Q&A: Why Did God Create Satan? and How Do Christians Still Sin? [Class Summary]

This Sunday was Q&A, so I'm just going to get right to it.

If God wants peace, why did He create Satan?

First, let's start with a little background...

In Genesis 1:31, God proclaims His creation "very good," i.e., perfect in form and function. This creation includes not only the physical universe in which we live, but it also includes spiritual beings as well (Psalm 148:5, Colossians 1:16). We see also in Job 38:4,7 that the angels of heaven shouted for joy when the earth was created, so we know they also were part of God's "very good" proclamation. Satan was originally created with "...the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty...blameless in all [his] ways" (Ezekiel 28:12-15). But, "[his] heart was lifted up because of [his] beauty" (Ezekiel 28:17) and he said in his heart "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God...I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." (Isaiah 14:13,14, cf. Genesis 3:5) Clearly, God gave Lucifer a will of his own, and he chose...poorly.

But God knew this was going to happen, right? Of course He did, and not only that, it was his "good pleasure" to do so (Isaiah 46:9, 10). We see this again in Romans 9 where God tells us why He not only allowed Pharaoh to come to power and oppress His people Israel, but He actually raised him up (i.e., put him in place): "For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed." (Romans 9:17) We also know that God works all things together for the good of those who love him--the called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28).

My mentor and discipler, the late Ken Hutcherson, used to answer "Why did God...?" questions with "Because it was the perfect thing to do."

It really is that simple. But we like complicated, don't we?

When God does something, it's for a really good reason...the perfect reason, actually: for His glory, and for our good. But in our fallen state, we often find this kind of answer insufficient or "intellectually unsatisfying," perhaps because we think we're entitled to an explanation when God does things that don't make sense to us. When the questioner is an unbeliever, the result is typically persistence in his unbelief, and feeling quite justified in refusing to bow the knee to his Creator (1 Corinthians 1:23). When the questioner is a mature believer, the believer's response is more apt to be something along the lines of "I don't know, but I'm going to trust Him anyway." (Job 13:15) But when the questioner is one who is spiritually immature, such questions can derail his faith. Since our job as parents is to serve as spiritual 2x4's to support our sapling kids until they can withstand the attacks of the enemy, we need to be prepared to give biblically-sound answers to their questions, and the best way to do that is to get them straight from the Word of God. The Word of God is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12); our words are sporks (Book of Kreft, verse 7). We're always better off letting God answer for Himself rather than trying to "spork" our way to an answer that'll tickle the ears of our hearers.

How do Christians still sin if they are not able to sin (1 John 3:6)?

Let's look at the verse in question: "No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him." When you want to know what the Bible says, the best thing to do is to what? Read it. And how do we determine the author's intent? We look at context. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to look up the immediate context of this verse, but if you're reading the NASB there's a word that is repeated over and over again in verses 4–10: "practice" or "practices." John talks about those who practice sin (i.e. make a habit out of it) and contrasts them with those who practice righteousness. If John were saying in 3:6 that Christians are not able to sin (at all), then why did he say "if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us"? (1 John 1:8) Why does he, inspired by the Holy Spirit, write that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness"? (1:9) And why would he say, that "if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us"? (1:10) John wrote his epistle "so that you may not sin" (2:1) but he continues by saying that "if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (2:1)! Jesus Christ is not an advocate for the nonbeliever—He will be their judge. If we take 1 John 3:6 to mean that Christians never sin, then John sure did a lousy job of setting up his epistle with all this language that indicates that we do. Furthermore, we'd then have to head back over to Romans 7 and answer a whole slew of questions about why Paul did the evil he didn't want to do and didn't do the good he desired to do!

Before God saves us, we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), and we are enemies of God (Romans 5:10). The sinner is in love—agape, or unconditional love—with his sin (John 3:19), and refuses to come into the light because his deeds are evil. In our natural state, we hate God; we run from Him; and furthermore, it is impossible for us to do anything without sinning (Isaiah 64:6) because we are faithless, and anything that is not done in faith is sin (Romans 14:23). But, when we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, behold the old man is crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20), the old things have passed away and the new things have come (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are given a new nature and we are "hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3) that "we too might walk in the newness of life." (Romans 6:4) But, we still live in a fallen world, we still carry around this bag of bones we call "the flesh," (James 3:15) and our enemy still prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). This is why we are called to die daily do ourselves (1 Corinthians 15:31) as we pick up our cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23). Until we meet the Lord face-to-face, we will continue this struggle, but the truly magnificent news is that, when if (1 John 2:1...note "if" not "when"...sin is not expected of us!) we stumble and fall, "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

That's all I had time to address this week. Next week, we'll pick up where we left off...which brings me to this week's....

Homework

The next question I would like to address came from two different students: "Is it ever okay for a Christian to lie?" I told the students that they had no homework this week because this was going to be my homework, but then one of the parents in the room piped up, "Why don't you have them answer this question as their homework?" I thought that was a fantastic idea (the kids, not so much), so this week the homework is to answer the question and find a scriptural basis for your response. If you can't back up your answer with Scripture, don't bother wasting paper and ink...we're interested in what God has to say about it, not our own opinions on the matter. :-)