Sin’s Appearance in a Perfect Creation

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good (Gen. 1:31).

A reader asks, "If God’s creation was perfect, how did pride appear in Lucifer, if this quality was not in his nature originally?"

The question is not an easy one and theologians have struggled with it, especially since the time of Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo (354-430).

Although the question asks specifically about the fall of Lucifer in heaven, along with many angels, the same question can be asked concerning Adam and Eve in Paradise. And the same answer applies to both equally.

In dealing with the problem, we must first of all ask what it means that God Himself pronounced His entire creation "good." An answer most frequently given is that the creation was morally perfect, that is, that there was no sin in heaven or on earth.

However, while that is true in itself, it is obvious, I think, that the word "good" in the moral sense cannot be applied to horses and galaxies, for neither the living creation (other than men and angels) nor the non-living creation had the ability to do good or evil.

When God pronounced the creation "good," He meant that the entire creation was so formed that it was perfectly adapted to serve the purpose He had in mind for it. For example, a machine is "good" when it serves the purpose for which it was made.

But it must be remembered that God’s purpose in the creation was never intended to be accomplished in the first Paradise in which Adam and Eve were placed. The fall of our first parents did not necessitate a change in God’s plan. God’s purpose from the first moment of creation was to glorify Himself through Jesus Christ and the redemption of the elect and the whole creation by the cross on which our Saviour died. Adam was the first Adam from the moment of his creation; the second Adam had yet to come (Rom. 5:12-14; I Cor. 15:45-47).

Thus, also sin was determined by God as the way in which He would glorify Himself through Christ who redeems from sin. The Most High is sovereign over sin, as well as over everything that happens in heaven and on earth. The fall of Satan in heaven and the fall of Adam and Eve in Paradise did not catch God by surprise nor come unexpectedly.

While we must (and do) maintain man’s accountability for his own sin, God remains sovereign. This insistence on God’s sovereignty lies at the foundation of the solution to the problem. Reprobation, the negative part of the decree of predestination, is sovereign. God determined to reveal His justice, holiness and righteous hatred of sin through His unconditional decree of reprobation, that is, He eternally wills the just punishment of the reprobate wicked in hell in the way of their sin.

Already in his day, Augustine dealt with the problem posed at the beginning of this article. Even then the subject touched on the issue of whether man’s accountability did not necessarily imply man’s free will (understood as an ability in fallen man to repent and believe in Christ). Augustine (and all orthodox theologians after him) emphatically denied fallen and depraved man’s ability to choose spiritual good and taught God’s sovereignty also in reprobation.

In developing these ideas from the Scriptures, especially from Genesis 1-3 and Romans 5, Augustine pointed out that freedom can be considered from different viewpoints. Adam’s freedom in Paradise before the fall was the freedom to do good but with the possibility of sinning. His sinless nature was so created that sin was possible. Adam’s freedom was true freedom, for he possessed the ability to do all God commanded him to do. This was freedom indeed, but not the freedom God has determined for His people in Christ. Our freedom is higher, better, and more wonderful. The freedom the believer has in Christ is the freedom to keep all God’s commandments without the possibility of ever sinning again. Adam could (and did) fall; the redeemed believer cannot fall. Adam could (and did) choose to disobey God; the believer, united to Christ, can never choose for anything but Christ Himself. The first Adam could (and did) plunge the whole human race into misery by his sin; the second Adam preserves His elect forever and ever in holiness and true righteousness.

That inability of the believer ever to sin is not given perfectly till heaven. In this life, the new man in Christ, created through the wonder of regeneration, must still do battle with the old man of sin. But even now the victory of the perfect freedom of heaven is the possession of those who belong to Christ. This freedom is found in the great doctrine of the preservation of the saints.

In glory, when the believer is made new in body and in soul, he shall never sin again into all eternity, for the power of sin is completely broken and destroyed. This is true of elect men and of elect angels.

If the reader desires a further treatment of this subject, he is urged to read Herman Hoeksema’s Reformed Dogmatics. In the old, single-volume edition (1966), consult pages 245-254. In the new, two-volume edition (2004-2005), read volume 1, pages 348-376.