Concerning Sin

Written in response to Christopher’s question on the origin of sin and whether God is the creator of sin

Was God the author of sin? Nay, far be it that a holy and perfect God would be associated with sin ( 1 John 3:8-9 ). But if one would not be satisfied with such a full answer because of his own ignorance of God’s goodness, let him then be contend with this argument: Sin is whatsoever that does not conform to God’s attributes. How then can God go against Himself for if He does, He will, at that very moment that He contradicts His own attributes, ceases to be the Perfect, Immutable One ( for thus the Spirit declared through the prophet, I am God and I changes not – Malachi 3:6 )? It is absurd then to say that God may sin or create sin.

Was sin created by the way? Let it first be committed to the mind that a man sins against the Deity when he does that which are against God’s attributes. Of course when we say, he does, we meant to say every kind of activities, whether it is the works of the hands, the words of the lip or the thoughts of the mind. Such actions are sinful when they are in want of proper attribution to God Almighty, who deserves all our adoration and worship. We can then say that sin is not a thing, but a want of a thing, a non-thing. It is something that exists only because that which is supposed to be in its place does not. A very good example to illustrate this is the notion of cold. For cold in reality is the absence of heat. In this world, only heat is the substance, cold is the lack of it. Hence sin is where proper relation to the Deity did not exist. It is the void of goodness.

God, in His infinite goodness only created what is good. But for the best possible way for this world to exist, there must be allowance for such goodness to be laid aside – in His wisdom and His great love for us, our Creator had endowed freedom to the will of His creatures. Thus when Lucifer, the archangel of God exercised carelessly this divine gift of freewill, he brought upon himself eternal damnation by turning away from what was Infinitely Good towards lesser things. Such was the first instance of idolatry, which appeared most incidentally in the form of narcissism, self-love, something so prevalent today. The turning away of Lucifer was sin, it is neither a cause of an effect of one another, but both are alike; the turning away is sin, sin is the turning away (from God). That was the appearance of sin in the otherwise good creation.

Sin being in existence in the lofty mind of Lucifer, now Satan, the Adversary of God and man, had borne in him other malicious and wicked thoughts such as that he could usurp the throne of God by destroying God’s plan of building His kingdom through humanity. By deceiving our first parents, Satan had tempted them to also walk his path, that is, turn away from that which is good. When Adam and Eve did turn away, they sinned and the curse that came along was passed on to their progeny.

In all these events, God is definitely not seen as the creator of sin. Nonetheless, we must also conclude that nothing is beyond His sovereignty – that is, no events may happen beyond His expectation or control. Here we are faced with a dilemma which is not of a small degree of seriousness. Are we then to accept the doctrine of freewill of the creatures and deny the other doctrine of the sovereignty of the Creator? Both are paradoxical, concepts that seemly contradict one another, but may not be so. The Bible taught both and we are to receive both. In the depraved mind, God may either be charged as wicked (if they do believe that He exist at all) to inflict pain upon humanity by allowing sin or that He is weak and helpless because He cannot stop sin from occurring. Indeed, the natural mind perceived not the things of God. The natural man cannot understand the mystery of godliness nor experience the joy of the knowledge of God’s grace. As for us, we shall praise God because of His wise plan. We know by the Holy Scripture that all things work together for good to those who loved Him and that His ways are higher than ours. To this we humbly submit ourselves and readily seek to enjoy His loving grace upon our lives by which we are vindicated from our evil ways and are counted to be worthy of His Kingdom. We shall daily reflect on His mercy and be grateful for His kindness to us. Now if the wrath of God should be deservedly cast upon every heads in this world, then Christ Jesus, God Himself looked upon lovingly and came down to the level of our unwarranted pride to save us, yea even at the price of His blood. Should we attribute to God such wicked thing as being the author of sin or the cause of our misery, when He had embraced us tenderly declaring:

I will call them My people, who were not My people,

And her beloved, who was not beloved

And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,

‘You are not My people,’

There they shall be called sons of the living God – Rom 9:25-26

We who were saved by grace should not have such doubt cast upon the goodness of God or His holiness or His righteousness. These, as were His love, they endureth forever.