Question and Answer

Question: In your answer to “Were Adam and Eve created perfect? If so, how could they sin?”, I would like to have your clarification on the following: you mentioned that it is false to say that God causes all things to happen with regard to Adam’s sin.  If God did not cause Adam to sin, then it seems that Adam created sin on his own or at least worked with Eve and the serpent to create sin. Is that your stance on this subject?  I understand that we all sin because we have a sinful nature.  If God created Adam without such a sinful nature, then what made him sin?

Response: God never caused Adam to sin, but in their creation, He well recognized that fallible man would fail. Lucifer, who dwelt in the presence of God as the “angel [cherub] that covereth” (Ezk 28:14), had already fallen when Adam and Eve were created and placed in the garden. It was not a matter of Adam “creating” sin but of succumbing to what was already in the world in the person of Satan. Certainly God allowed the circumstances that Satan used in his temptation of man, but the Scriptures clearly note the accountability of Adam.

Eve, according to 1 Timothy:2:14And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
See All... was deceived by Satan. “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” Yet Adam sinned with full knowledge of the deception, and Romans:5:12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
See All... tells us, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned....”

As to what made Adam sin, there has been much speculation regarding his “love for Eve” and his “loyalty” to her. Yet, though man was created perfect, he did have a free will, which he could and would exercise in making choices. Now, some may argue that Adam’s “potential” to sin means that he wasn’t perfect, but clearly Adam’s relationship with the Lord was indeed perfect until he made the choice to sin.

As Dave Hunt often observed, for love to exist requires the free exercise of the human will. In the process, God’s judgment and His mercy are displayed in His response to the fall of mankind. We could never know and experience God’s grace unless we needed grace. God’s plan before creation for the atonement and redemption of man, whom He knew would fall into sin, demonstrates His grace and mercy. These were revealed through Adam’s and  mankind’s subsequent transgressions in that God did not exercise deserved judgment by destroying man. Instead, His grace and provision were proven by the covering He provided (Gn 3:21). That covering was a foreshadowing of the eternal work of atonement provided by “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rv 13:8).

God’s patience and forbearance were later demonstrated as mankind went deeper and deeper into sin. His justice and wrath were seen when He sent the flood, and His grace and mercy shown in saving Noah and his family. Even after His chosen people sinned again and again, God yet preserved a remnant though the whole deserved destruction. “And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this” (2 Ki:19:30-31 [30] And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. [31] For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
See All...).

God’s perfect justice will be absolutely revealed in the future once-for-all judgment of Satan (Rv 20:7-10) and the eternal bliss and joy of a redeemed people.