This is part 3 of a series; Common Sense Miracles — Not Magic is part 1.

Let me ask you a question; is God the almighty? Yes? Then why couldn’t He have prevented the Devil from tempting Eve?

Let me ask another question; is God all-knowing? Yes? Then how did He not know what was going on in the Garden that fateful day when Man first sinned?

So if God was both aware of what was going on, and able to stop it… WHY DIDN’T HE?

Christians believe that God created man perfect, put him in the garden, then left the gate unlocked and, while he was out, the devil snuck in, deceived man, and wrecked all God’s hard work – leaving God scrambling to pick up the pieces and come up with a whole new plan.

Whether they say it plainly or not, this is basically the impression we get of the origin of sin – a perfect creation which fell victim to an unforeseen temptation, blindsiding God and forcing him to create a plan for redemption, which required the death of Jesus.

But this casts God as hopelessly inept, woefully ignorant of the moral weaknesses in His own creation. Not to mention wholly powerless to “deliver them from the Evil one”. Yet God tells “the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10).

Which means only one thing. Either God is dumber than I am… or what happened in the garden of Eden was exactly what God needed to happen.

Adam’s choice disappointed God, to be sure. He could have done better, and should have. Nonetheless, God had to know that, realistically, Adam was always going to sin eventually. Exhibit A: He did sin.

Yet in some way, even that failure must have served God’s purposes, or He would have either made Adam better, or never allowed Satan in the garden at all. So rather than casting the plan of salvation as an afterthought, a hastily patched together plan to clean up the devil’s mess, logic tells us it must have been the plan all along. And as it happens… the Bible plainly said the same thing!

1 Peter 1:19-20 (WEB) but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ; who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of times for your sake,

Revelation 13:8 (GWV) …the Book of Life. … belongs to the lamb who was slaughtered before the creation of the world.

This tells us plainly that the sacrifice of Christ was decided upon before the creation of the world, much less the creation of Adam! And when God decides something, it’s as certain as if it already happened; thus, the Lamb was as good as sacrificed before Adam ever sinned!

THE DUBIOUS PERFECTION OF MAN

But why? Why would God create a perfect man, allow him to sin, only to try to make him perfect again through the sacrifice of Christ? Well, He wouldn’t! Which means man wasn’t truly created perfect; for perfect implies a state where sin is impossible!

1 John 3:9 Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him; and he can’t sin, because he is born of God.

This is what God wants; this is what God wanted from Adam. This is true perfection of character! And yet… when God said His creation, including Adam, was “very good” (Genesis 1:31), this clearly did not mean “perfect”… because Adam DID sin!

People today confuse the fact that Adam had not sinned, and thus was “sinless” so far with the idea that Adam was “perfect” and therefore could not sin. And at the risk of repeating myself, that was obviously, and I mean obviously, not the case!

So to understand how the sin of Adam fit into God’s plan, you have to listen to what God said just before creating Man in Genesis 1:26: “let us make man in our image AND in our likeness”. Did you notice that God said He was going to create man to be like Him in TWO ways?

God didn’t just say “let us make man like us”. God described two separate, distinct WAYS in which man was to be like Him! He was going to give man a physical form resembling God’s own... and ALSO to give man a nature that resembled God’s own!

He was to be made in the image of God – for God used Himself as a pattern when creating Adam’s physical body! But He was also to be made in the likeness of God – made according to the pattern of God in the internal sense! Man was to learn to ACT like God! These are two very different types of creation – an external creation and an INTERNAL creation!

Genesis 1:27 (WEB) And God made man in his image, in the image of God he made him: male and female he made them.

And so God made man in His image that same day, and that part of creation was completed... but it pointedly does not say man was made in His likeness on that day! Why? Because He’s still working on it!

Let’s go back to the human baby metaphor again; a human baby goes from being a blob in a woman’s stomach to looking somewhat like you on a single day. But that baby takes twenty years, if not more, to learn to ACT like you!

Adam was created physically perfect, externally an identical copy to the form of God on day 6 of Creation. But the creation of Adam’s nature, making Adam’s internal self into a copy of God’s own self, was only just begun; it would take many years to complete just as it does for your own children!

This is why it was possible for a “very good” (externally) Adam to sin! Because he was not yet perfect INTERNALLY! And God, who designed and created Him, must have known that he was not yet perfect! Because He knew He wasn’t done yet!

2 Corinthians 3:18 (Williams) And all of us, with faces uncovered, because we continue to reflect like mirrors the splendor of the Lord, are being transformed into likeness to Him, from one degree of splendor to another, since it comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The second half of creation was never finished, because we are, to this day, being transformed into the likeness of God! When we have achieved a true mirror image of the appearance and nature of God, the second half of God’s plan will be finished!

When that happens, not even the devil will be able to convince us to sin!

BUT UNTIL THEN…

Until then, we can be deceived. We can be tempted, persuaded to sin. No one can argue that with a straight face (1 John 1:8-10). The devil and his minions, spiritual and human alike, roam the world giving us “alternative facts”, and more often than not we believe them (1 Peter 5:8).

And now, as in the garden, the question remains: why would God allow that? If the goal is humans doing good deeds, why let the devil persuade us to do evil deeds? The answer is now obvious: because our being deceived serves God’s purposes, just as it did in the garden of Eden.

God’s lack of visible presence in the world must serve God’s purpose just as His absence in the garden did! So why isn’t there absolute proof, that no one can argue, that there is a God? Why leave it to guesswork and ancient books, cantankerous prophets and vague signs?

See, atheists reason that if an all-powerful Being wanted people to believe in Him, He wouldn’t have left the job of convincing them to His wide-eyed followers! Think about that! They’re absolutely right! If God’s primary purpose was getting people “saved”, as the whole world believes, God would have made it impossible not to see the truth!

He would have made it EASY to find the true religion! Because you KNOW He could have! The way that leads to life would be WIDE, not narrow! (Matthew 7:13-14). There would be no deception, no question about who the true God was! God would be visible, present, and obvious in everyone’s day-to-day life!

God knows how to use burning bushes and pillars of fire to get people’s attention! He knows that works! So the fact that He hasn’t done that today proves that getting everyone saved is not God’s purpose! Thus, the devil’s “narrowing” of the road, in the garden as well as now, suits God’s needs!

THE SECOND CREATION

There are two very good reasons why God doesn’t do that; the first part involves rebellion. See, when God says “if you do this, you will die”, God – who cannot lie, and therefore cannot bluff – has to kill you if you do this.

Obviously, this is a bad thing, since it means we have exactly one chance to get it right; it would be like going through school and being expelled if you ever get a single wrong answer on a test. Only, you know, if being expelled were dying.

And so God needs another option; a way to tell us not to do things… but also not to kill us when we, inevitably, do those very things and rebel against Him. And the way He does it is by making excuses for us.

1 John 2:1 (WEB) My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counsellor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

This is the same counsellor, or defense attorney, who – while being murdered by mankind – made the excuse for us “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34). Now that’s very interesting, because it sure seemed like they knew what they were doing – even Pilate knew they were killing an innocent man! (Luke 23:22).

But no one involved knew how innocent. They didn’t know for certain. Even though some probably suspected they were doing a bad thing, they figured they were “just doing their job”, and “it was better to kill one man for the peace of the country” (John 11:49-52).

So there’s difference in between hearing something is wrong; thinking something is probably wrong; believing it’s wrong; and hearing, from God’s own lips, that it’s wrong. Each of these things are different levels of rebellion, and should be treated, and punished, differently!

Remember, the wages of eating the forbidden fruit was death – for defying God carries no other penalty (Romans 6:23). And yet… Adam and Eve did not die after eating it! Why? Because they had an excuse! And the devil WAS that excuse!

Genesis 3:12-13 (WEB) The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." Yahweh God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?" The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

And so when someone comes to you and says God didn’t mean what He said… it’s not really the same as saying “I don’t care what God said, I’m going to do what I want”… is it?

And so when God accused Adam of eating the fruit, Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent... And both of those excuses were valid! Adam wasn’t thinking about God’s rules, he was thinking about how hot Eve was!

And Eve had believed the serpent when he said God didn’t mean what He said; she was thinking about possibilities, not consequences. Yet this didn’t mean they hadn’t done wrong. They absolutely had! But not as wrong as if they had eaten the fruit without a devil to pass the buck to!

For God had said “You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” (Genesis 3:3). But they hadn’t known what they did! They believed they would not die, and therefore, by Jesus’ own words… It meant they hadn’t earned death on the spot!

Adam and Eve both received hefty curses, and were kicked out of the garden… but that was a mercy, a greatly reduced sentence, over what they would have faced if they had eaten the fruit and NOT had the devil to blame!

Thus, the devil is a large part of the reason they sinned – and also the reason they didn’t die for that sin.

And also partly responsible for their next sin, after they left the garden; and likewise the reason they didn’t die for that sin.

And also at least some of the reason you committed all your sins… and likewise the reason you didn’t die for those sins.

Think about that.

SOMETHING ELSE

It’s like if your wife asks you to pick up something on the way home from work – and like she always does, she asks while you’re checking your email, watching the game, or in some other way obviously distracted... is it your fault that you forgot?

Yes! You shouldn’t have grunted “uh-huh” to make her go away if you didn’t understand what you were agreeing to! But it’s also her fault for not making SURE you understood it, by getting your attention first! So while you HEARD her request, it didn’t really enter your heart, and so you’re only PARTIALLY responsible!

So if God whispers “keep my laws”, then allows men to shout in your ear “God didn’t really mean we should keep the laws, the laws are bad for you”... is it your fault you didn’t keep the laws? Yes! But it’s also their fault for telling you stupid stuff!

You are to blame for your failure to hear God’s voice and obey Him (John 10:14, 26-27). For if you REALLY wanted to, you COULD have heard God whispering. But it’s also completely understandable, and therefore excusable, that you didn’t!

This means that if some bum holds a cardboard sign says “repent and believe God”, sure – that’s true, and you should have done it! You heard more than the savage in Papua New Guinea who never heard of God, so you’re more responsible!

But are you as responsible as someone to whom God had spoken out of a burning bush? Someone whom God called out of the belly of a whale? Someone God used to call fire down from heaven? Those people knew God better, had more proof than you have ever had! Is it fair to compare your obedience to theirs? (Luke 12:47-48).

You are not as responsible for your sins as Moses because God didn’t make your hand leprous to get your attention before He gave you commands! (Exodus 4:6). Because of that, you have some doubt. You don’t KNOW for sure what God wants.

You can reason out something that sounds pretty good, convincing even – and you might be right! But until you hear it from God Himself, you’ll never really be CERTAIN beyond all question! So why hasn’t God made it possible for you to be absolutely certain what He wants?

Because He knows that if everyone were given an open, clear understanding of who He was and what He wanted, many of those who are hesitating and uncertain would follow Him... but He also knows some people would still reject Him. How does He know? Because it’s happened before! Ezekiel 28:12-15.

No one could have seen God more clearly than “the anointed cherub that covers” the throne of God (compare to Exodus 25:17-22). There was no smoke hiding the throne of God from that angel! He saw God clearly, in all His glory, and yet he still sinned!

Just like Adam did, and just like you would have – eventually. The cool thing is that rather than waiting for you to sin a million years or so from now… which sooner or later you would have done, and then earned death which can never be forgiven… now you can get all your sinning out of the way early, learn from it and plausibly blame it on the devil and therefore be forgiven for you “know not what you do!”

SECOND THING

The second major reason why God hides from mankind is because, to be a good person it’s not enough to have habits of goodness. You must know how to choose to do good in new situations you’ve never encountered before. And that, unfortunately, cannot be downloaded into your brain not even by God!

Hebrews 5:13-14 (WEB) For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby. But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

God can show you how to be good. He had done that for Adam and Eve in the Garden. He can show you in a lot of different possible situations what the right choice is; but in the universe there are an infinity of possible situations, and no way to ever learn the right choices for all of them beforehand!

Consider math; is it better to memorize the answers to all possible combinations of numbers… or to learn how to solve new combinations as you encounter them? I mean sure, you can memorize the multiplication tables up to 12x12, say. But up to 100x100? Every combination up to 10,000x10,000?

Is it practical to memorize all those answers, or is it better to spend a few years learning how to do new problems based on the basic problems you’ve already solved?

And so it is with sin. Is it better to memorize all possible sins and how to avoid them? Or better to spend a few years learning how to recognize and avoid all new sins, based on the basic types of sin you’ve already overcome?

The ability to avoid sin cannot be downloaded, any more than you can download the tables of all math numbers into someone’s head because every possible number and every possible sin is literally an infinite list.

So instead we must be taught; one problem at a time, one equation at a time, one temptation at a time to recognize right answers and reject wrong answers.

And this is why Adam was sinless, but imperfect; because he had not yet learned how to recognize and avoid sin. But here’s the problem… how could he become an adult, wise in the ways of the cruel, hard world… if the world is not cruel and hard?

How can you practice choosing between good and evil… if there is no evil?

Thus the second half of Adam’s creation, the creation of true Godly character, was not ended by the Devil’s temptation. On the contrary: it had only just begun. Because learning to overcome that temptation was how the second half of the creation works!

And so yes, Adam failed miserably… and yet, still, his story wasn’t over. The rest of his life was a process of choosing good or evil, then observing the results.

Ecclesiastes 7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything after him.

We are meant to make a choice, then see what happens; if we are blessed, rejoice. If we are cursed, think about why and change. As with people, so with our actions; for Jesus said “by their fruits you will know them (Matthew 7:20).

Romans 7:21 (WEB) What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

Through the course of our lives, if we pay attention to our actions and the results that come from them, we will learn by use to tell good from evil; and once we have done that enough, it will be as hard to deceive us as it is to convince a good math student that 12x12 is 145.

Then, and only then, will we be perfect; then, only then, will the second half of our creation be complete.

Continue to Part 4: The Golden Rule