Why Are We Here?
Last week, we finished setting the foundation for our ideological frameworks by establishing that not only is God’s essence unconditional love, but God is also all-knowing and all-powerful.
That foundation is crucial because this week, we’ll be talking about the purpose of humanity’s existence and how that impacts how we conceptualize sin.
Why did God create humanity?
I believe the answer to this question is layered.
First, we have to think about who God is. God is love. Everything God does is born of that love. God is all-knowing, meaning that God knows everything that will happen before it happens. God is all-powerful, meaning that nothing is impossible for God.
Second, we have to think about what God did. God created beings and gave them the ability to make decisions for themselves. Let’s dwell on that for a second.
What is a choice? A choice is “an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.” The important takeaway from that definition is that a choice cannot exist without the existence of at least two possibilities. What does that mean on a practical level? Simply this: the CHOICE to do good cannot exist without the CHOICE to do evil. And we see that demonstrated by the existence of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden:
“And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. . . . 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 2:8-9, 16-17
Is it possible to “create” something like “good” or “evil”? I don’t know. Some people believe that God “created” evil, but I don’t know if that’s true. If God has no end and no beginning and God is love, it’s reasonable to conclude that love has no end and no beginning. And if God and love have always just….existed….the antithesis of love didn’t necessarily need to be created.
I like to use light and darkness to illustrate this point. Light does things. It illuminates. It makes things visible. Darkness doesn’t do anything and can’t do anything on its own because it can only exist in the absence of light. If light exists, the possibility of darkness also exists, but darkness only becomes “real” if the light goes out. If love is “good”…if love is “light”….then darkness is the exact opposite: selfishness. Evil. Sin. Destruction. The possibility was always there, but it didn’t become “real” until Adam and Eve chose it.
This is where God’s foreknowledge and God being all-powerful come into play. If God is all-powerful, then God had the power to decide whether to give created beings the ability to CHOOSE good by allowing the possibility for us to choose evil. To be clear, God didn’t HAVE to give us a choice. God didn’t HAVE to do anything. A Garden of Eden without the Tree of Knowledge is perfection, and it’s perfection that can’t even possibly be ruined. God could have given “free will” in the sense that He could have allowed Adam and Eve to make decisions about what to eat or what tasks to complete during the day. The only difference would have been that there wouldn’t have been any possibility of them making “bad” or “wrong” choices. Everything they did would have been inherently good and they would have loved God completely without ever even being aware that rejecting God was a thing that could be done.
But God didn’t do that.
And if God has foreknowledge, then God knew what the consequences of giving created beings the ability to choose to do good or choose to do evil would be. God knew that Adam and Eve would ultimately eat the fruit. God knew that they would be kicked out of the Garden and that their decision would cause separation between humanity and the divine. God knew that the only way to make things right would be to sacrifice God’s Son as atonement for sin. Revelation 13:8 calls Jesus “the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.” (NLT) God knew what HIS decisions would cost HIM.
And He made them anyway.
So the question is….why? Why allow all of this? Why create us knowing the baggage that would come with living in a world dominated by sin?
I believe that this quote by Ellen G. White sums the answer up nicely:
“God’s love for the fallen race is a peculiar manifestation of love—a love born of mercy; for human beings are all undeserving. Mercy implies the imperfection of the object toward which it is shown. It was because of sin that mercy was brought into active exercise.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 7
The word “unconditional” means “not [being] subject to any conditions.” “Mercy” is “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.” It is easy to say that my love for someone is not subject to any conditions when that person has never done anything that would justify me putting conditions on my love. It’s much more meaningful to say “I love you unconditionally” to someone who is undeserving.
I believe that God gave created beings the ability to choose to do evil, knowing that we WOULD choose to do evil, because it gave Him the ability to demonstrate the true depth of His love for us. It wasn’t enough to just say that His love was unconditional. He had to show it. And He did.
How should we conceptualize sin?
That said, if you understand why God created humanity in light of who God is, it flips the traditional narrative surrounding sin on its head. Sin was not the result of God’s plan gone wrong. Sin was not an unanticipated consequence of giving us the ability to choose. Jesus’ death was not a favor God did for us to save our lives and cause us to be indebted to Him for all eternity. Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin itself (1 John 4:7-12) and God planned for it to be the ultimate revelation of His love before “let there be light” was even said (Revelation 13:8). I believe that the ability to choose or reject God’s love is still as voluntary as it was in the beginning. The legal term for the alternative is “duress”, i.e. “compulsion by threat or force; coercion.” Choosing God because you believe your options are to love and “obey” Him, otherwise you’ll burn in Hell for all eternity, isn’t a voluntary decision. It’s duress. Someone saying “love me because I love you or I’ll kill you” is duress….not to mention psychopathic. That flies directly in the face of everything God is supposed to be. And there’s more to be said about the implication that Jesus only died for the sins of those who would ultimately accept God and those who reject God must bear the weight of their own sins and be punished for them, but that’s a conversation for another day.
Sin was (and still is) an opportunity for God….and it’s an opportunity for us. It’s an opportunity for the true depth of God’s love for us to be revealed to us on a personal level every single day, and it’s an opportunity for us to put that love into practice by showering it on each other, despite our differences and despite our flaws. THAT is how God’s character can be manifested in us.
This is so, so important to understand because if you believe that sin is the result of God’s plan gone wrong, then you might believe that sinlessness is God’s ultimate goal and desire for us. If you believe that God is hung up on sin and His top priority is to eradicate it rather than using it as an opportunity to reveal a deeper understanding of Himself, then you might believe that God’s love for you somehow coexists in equal measure with the hate he feels toward the things in you that are imperfect. If you try to understand the concept of unconditional love in the context of sin rather than understanding the concept of sin in the context of unconditional love, you might see love and mercy as exceptions to God’s “justice” rather than love being the highest moral imperative, through which sin is ultimately overcome.
This week, I challenge you to really examine how you conceptualize sin and why you believe we’re here. If love is the exception to you rather than the rule, think about where that stems from and evaluate what you believe about God’s thoughts towards you and His purpose for your life. Ask God to reveal Himself and His love to you in a truly personal and meaningful way, and ask Him to prepare your heart and your mind to receive whatever it is that He has to show you.
Next week, we’ll be taking a look at how and why love is the highest moral imperative through which sin is overcome.