Why Would God Make Mankind Capable of Sinning?

WELCOME

Pastor Chris Paavola:

Band. Thank you so much, Ms. Lisa for that reading this morning. Good, everybody. Good morning. Good to be with you guys today. It is not the same when you’re not here. It’s not. I hope you know that every morning when you wake up going, should I go to church today? It’s snowing. I don’t know. It’s cold and I’m warm out of these blankets. Is it worth it? It’s worth it. It is different when you’re here. So thank you guys so much for making the effort. I didn’t even know it was snowing until I came out of my office this morning. It wasn’t snowing when I drove in, but then I saw that and I’m like, God, couldn’t you wait until after church? But anyway, so it’s snowing. Yeah. A couple of quick things before we get in into today’s message. Just some points we want to make about some announcements we want to give.

First of all, today, if you’re a guest with us, we have our Newcomers lunch. We do this once a month and this will be at 1215 right there. Actually today is going to be in the conference room, but today at 1215, chance to meet me and other leaders in the church ask questions, what does it mean to be a part of St. Mark? Would love to see you at that. And if you’re watching online and you didn’t get to church in your pajamas still and he woke up late or whatever, you can come on in at 12:15 pm. We’d love to see you at that. And then also Wednesday, coming up on Wednesday, we have our prayer night. We do this once a month. I would love to see each and every one of you at that. We get together and we pray. We do what the church is supposed to do, and I hope that each of you guys can be there.

And then on Sunday, coming up next week, we have a Baptism 101. We do baptisms a lot here. It’s what we do. It’s why we do what we do. It’s kind of a culminating moment for us. And so that baptism one-on-one will also be in the conference room that’s next Sunday. So if you’ve got questions or if you want to be baptized or a loved one wants to be baptized, we’ve got a little packet for you and you can do a little q and a time and asking questions and stuff. So we’d love to see you at that as well. And that’s on Sunday, February 9th. I can’t even believe it’s February already.

SERIES

Today is groundhogs today. I think it’s six more weeks a winter, right? Ridiculous. Look outside. Anyway, yeah. So today though, we are in a series, we’re continuing this series in the month of February that we’ve been doing throughout January.

It’s a series called The Reason for God, where we are having a conversation on faith and doubt and asking some big questions about some big issues that like people have with Christianity and just what being unafraid to answer some of these questions or to ask them and talk about them. And so in the previous weeks we’ve taken on some pretty big topics, but here we are just past halfway and we’re asking the question of why would God make mankind capable of sinning? And this is a question that is a response to the basic premise of Christianity. So we go, okay, God made the world man sins. The world fell under the curse of sin. And then God sent his son to forgive us of our sins and now we can live with him forever. And that’s kind of like the basic premise of Christianity. But if you have just an honest conversation with someone about this who’s really truly weighing this, whether it’s an agnostic or an atheist, they will go, whoa, whoa.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. So you’re saying that God made us right? Yes. And God made us with the capacity to sin, right? Yes. And then God gets mad at us when we do what we have the capacity to do sin. Well, yeah, that seems like God is complicit in all of this. So how could God, if it’s all of this thing that you’re saying it is, how could God be angry at us for doing what he made us to do in the first place? And isn’t this just kind of a house of cards that comes crumbling down really? And it’s a fantastic question and it’s a really hard question to answer actually. This is if you’ve ever seen the movie Devil’s advocate with Al Pacino, he plays a lawyer who’s actually the devil. Anyone is from the early two thousands, but at the end of the movie he has this big grand speech and it’s very Al Pacino style, but he’s like, this would make God a sadist. And we’re all part of this cosmic gag reel where he’s just laughing at us, look, but don’t touch. Touch but don’t taste. And all the while we’re dancing from one foot to the next while dodging bullets and he’s laughing and I mean it’s a very compelling and convincing argument, frankly it is.

But before we just kind of dismiss things, wisdom. Wisdom is in scripture talks about this, but wisdom is considering both sides of a matter before drawing a conclusion. And so I think it’s good for us to give God a moment to kind of give a counter argument to, okay, hold on. Is that really the premise God is making? Is that really what all of this is built on? Is that the foundation? I don’t think it is.

THE PREMISE OF GENESIS

We’ve got to kind look at the premise of this entire argument by going to the Book of Genesis where this whole thing starts in the very beginning. There’s nothing and out of nothing, God makes everything right.

We’ll talk about that in the week about science, but basically God makes everything out of nothing and he makes the mountains and he makes the stars and he makes the oceans and he makes the eucalyptus tree and then he makes the koala to climb the eucalyptus tree, all of these things, all these days of creation. Then he gets to day six and he decides that he’s going to make mankind the crown jewel of his creation.

26 Then God said “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule

            Genesis 1

We read about it in Genesis one, verse 26, then “God said, let us make man” say it!

Response: “In our image and our likeness so that they may rule.”

Pastor Chris Paavola:

It is really hard to overstate how many volumes of books have been written about Genesis one, verse 26. There is so much theology baked into this one verse, and we don’t have even remotely enough time to begin talking about all of it, but there’s just a few things going on that I want to call out.

But for the purposes to say is this idea being made in our image, that phrase in our image in Latin is Imago de this idea we are made in the Imago de the image of God and that we are all image bearers. From the moment you are conceived, you bear the image of God. It is imprinted in you. And this means that there is nobody in your life that you’ve ever laid eyes on. There’s nobody you’ve ever laid eyes on who was not bearing the image of God. This is true for the infant with down syndrome. This is true for the inmates on death row. This is true for the immigrants being deported. Everybody is made in the image of God, everybody. And this means a few things. One, they have inherent value, worth and dignity. Nobody has any more worth and any less worth on this divine scale.

We are all image bearers. There’s a proverb that talks about rich and poor have this in common. The Lord is maker of them both. We all bear the image of God. We all have equal value and worth, and this is where this comes from long before it was said. And the Declaration of Independence right then because of that image, that’s not just like a physical, it’s not just the physical representation of image, it’s more than that. As image bearers, we have certain things, attributes that God has conferred upon us. We see one of them right here so that they may rule one of those attributes is the idea that we have dominion, we have rule God and very nature God of who he is has rule over it all. And then he entrusts stewardship and management of his creation to us. Rule over the earth. You have dominion as my image bearers. This is a title you now have and this means that you rule over the land, the sea, the water, the birds, all of it.

RELATIONSHIP

So, on top of that, so we’ve got this idea that we all have worth, that you are more valuable than a bird. We have this idea that we have dominion and rule, but then there’s also relationship because you are made with the image of God. You are made for relationship. If you’ve noticed, when we were just looking at Genesis one, there, God, the word for God is a singular word God in the Hebrew. But God says, let us make man in our image. And it’s this brain melting moment where God, the singular refers to himself in the plural. He is the triune God, father, son and the Holy Spirit. That’s what I don’t want to go too far down that rabbit trail, but that’s going on in this text as well. And it’s just in one verse, let us make man in our image and that means that God is in relationship with himself.

The Father relates to the Son, the Son relates to the Father, spirit relates to the Father and son. They’re all in relationship with one another. And so when God makes us in the image of God, he makes us with the capacity for relationship. There’s a Paul Simon song from back in the Day, I think it’s Simon and Garfunkel, I am a rock. I am an islands because a rock feels no pain and an island never cries. Right? You’ve heard this song, it’s a good song. Or maybe you’ve not heard this song, but it’s a good song. It’s catchy, but it’s wrong. We are not made to be alone. In fact, in the creation account, God looks at the mountains, he says, it is good. God looks at the stars. He says, it is good. God looks at the duck billed platypus, the hippopotamus, the aardvark and he says it is good.

But when he gets to man, it’s the first time he says it. He says, it is not good. That man is alone. And so he makes a helper suitable for him. And we have Adam and we have Eve, and we are made in the image of God for relationship. It is not good for you to be alone because you bear the image of God. God who is in relationship with himself makes us to be in relationship with us and he makes us with the capacity for relationship. This is really, really important stuff if we’re going to answer this question like a very important groundwork that we can lay. So God makes us with the capacity for relationship and relationship by nature has two components that are required. One of them is freedom.

If somebody captures you, chains you to a wall and demands that you love them, you’re probably not going to love them. You’ve lost all autonomy, you’ve lost your freedom. You’re far more likely to fall in love with somebody if they woo you. They tell you how much they love you. They write letters to you, they serve you, they give you gifts. And so relationship requires this freedom of expression and autonomy and agency freedom and relationship requires one more thing, but kind of put a pin in that conversation. We’ll look at a verse and we’ll get back to the second component required for relationship. Again, all of this is important groundwork to answer this question. So then we have the problem of what happens.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2

God makes man in his image with the capacity for relationship, gives them freedom. And then we get the tree. The Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. So God makes man puts him in the garden of Eden. So God, there he is complicit, right? God puts him in the place where all of this goes down. By the way, quick side note, notice that imperfection in paradise, they work.

If some of y’all think that heaven is eternal retirement, I got news for you. I don’t make the news, I just deliver it. Okay, so you’re, you’re going to be working when you get up there. I’m just saying. So God puts them in the garden feed and work it and take care of it. And then we get to the tree, next verse. And the Lord God commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden. You’re free. There’s freedom. We see the word freedom, like this idea of freedom in relationship. You’re freedom to do whatever you want, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die. Now why a tree? I don’t know. I don’t know why it’s a tree and why it contains the, but I don’t think it’s about the tree so much. Think any command that God would’ve given any command he gives scripture talks about how when the command is given, then sin seizes the opportunity and entices you. It doesn’t matter. Whatever command God would’ve given, Adam and Eve would’ve been tempted. I don’t think it’s so much about the tree, but God says, don’t eat from the tree. The knowledge of good, the evil for when you eat from it, you will certainly die.

And Adam and Eve, what did it look like hanging out in the garden next to this tree? I dunno, maybe it looked like this.

THE MARSHMALLOW TEST

Video Speaker:

Okay, sit in that chair. All right, here’s the deal, marshmallow for you. You can either wait and I’ll give you another one if you wait or you can eat it Now, when I come back, I’ll give you another one. So then you’ll have to, but stay in here and stay in the chair until I come back. Okay? All right. So I’m going to leave and then I’ll come back. Okay? So you can either eat it right now or you can wait either way. Okay? Okay. How’d you do? Did you do good? You did, yeah. You wanted to eat it, didn’t you? Yeah. So did I tell you to give you another one? Okay, now you can have both. You need them.

Pastor Chris Paavola:

That’s hilarious. So I don’t know what it was like in the Garden of Eden. I dunno if Adam and Eve would walk by the fruit, sniff it every day, kiss it, pick at it, but eventually Adam and Eve eat the fruit and the world falls into the curse of sin and you kind of go, well, why would God make them with a capacity to do that in the first place? Why would God put a tree in there in the first place? There’s an author named CS Lewis, and probably one of the most, well, it’s not even probably, it is one of the most important Christian books written in the last 500 years. It’s called Mere Christianity. At some point, we’re going to go through this book together because it’s spectacular.

But in mere Christianity, he talks about this idea of why would God make us with the capacity to sin? And he writes:

When we have to understand about free will. When we have understood about free will, we shall see how silly it is to ask. As somebody once asked me, why did God make a creature of such rotten stuff that it went wrong? The better stuff a creature is made of the clever and stronger and the freer it is, then the better it will be if it goes right. But also the worse it will be if it goes wrong, A cow, a cow cannot be very good or very bad. A dog can be both better and worse, a child better and worse, still an ordinary man still more so a man of genius, still more so a superhuman spirit, best – or worst – of all.

C.S. Lewis

And what he’s basically saying is that God didn’t want to make a robot. God makes a robot. There’s not much joy in that for him. And remember, he is bound for relationship. And if he makes a bunch of robots and puppets, there’s no joy in that. And so that brings us to the second requirement of relationships. The first one is freedom. You’ve got to be free to choose freedom itself. And then the second requirement of relationship is capacity. God made us with this capacity for love and for good, and also we could choose to do great pain and evil.

You can complain about Hitler, but it also means you get Mother Teresa. The more you think about it, God looked at mankind and weighed the possibility of making us. And then he thought that the risk of love is worth the reward. That’s it. He looked at you and thought about you and he is like, yeah, the risk is worth the reward. And because you are an image bearer, you know this intuitively, you do. Our first dog that we ever had, me and Ashley when we got married, our first dog was awful, ate everything off the counter and chewed things that she wasn’t supposed to chew. And it was just a naughty dog. But I still let the kids talk me into getting another dog and she’s the greatest.

THE RISK AND REWARD OF LOVE

And there was a risk. There’s this element of risk involved. You know this every time, if you’re single, you go on a date, there’s a risk there, but the risk of love is worth the reward.

THE RISK IS WORTH THE REWARD

It might be the most miserable date you’ve ever been on. The person might talk only about themselves, can’t carry a conversation and has weird annoying ticks or something. And you’re hoping that somebody will text you so you can find a convenient excuse to get out of this thing. Or they may make your lips numb and your heart race, they might be your soulmates.

And every parent who has a child knows this, the risk of love is worth the reward. You know this, your kid, well, not your kid, but a your child might be a source of great pain in your life. They might be annoying, not your kids, not my kids, or they might be the source of greatest joy. You don’t know you’re hopeful, but you decide to have children because you believe the risk of love is worth the reward. You know this because you’re an image bearer of God. You do you know this intuitively.

AN ACT OF MERCY

So, this puts God in a really difficult spot. It makes Adam and Eve in this garden, puts them there. And Adam and Eve, no, no, eat the app or eat that the marshmallow fail the marshmallow test and he’s got a difficult choice to make.

22 And the Lord God said, “the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to each out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.  

Genesis 2         

We read about it in Genesis two, the Lord God said, “the man has now become one of us knowing good and evil.”

There’s that plural again by the way. And he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. We forget this part of the story of the Garden of Eden. There’s two trees, not one. And when you see it in art, it’s always depicted as one tree because they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But there’s another tree in the garden, a tree of life, and it’s laid out here for us. If they eat from the tree of life, they will live forever. In this fallen states, creation has now fallen under the curse of sin because of Adam and Eve. And if they eat from the tree of life, they will live forever in this corrupted, inferior world. And there will be no end to your suffering, no end to your sorrow, no end to your pain, none, no end to it.

So, God is in a really, really difficult position. He could go old yeller on this moment and end it all or demonstrate his mercy. So the Lord God banished him from the garden of Eden to work the ground from when he came. We think of God sending Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden as punishment. His wrath being carried out on them. How dare you? But my friends, it’s mercy, y’all. That’s mercy. We see the greatness of God’s grace in creation. He makes this world. It’s the mountains and the constellations and sunsets, and then he gives it all. That’s what grace does, right? He gives it undeserved. It’s a gift he gives it to man. We see the greatness of God’s grace in creation, but it’s only after the fall that we see the greatness of God’s mercy. He spares them from living forever like this, and he casts them out of the garden of Eden and he banishes them.

And Romans five kind of talks about this. He talks about how later on there’s Jesus God in the flesh taking on the punishment for Adam’s sin. And he talks about how through the disobedience of one man, sin came over all creation. But now through the obedience of Christ, forgiveness has come. And then we read in Romans five, next verse, please. Judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation. But the gift of Christ followed many trespasses and brought justification. So it’s possible, my friends, it’s not just that God decided I’m going to spare Adam and Eve. It’s possible. When he was thinking about making you and me when he was thinking about making us with the capacity for great evil or great good, he thought the risk is worth the reward. And when it comes to the point that they disappoint me, I’m going to pay the price. He knew the cost and he was willing to pay it.

That’s wild. And so every week in this series, I kind of feel like I give you guys breadcrumbs, that kind of lead, and you have to draw a conclusion for yourself this week. I think the answer is really easy.

RELATIONSHIP

Why would God make mankind capable of sinning love? Why would God send mankind out of the garden of Eden? Love? Why would God send his son to pay the punishment to pay the penalty for Adam? And Eve’s sin love God is love. And as such, he is predisposed and bent on relationship. It’s what he wants. And I think if you’re here today because someone invited you and you’re just kind of exploring and looking into Jesus, the series kind of appealed to you if you’re watching online because somebody said you should check this out, and we’re talking about some of the questions that you have. I’m so glad that you guys are here. It really is not the same without you. It’s not. So thank you for being here. But as you’re looking into this, I hope that you can see you’re not looking into a religion investigating Jesus. And the claim of Christianity is looking into a relationship. And I know for some of you, you’re watching or you’re sitting here, you’re going, well, why can’t God just make it obvious? Why can’t he hit me over the head and just tell me this is who I am?

It’s a lot like asking, expecting God to chain you to a wall and to force you to love him. But listen, instead of chaining you to a wall and forcing you to love him, he’s wooed you. He’s served you. He’s given you gifts. He’s written letters about how much he loves you and he wants to be in a relationship with you with all the freedom and capacity to love that comes with it because the risk of loving you is worth a reward. Lemme pray for us.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the links that you have gone through to love us. You’ve created a world and forgiven us and given us, there’s no lengths you’ve spared no expense to be in relationship with us. And we thank you for that.

I pray God, for just first of all as a confession. This question of why would you make us capable of sinning Carries kind of a general sense, but like in a personal sense, all of us have sinned, all of us have fallen short even this week, these last few days or today, we have sinned against you and done what is evil in your sight. And we need your forgiveness. And we don’t blame you. We just ask for you to forgive us that we may grow in relationship with you. And if there’s anyone here who is not in a relationship with you, God, I pray today that you would show them the links that you’ve gone through to woo them, that you serve them, you’ve given them gifts, you’ve written love letters for them, all that they might fall in love with you.

Don’t give up. God, keep pursuing them even if they’re playing hard to get that they might love you and call on your name and be saved. That’s in Jesus’ name. We pray all these things and we pray now the prayer your son taught us to pray saying, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS

Because this series is all about a conversation. We’re taking your text questions that hopefully are on topic about this. So whether you’re watching online or in person, you can text your questions to 269-44 8-4747and I’ll open my handy daddy app here and figure all of this out or answer your questions if the risk is worth the reward.

Q: This is interesting language. So, if the risk is worth the reward, does that mean God loves those who become collateral damage less?

A: No. It’s basically saying for the people who reject him, does he love them less? No. No. He spared no expense to save them. We know in scripture that there’s phrases like that God desires the salvation of all mankind. He desires that all would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. And so does he suddenly love them less? No, I think it breaks his heart. Just like if you’re a parent and you have a child who breaks your heart and runs away and doesn’t return your phone calls, you still love them. That’s why it hurts. So that would be my answer to that. Hopefully I’m reading the question right?

Q: Yeah. So, this is a question of why would God make a tree of knowledge or God make a tree of life?

A: Yeah, I mean that’s baked into this for sure. Why have a tree in the first place? I don’t think it’s about the tree. I think man sin would’ve been jumped at the opportunity to attempt us regardless of what the rule or the command was. But also don’t confuse a command as being a cosmic killjoy or something like that. For instance, if you give ten fourth graders a ball and tell them to play with it, it’s going to descend into anarchy so fast. Some are going to be pretending to play kickball, some are going to be playing dodge ball, some are going to be playing football with that one ball. They’re going to be fighting over it. Kids are going to be crying. And then even if they try, even if you told ’em to play soccer, they would be saying that was in, that was out or that that was a handball or that was a goal.

That wasn’t a goal that they’d be fighting about. All of that. The rules of soccer, like creating boundaries. This is the box where the goalie can touch the ball with their hands. And this is the halfway, and this is the inbounds and outbounds that makes for more joy. And so commands don’t necessarily mean that God is trying to ruin are fun. We would say that the commands of God bring joy, they bring life. They’re there to protect us and preserve us. And that could still be true in the Garden of Eden. We don’t know. I mean, there’s going to be always things that you can’t answer. Why a tree of knowledge? Why a tree of life? Why would God do that? I don’t know. I don’t know.

But I don’t think it changes the premise of the argument of why God would do it or not do it. It still comes back to love. So there’s always going to be things I can’t answer. This is an example of one we just don’t know. And if we try to peel that back and look into what is hidden from us, then it’s a futile. It’s like maybe you’ve ever heard of the phrase, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. It’s the wrong question we should be asking.

Q: So yeah, appreciate the series, the analogy, parents, why would God allow broken things to take us away from him?

A: I mean, there’s a longer context, but the question is why would God allow broken things to take us away from him? I don’t know how to answer that other than mean. Every relationship has some type of expectations and unmet expectations is a source of all conflict. You marry somebody and you’re like, we’re going to be, I pledge you my love and faithfulness. And when they break that and they cheat on you or something like that, that’s that brokenness. Well, that’s like asking the spouse who has cheated on. Why would you let that hurt you? Well, you let that hurt you because you had this expectation going into the relationship of what this would be like. What were the rules of engagement with one another? And so asking why someone who loves would be hurt when someone is unloving.

I think that’s kind of a backwards, that’s circular logic a little bit. It’s kind of backwards reasoning, I think. Yeah, it’s placing blame on the wrong person. I think who wrote the book of Genesis? We think Moses, he was with God for a very long time. So transcribe that.

Q: Oh, this is an interesting one. If we were all made in God’s image, then why does he have people of different skin colors?

A: Asian, black, brown, white. Yeah, because image, I hope I explained this, but image is not contained to robots stamped or dolls made in an assembly line, just like everyone being exactly the same and imaging companies more than just the visual representation. We talked about rule and dominion, we talked about the capacity for relationships. All of these things are bound up in this idea of being made in the image of God. It’s not just don’t be misled by the word image. It’s not just this idea of image. Okay, one more question and then we’re going to sing a song. Get out of here. Losing track of time.

Q: Oh, okay. So free will. It’s basically a question about free will. It’s a lot longer, but God made us capable of sinning us because of free will.

A: Free will. That’s interesting. And this is just like a can of worms. You open this and a whole bunch of other worms come out. But free will is an interesting topic to think about because I try to avoid the word choosing or making a decision for Jesus for a few reasons. Because I think Adam and Eve had free will. It was a will to choose. It was the capacity to choose, and it was absolutely free after the fall. Martin Luther would make the argument. And Martin Luther’s, one of his most famous book is a book called The Bondage of the Will. After the fall, our will is truly not free anymore. I can will to wear purple socks today, right?

That’s not sinning or not, but if I go rob a bank or something like that, that’s my will, that’s my free will. But really it’s not free because all of creation is under the curse of sin. Scripture would talk about how no one desires God. No one desires what is good that I can’t choose God. I can’t choose goodness anymore. That’s how corrupt I am because of sin. And that’s what we see in scripture. One scripture that’s an important one that talks about this is no one says Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Faith is a gift from God. Ephesians two, and like we memorized in the catechism, I cannot by my own reason of strength, believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me. So it’s this idea that even your will is corrupt.

And even the fact, if you confess Jesus is Lord, it’s not this will, it’s not your choice. It’s the Holy Spirit and act in you giving faith. And that raises all sorts of questions. But the important thing when it comes to free will, you had free will or Adam and Eve had free will, but now our will is under the bondage of sin until Christ redeems us. And so man, this gets into all sorts of big conversations, but when it comes to free will, it’s not free anymore. It’s under the curse of sin until it’s redeemed by Jesus. I hope that answers the question. It probably raises a lot more questions that you guys have, and now there’s going to be like 16 more questions on that there. But happy to talk about all of these. Honestly, this is why this is a blast. I’m having so much fun. This is a conversation about faith and doubts and all of these things, and so I hope today was helpful and beneficial to you guys. Why don’t we stand as we close our worship out.