If you have read the article, “God and You“, you may be wondering why there are death, evil, destruction, and poverty in the world if God is good and His creation perfect.
Despite His holiness, goodness, and love, we, the human race, distrust God and have chosen our own way rather than God’s way. We have turned our backs on God and broken off our relationships with Him. The point is made crystal clear in the story of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament.
Adam and Eve were created in a perfect place. They received everything overabundantly. They were in charge of the perfect world. “Then the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.’” (Genesis 2:16–17). Instead of trusting God, they took the fruit and ate it.
We may cry out to God in times of need and distress, but for the most part, we go about our life without any regard for Him. When we see evil in the world or experience hardship in our life, we often blame God even though we have had nothing to do with Him.
We are afraid of submitting to our Creator who created us in His own image. We would rather fashion a god in our own image.
We don’t want God to reign over us. We want God to serve us and make us happy. We really want a powerful servant rather than the Almighty Ruler.
Our human nature that disregards God for who He is and rejects Him as our Lord and King is what the Bible calls sin. As a result, the human fellowship with God is severed and broken. The creature has turned its back on the Creator. Children have disrespected their Father. Subjects have committed treason against their King. We have made God our enemy. We are separated from God who is life, light, and love.
The result is all around us: death, darkness, discord, desolation, and destruction. We are fundamentally broken and unhealthy, no longer whole and complete.
Penalty of Sin
Because He is our Creator, God alone has the authority to reign over us and to direct us.
Because God is righteous and just, there is also a penalty for sin—a penalty for our rebellion against His Authority.
“For when you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 1:17).
“The penalty of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
When our souls, the immaterial part of us, are separated from our bodies, our physical bodies die. Similarly, our spirits are separated from God and are dead in sin.
So, we are dead spiritually, and physical death rules our world.
In this world of sinful humanity, death is inevitable. In fact, it is a “natural” part of our life. Death ends it all.
The Bible also teaches us that there will be a judgment of all humanity one day. As the 20-century British scholar, C.S. Lewis put it, “there are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”
Those who choose self-will over God’s will shall be eternally separated from Him. This is the ultimate death. The Bible calls it the second death. Those who choose to submit to His will shall spend eternity in His presence. This is eternal life—that we know God and are in fellowship with Him as we are originally created to be.
God’s Solution to Sin
If God is good, we cannot blame Him for the evil we do in our world.
Even if we acknowledge God and His authority over us, that does not excuse us from the “crime” of rebellion we have already committed. The admission of guilt does not mean pardon for the crime.
As the Creator, Ruler (King), and Father, God alone has the authority to decide what to do with us for our sins. He has given us the Good News.