The Origin of Evil in Man – Part 1
November 7, 2021
Pastor Brad Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Genesis 3:1-7
Watch this and other sermons in this series at: https://mycrossway.churchcenter.com/channels/8118
Our world is certainly obsessed with origins. It is typically at the origin of something that you will also pursuit of an origin they are really searching for is meaning. This is at the root of our dilemma. Our spiritual dilemma, our relational dilemma, and the meaning of our existence. Origins are important. For instance, knowing the source and origin of COVID 19 would significantly change how we approach its treatment and handling of the pandemic.
Of course, our origin and the origin of the known universe and world are of great significance. In fact, it has enough bearing that as we started our new church here at CrossWay Christian Fellowship that we have spent the last several months discussing the Biblical root of origin according to the Genesis account of the Bible. I won’t go back through all the details but suffice it to say that we have concluded that the Bible and modern evolution theories are not compatible. We know that the Bible and scientific facts are compatible in most cases. There are significant departures when it comes to the age of the universe and evolutionary theory. But those two secular theories are even scientifically incompatible.
We’ve talked about the origin of the universe, the origin of our planet, life, the seasons, light, man being made in God’s image, marriage, and sexual union, and so on. Now we come to an origin that brings with it so much bearing on who we are, our relationship with God, and each other. The origin of evil. Of the most prolific and burdensome questions for man is this issue of evil. The true diagnosis of the human condition stems from this.
God, the creator of the universe, is all good and only good. And His original creation was all good and only good. You see, up until now, creation is a place of perfect peace. There is no murder, no shame, no sin. Adam and Eve are walking in perfect communion with God and each other.
Now, let me get a little philosophical. God is not the author of evil. If God created evil, then God would be both good and evil. And if God were both good and evil, there would be no hope for the ultimate triumph of good. If God were Himself evil, He could not, therefore, triumph over evil. If God were the source of evil, He would have to be evil Himself. And if He were evil Himself, then there could be no basis for salvation, for God could not save us from evil He was evil.
So, the biblical revelation of the original goodness of creation upholds the goodness - the holiness - of God. And it makes the source of evil outside of God. Because the source of evil is outside of God, God can and will conquer evil and ultimately save sinners.
To put it another way. If you say there is evil, then you assume there is good. And if there is good and evil, then there must also be a measurement of what is good and evil and so there must be a moral law. If there is a moral law then there must be a moral Lawgiver. Because if there is no moral Lawgiver, then there is no moral law, and if there is no moral law, there can be no evil (Zacharias).
The question we are left with then is, “where did evil come from?” And the answer to that is only found in the Bible. You’ll remember that God gave man one prohibition in Genesis 2:16-17 “16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 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.”
Now in Genesis 3 we find the entry and result of breaking that command:
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:1–7)
When it comes to the origin of evil we have several options. First, we could say that there is a cosmic power that is unknowable, impersonal that launched everything in our universe, and evil recklessly appeared. Based on our study of Genesis 1 & 2 we can scratch that off.
Secondly, you can take the view that God does not even exist. Since there is no God, there is no evil and there is no good in reality. Those are only determined by the morals of culture.
Third, you can take the view that evil doesn’t really exist. God is good, and therefore everything is good. Evil, suffering, and death is just an illusion and you just have to claim your happiness. Incidentally, that is the basis of Christian Science.
Fourth, you can say that God is transcendent of good and evil and only nudges life to keep it on track but other than that, like the first theory, He is indifferent. This goes a step further and says that God manipulates evil for his purposes.
Or, you can take the view that God has limited power and when bad things happen, God cannot stop them because He is still in the process of working things out. This is gaining popularity in Christian circles today and it is call process theology.
Lastly, you can say that evil was made by God and He made evil to accomplish good and be a shadow of His holiness.
None of these are biblically sound or have a standing in the verses we read just a few minutes ago. To put it plainly, God is not responsible for evil; His creation and those who chose to depart from him are responsible. Evil is not something that is created. It does not have substance, nor is it a force. It is the absence of God and His holiness. Everything that God created, He said that it was GOOD. The Bible upholds this cover to cover.
“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, (1 Corinthians 14:33)
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)
“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” (James 1:13)
“For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.” (Psalm 5:4)
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
Scripture always assigns the guilt and responsibility for all sin to creatures and never to God. The origin of the detriment of the human heart is found in those seven verses we just read in Genesis. The entry of sin is more than an obtuse infection, but it is a corruption of something that God had made pure and holy. The moment Adam and Eve chose to doubt God’s law and depart from that one law, sin was introduced.
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;” This was not always the case. God did not create man’s heart to be evil, He created man to worship God and God alone. But let me ask you something, why did God give man the choice to obey? God didn’t program man to be ascetic or stoic in his relationship with God. He created man to be passionate and determined.
Now, enter in the serpent. Verses 1-5 are a dialogue that happens between the serpent and Eve, and essentially that dialogue has changed very little 6000 years later. Genesis 3 only identifies the deceived here as a serpent, but it is a very safe assumption that this is Lucifer. Satan is often identified in Scripture as a serpent or a dragon. In Revelation he is identified as both: “And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,” (Revelation 20:2)
“And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (Revelation 12:9 ESV)
Now God did not create Satan, he created the Angel who became Satan. He led a rebellion against God and He with one-third of the angels in heaven fell from heaven. Satan literally means “Resister.” He is described by Paul as one who disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). We also know from Job that Satan is given liberty to roam through heaven and earth (Job 1:6). So the most reasonable conclusion is that Satan used his liberty to enter the garden and take the form of a serpent. And look at what he says: Gen 3:1 “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
John 8:44 says, Satan “is a liar and the father of lies.” Notice that Satan twists God’s Word, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden.” For the first time, the most deadly spiritual force ever released: the assumption that what God said is subject to our personal judgment. ‘Hey, Eve, let’s talk about what God said and how we feel about it.’ It is covertly smuggled into the world as an instrument for the purpose of giving us false liberty that we have the right to question what God says. That was the cause of the first sin and the cause of every sin since.
Through this, we then take it a step further just as Eve did originally. Eve gives Satan an audience and begins a dialogue. Let me add something here, Eph 4:27 tells us to “give no opportunity to the devil.” And the moment she accepts the question from Satan, Eve gives him a foothold. “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’”
Did you see what happens? Did God tell Adam and Eve they could not touch the fruit? What has happened is that in her mind, God’s command is unreasonable and so she adds to God’s prohibition and in her mind, she is justifying the unreasonableness of God’s Word. God had said, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” She takes it a step further and tells the serpent that God told her they couldn’t even touch it. How unreasonable!
Now some may think this isn’t a fair fight and we shouldn’t be too hard on her. She didn’t know she was talking to God’s adversary and she’s naive. How can she be at fault with this? I want to stop there because that’s a dangerous slope. She knew enough that she could have stopped Satan at that point. She could have said, “I don’t know who you are, but I know my God. He is good and has given me everything I need. I know my God and I know what He said and I will not doubt His word.”
Jesus, when Satan came to Him and tempted Him, refused to let Satan impugn the character and the Word of God. Every time Satan tempts Jesus by questioning or twisting the Word of God and every time, Jesus defeated Satan with God’s Word. It is no different with you or me. We must know God’s Word!
Essentially this is the basis for every spiritual battle you have and will fight in your life. It is always grounded in knowing our Lord. It is always fought as a victorious overcomer. It is always fought with God’s truth and God’s word, never with negotiation or predications. We have everything we need to defeat Satan in this book. But Eve doesn’t do that, instead, she takes the deceptive bait of Satan and with that, Satan sees his opening. He calls God a liar. In verse four he says to the woman, “You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will-be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” First Satan outright blasphemes God by calling Him a liar. Satan suggests that God has not been generous with them, creating them only in his image. They can do much better: they can be “like God.”
Satan will cause you to doubt God’s goodness. Satan will cause you to doubt God’s character. Satan will cause you to doubt God’s holiness. That’s when sin occurs. Long before sin was an action, it originates as a doubt of God’s goodness in your heart. And this is where we find Eve in her mind. “Boy, not only is God putting me in bondage, not only is God restrictive and narrow needlessly, not only is God trying to withhold from me some delight, some joy, some satisfaction. God doesn’t tell the truth. He’s not good.” And now her mind is totally corrupted with wicked thoughts about God and this is where the fall begins.
This is the ultimate lie of Satan. That God is narrow and confining. If we just do what the Serpent says, then we find the ultimate meaning and fulfillment in life. But I am convinced life loses its meaning in the pursuit of pleasure and we find deeper meaning in life during times of pain. What happens here is that the serpent deceives Adam and Eve into the same damned state that he is suffering. The more we try to find an escape from this suffering through worldly means and worldly pleasures, the more we actually lose hope instead of finding hope.
So let me close with this: In his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is addressing this very issue. The Corinthians were hedonists. Full of sexual debauchery looking for every pleasure in life and calling it a form of love. In this letter, we find Paul’s clarifications and that beautiful chapter 13 in which he concludes: 1 Corinthians 13:13 “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” These three things are not possible in this world unless we also know pain. Faith - God has a better plan. Hope - God is who is say He is. Love - I am who God says I am. God went to the Cross and carried all three to give to us.
Let us then understand two things: First, the real malady is within us. The brokenness is in you and me. And because of that, there are two ways God can enable us to cope with evil and suffering: He can completely remove the pain by answering our prayers every time we ask Him to remove an obstacle. But is that really love? God doesn’t want us to love Him for what we can get from Him. The other way God enables us to cope with suffering is to change us from within. He changes our hearts and walks with us through the deep waters of life. I believe this is the greater miracle and a true relationship with our God. Think about it: a holy and righteous God walking closely with us during our darkest days instead of merely changing our circumstances. Only a change within us can keep intact Paul’s three excellencies of faith, hope, and love.
Where there is the possibility of love, there must be the reality of freedom. Where there is the reality of freedom, there must be the possibility of pain. Where there is the reality of pain, we need a Savior. Because where there is a Savior, there is the possibility of redemption. (Vitale).
That is the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is the second conclusion: that pain holds a legitimate place in our lives. You see, the bottom line is this: Our problem is not that we are immoral. Our problem is so severe that it cannot be solved by morality alone. Only the Creator of our souls who gave us our essence can lift us to the plane where we see the Savior’s wounds as our redemption.
