The relationship between evil and sin

The Bible teaches that evil, suffering and death have entered the universe as a result of sin. Therefore it is very important that people are well aware of what sin is and what Satan, Adam and Eve have actually done to make evil, suffering and death essential parts of our present life.

The notion of sin is connected with the central idea of the Bible that God has made everything and everybody with a certain purpose in mind. And this divine purpose must be realized. Sin is any thought or any action that has for its result that a purpose that God has set for Himself is not achieved by Him. Sin is anything that angels or humans can think or do that goes against God’s intentions, God’s standards and God’s will.

To give an example: when God created man He had in mind that the people He created would appreciate Him as their creator, would appreciate all that He had made for them, would be prepared to live in perfect harmony with their creator and all He had made, would reflect the perfect qualities of their creator, would do their utmost to resemble their creator, would subject themselves to their creator and would do what He wanted them to do. When Adam and Eve refused to come up to the purpose for which they had been created, that refusal meant sin. And the wages that sin pays are suffering and death. Just like God had told them beforehand.

Sin in the sense in which the Bible uses this word is sometimes, but not always, connected with the transgression of laws. The notion of sin in the Bible is more comprehensive and actually does not need any laws at all.

Thus during the almost two and a half thousand years which lie between Adam’s sin and the establishment of the law covenant near Mount Sinai there was not any system of laws and rules which God had made for man at any time. Of course this does not mean that the millions of people who lived during those 2500 years or so never sinned. God sees to it that all people of all time-periods and of all nations know by nature in their hearts and in their minds what is good and what is wrong, what God wants and what God does not want. No written or unwritten laws and rules are needed for that. All people of all periods and all nations have a conscience. This is one of the direct consequences of the fact that all people have been created in God’s image and according to God’s likeness. These words in God’ image and according to His likeness do not mean that people look like God as regards their outward appearance: humans look like God because they know and understand the notion of morality: humans can do right and they can do wrong and they are born with a conscience that tells them the difference between the two.

Think in this context of the story of Cain and Abel. In those days God had not enacted any law which forbade murder. Still the relevant Bible passage demonstrates very clearly that Cain realized full well that killing his brother was a terrible sin, even though it was not a transgression of a law that God had issued.

Only after the exodus from Egypt, when the Israelites had arrived at Mount Sinai in 1513 B.C. did God give His people a highly detailed and highly comprehensive system of laws, commandments and prohibitions. The Bible emphasizes very strongly than not any Israelite (except for Jesus) has ever managed to obey completely the hundreds of regulations of the Jewish law covenant. This means that this law covenant has actually served only one purpose and has only made one thing crystal clear: it has demonstrated that all people sin, that as a result of their committing sins all people deserve the death penalty and no one can enter the Kingdom that God is going to establish on the ground of personal merits.

The law of 1513 B.C. has made it painfully clear for the Israelites how many hundreds of ways of sinning there are and on what scale sinning for people is part of their daily life.

The law of 1513 B.C. has also taught the Israelites and via them all humanity that no man can live without sinning and that consequently no man can be justified by God on the ground of his own merits.

These two facts have made the later followers of Jesus Christ realize the truth of what is one of the main lessons of the Greek Scriptures: people can only be declared righteous by God on the basis of their faith. Their faith in the ransom sacrifice paid by our Redeemer Jesus Christ. All people who will ever enter God’s Kingdom, will do this on the basis of faith, on the basis of redemption. Never on the basis of their own merits.
<|BR> All people sin. No matter whether they are subjected to a divine law covenant (like the Israelites between 1513 B.C. and 33 A.D.) or do not have to obey a God ordained system of laws and rules (like the people who lived before 1513 B.C. and after 33 A.D.): all people know in their hearts and in their minds that they must love both God and their fellow humans. All people realize that they are created beings and that they must try to achieve the ends for which they were created. All people have a conscience which tells them that they must take good care of their fellow humans and not harm them in any way. Because all people sin, they all need forgiveness and redemption of the punishment they deserve. This redemption can only be provided by the underserved kindness of God, who is willing to give both redemption of sin and exemption of punishment to everyone who believes in the saving sacrifice of Jesus.

Finally: It will be clear to every right-minded person on what grounds God claims the right to be the unchallenged sovereign of the universe. He is the lord, the master and the owner of the universe because He is the creator of it and consequently everything and everybody owe their existence to Him. Nobody ever has the right to call God to account in any way. Within the universe God possesses all authority. He knows how each of the billions of parts of which everything and everybody exist should function to fit exactly in the whole and to make each part of God’s creation perfect. This perfect insight into how each of the billions of things He has created is constructed and functions is lacking in all humans and all angels. As a result of this fact their common sense tells them that the governing and the ruling of all creation should be left in the hands of the creator.

Angels and humans lack the insight into their own nature and the nature of the things that surround them which is necessary to be able to determine for themselves what is good for them and what is bad for them. For that matter they must trust that God does have this insight and, as their loving father, wants to use this insight to rule His living creatures well.

Humans and angels must not only appreciate highly the perfection with which God has created everything: they must also appreciate highly the perfection with which God governs and rules His creation.

For people who cannot bring themselves to appreciate God in this sensible and loving way, there will be no place in the Kingdom that God is going to establish.