepted through faith, having a complete answer to the
question is not necessary for us to be saved.
However, a nonbeliever asking this question may genuinely want an answer
to the question so in this posting, I am going to attempt to come up with an
answer to the question that may help remove this obstacle for some.
When I encounter a difficult question, I find it helpful to
find the source of the problem. For the
question of how God could allow evil to exist in the world we must therefore
first determine the source of evil. The
good news is that the Bible, the Word of God makes that easy for the entrance
of evil into the world occurred at the very beginning.
In Genesis 2 the Bible describes the Garden of Eden and life
in that garden. Scripture describes the
Garden of Eden as a place containing every tree that is pleasant to the sight
and good for food. Also in the middle of
the Garden, we find the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. Four rivers flowed through the
garden providing abundant water for sustaining all life in the garden. Adam and Eve had the job of tending the
garden and had only one restriction, they could eat of any tree in the garden,
including the tree of life, but were forbidden from eating from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
Had Adam and Eve obeyed this command, God would have
continued protecting them from evil and provided for every one of their
needs. Unfortunately for us all, Adam
and Eve sinned by disobeying God and evil entered the world (Genesis 3). This disobedience led to Adam and Eve being
evicted from the pristine Garden of Eden not just due to their disobedience but
also to prevent them from eating of the tree of life which would have sentenced
Adam and Eve, and all future humanity to an eternity separated from God by sin
(Genesis 3:22-24). However, God evicted
Adam and Eve with the promise of Genesis 3:15, a promise that a redeemer would
come and destroy the tempter, Satan, but only after Satan bruises the
redeemer’s heal.
We now have the benefit of hindsight and know that Jesus
Christ, the promised redeemer, came and died on a cross. Part of the process of crucifixion is the
driving of a nail through the feet of the person being crucified. This nail driven through the feet of Jesus
who never sinned (2 Corinthians 5:21) allowed Satan to bruise his heal and three
days later Jesus bruised Satan’s head by rising from the grave and thus
conquering death.
The answer to the question of how a loving God can allow
evil in the world is that evil is the result of the disobedience of Adam and
Eve. God did not create humanity to be
robots slavishly obeying his every command but instead gave them freedom of
choice. Adam and Eve made the wrong
choice and God would have been justified in just destroying them and starting
over.
However, God is a loving and merciful God and instead
evicted Adam and Eve from the Garden before they partook of the tree of life
and were eternally slaves to their sin. Before
their eviction, God promised redemption, which was fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. This means we, like Adam and
Eve, have a choice. We can continue
living in sin or we can choose to accept the redeemer promised in Genesis 3:15
and be saved. The choice is ours.
If you have not done so already, please take a moment and
pray with me,
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans 3:23) and know
that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans 6:23). I ask you to forgive me of my sin and cleanse
me as you promise in your Word (1 John 1:9).
I believe you died, was buried, and resurrected from the dead and now
declare you Lord of my life.
Unfortunately, we still live in a world dominated by evil,
and accepting Jesus as our savior does not transport us out of this world. However, John 3:16 does promise us eternal
life, not in this sinful world, but eternity with Jesus Christ. The reason Jesus does not transport us out of
this world is that he wants us to share the good news of redemption through
Jesus Christ with others.
I therefore encourage everyone reading this to accept Jesus
as their redeemer and then share this good news with others so they too can
spend eternity with God in a future world absent of evil.
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