While perusing on Facebook one day I came across the following question, “If you had all of Superman’s superpowers for 24 hours, and you wanted to do the most good in the world during that one day what would you do?” Immediately I thought of Superman’s power to reverse time and return to the past, and so my answer would be to return back to the past and prevent the fall of man from happening. After all, how much more good can be done aside from the erasure of all evil from the world? However, just as soon as I had thought on this I questioned if it truly would be good to prevent the fall of man from happening. It would be easy to question if I have lost my marbles to wonder if preventing the fall of man would be good, but I do have a Biblically sound reason to believe it could not be and from here I shall proceed to build my case.
The
Boundary of Good
Good is a concept that originated from God. In fact
it is better stated that all that is good comes forth from God. Look carefully
at the creation account in Genesis (Genesis 1:1-2:3). Take note that each time
God created something, what He created was good and at the completion of
creation on day six it was very good. And so God’s completed works will always
be top tier goodness. I bring this up because part of God’s goodness was to
create a boundary on goodness. Whatever crosses the boundary of good by default
falls into the categories of evil, sin, and bad. In Genesis chapter 2:7-25
(which is a deeper look into day 6 of creation) we see the Lord God creating this
boundary in the law he gave to man.
The Lord God commanded the man, saying,
“From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it
you will surely day. –Genesis 2:16-17
We also see another moment of something being
declared outside of the boundary of good. Genesis 2:18 reads:
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good
for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
Both of these boundaries show us that things are not
good when God’s law is broken and also when creatures live in a way less than
what God desired them to be when creation was declared good. The breaking of
God’s law is always evil and sinful, but living less than when creation is good
is not always sin. For example, a person being born without limbs is not a sin.
However, that person does live a life that is less than what God intended when
the creation was called good. The fall of man was a result of God’s law being
transgressed. With the fall came sin, death and decay and the severity of that
degree is that no man is good. However, man would never be completely void of
the knowledge of God’s law, but at the fall he became intimately acquainted
with the knowledge of what was evil as well. The tree of the knowledge of good
and evil that they were commanded not to eat from was aptly named. Just as evil
appealed to our first parents, Adam and Eve, it appeals to us. Even when man
does what appears to be good he cannot do it in a completely right way
according to the standard of good God had set for us in the beginning. For
example, a man can do good by helping his neighbor bring his groceries into his
house, but if he is doing it to prove to himself he does not need to
acknowledge his creator, God, and can create his own moral standard; the good
action he has done is voided by the wickedness in his heart.
Romans 3:9-18
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for
we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is
written, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understand,
there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have
become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their
throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving.; the poison of
asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their
feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and
the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
We have now firmly established that good has a
boundary and that in order for something to be evil it must cross that
boundary. The logical next question to ask is, “Does evil have a boundary?”
The
Boundary of Evil
“You will know them by their fruits.
Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So
every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree
cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree
that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” —Matthew
7:16-19
The words of Jesus in Matthew 7 are important to
understanding the boundary of evil. First, I want us to recognize that God is
good. As we see in the creation account all good things come from God. So, now
we must confront how do we reconcile that the concept of evil was created in
the creation account as well? God saw it as good to create a concept of evil,
is evil therefore good? We can dispel these thoughts with a closer look at the
creation account. All that was good was created actively. God actively spoke
good into existence. Evil is a concept God created passively. When God created
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that was a good act. When God gave
the command for man not to eat from that tree, that was a good act. Evil would
only be activated by the breaking of the command. It was not actively created
in God’s good world and therefore it is never meant to be seen as good. Next,
we must recognize good cannot come from bad. Though our first parents started
in the position of good, after they had become intimate with the knowledge of
evil their offspring (all of humanity) would have the same intimate knowledge
of evil. We more commonly refer to it as inheriting the sin nature (Romans
5:12). The law of God is also still in all of man, but we suppress it and go
against it, and it actively shows us guilty as practitioners of sin (Romans
1-3). This is important to keep in mind in the discussion of a boundary for
evil. Evil once it was activated in man knew no bounds in the way it would
manifest itself. We know of the different ills in the world, and do not need to
list them. Man CANNOT contain evil, because man does not have in himself what
it takes to produce anything good. Sin gets passed on from offspring to
offspring, by nature we are corrupt and separated from the goodness our first
parents once had. So, where then is the boundary of evil in a corrupted
creation? The answer is nowhere. Evil does not have a boundary on earth. What
hope is there then to escape evil? God has made it clear that He is the ruler
of all and the evil cannot escape His plan for it (Revelation 20). And so, evil
is contained by the will of God.
God is sovereign above all things. This means He is
the Master of all things. He is not a created being so He was never confined to
the laws that govern men. He is the enactor of the law. What this means is that
once evil had been activated, inherently He is the only one who could have
possibly contained it. We see this throughout the Bible. God prevented
Abimelech from violating the wife of Abram (Genesis 20). God also hardened Pharaoh’s
heart against Israel (Exodus 10:20 & 11:10). God controls the leaders of
the world (Proverbs 21:1), and this includes the wicked ones. This fact points
to an ultimate truth about evil. God allows evil to be used as a tool to
accomplish His will.
The
Will of God In Eternity Past
Knowing that God can keep evil contained, and can
allow it to be used as a tool for His purpose then why does He not destroy it?
For this we must remind ourselves that God is good. As He is good He cannot
lie.
“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor
a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has
He spoken and will He not make it good?” –Deuteronomy 23:19
This matters because we learn something very
important about God’s work in the predestination of the salvation of His
people. Ephesians 1:3-6 reads:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined
us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind
intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely
bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
This passage is in reference to the believers in
Christ. Notice how the passage uses the words “before the foundation of the
world” in regards to when we were called to become believers in Christ. This
means all of what has happened in this world was planned and it is an agreement
within the Trinity. If God cannot lie He must keep His word even to Himself. We
also see it is “according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace…” and that gives the reason why He predestined us, but
could He not redeem us and choose to be rid of all evil. We learn further of God’s
predestination in Romans 9, and there we see God has even predestined those who
are not redeemed to His glory as well.
Answering
The Question
Now we have established that good has a boundary,
once that boundary is crossed evil is created, evil does not have a boundary
but God can and does contain it and use it as a tool for His will. Now, we will
bring these facts together to answer the question can going back in time to
undo the fall of man be evil? The answer is, yes. If the fall were to be
reversed it would be evil, because it would go against the will of God who is
good and all He does is good.
God’s will proceeds from Him actively, just as all
that is good preceded from Him actively in the creation. To try to go outside
of His will would be sin as it would be a violation of how He has chosen for
things to be. There is a prime example of this in Matthew 16:21-23. The passage
reads:
From that time Jesus began to show His
disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders
and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third
day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it,
Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind
Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind
on God’s interests, but man’s.”
Peter did not want Jesus to suffer and die, by all we
know to be good for us humans not desiring the suffering and death of people is
considered a good thing, but what the Lord had stated the will of God, and it
was greater sin to be in opposition to how the Lord would choose to redeem His
people for His glory.
If had the superpowers of Superman for 24 hours, and
I used them to prevent the fall of man, it would put me in a position of
opposing God’s will, as I would not be setting my mind on God’s interests, but
man’s.
____________________________
Romans 11:33-36
