WHY SIN WAS PERMITTED by H. C. Giles

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 4, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 14.

WHY SIN WAS PERMITTED.

By H. C. Giles

Number II.

THE time was when the monster sin was unknown in all God's domain. Its blighting breath had not withered, nor its crushing step marred, aught of beauty in any of the Creator's handiwork. The Almighty's fiat gave birth to world after world, each to take its appointed place in the great universe, and when the foundations of this world were laid, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38:7. The sole thought of all created beings was, in their blissful innocence, to honor and glorify their great Benefactor by offering unquestioned obedience to all His righteous will. Among all the innumerable host that surrounded the throne of God, "angels that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word," no note of discord or murmur of dissatisfaction had ever arisen, no envious or jealous spirit had ever ruffled any breast, no evil thought or dark design had ever cast its blighting shadow over any life; but all was peace and happiness in heaven.

But there came a time when the all-seeing eye discerned in the heart of one bright being an intent that, ere its enormity should be fully disclosed and its iniquitous career terminated, many a heart would be pierced with woe, and many a life would go out in darkness. Here was the origin of sin, and this being, within whose bosom the foul purposes were first given birth, was the originator and prince of evil, the father of lies. John 8:44; Eze. 28:12-17.

Why Sin Was Not Abolished in Its Beginning.

To many minds the existence of evil is incompatible with the goodness and beneficence of a God whose name is Love. The fact that God permitted sin, with its dire results, to enter this world, rather than to put it down, by force if necessary, in its incipiency, is regarded by many as an indication that the Lord is arbitrary, not looking to the happiness and comfort of His creatures. But it is because God's character and the principles which underlie His government are not rightly comprehended that this misconception holds in so many minds.

There are some things that God, almighty tho He be, can not do, because foreign to the infinite goodness of His character. "It is impossible for God to lie," because His character is Truth. It is likewise impossible for Him to force any of His subjects into obedience, because His character is Love. "God is love;" His government is a government of love, and all His requirements are the expression of love. It is because God is love and only love that He did not and, indeed, could not use violence to put down rebellion against His own government. Force and violence are not the instruments of love. "Love suffereth long and is kind." Hence if God should seek to use any other constraining motive than love toward any of His creatures—if He should attempt to move any to repentance save by His goodness—He would cease to be a God of love, and His law and government of love would at once be annihilated.

Probation Necessary.

God is love; His government rests on the principles of love, and His subjects must serve Him from motives of love. It is, therefore, not an arbitrary truth, but simply the statement of one of the essentially inherent principles of God's government, that "love is the fulfilling of the law" of God. And this love shown to God is simply the spontaneous response of love received from God. "We love Him, because He first loved us." Now, as love is the "bond of perfectness," and as our love is the same as God's, because received from God, and as His love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we are enabled by the almighty power of God, the Gospel, fully to keep the law of love, and to attain to the standard of perfection set forth by the Saviour when He said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matt. 5:48.

Again: God being love, and His service being that of love, which can not be forced, but must spring from the free choice of the servant, it inevitably follows that the Creator must constitute as free moral agents those of His creatures whom He would make amenable to His moral government, angels in heaven as well as men upon earth, sufficiently instructed in the right, but free to choose the wrong at any and every step of the way. Created thus, free to choose the right or the wrong, it necessarily followed that they must be placed upon a period of probation, that their loyalty to their Maker might be fully tested, after which, if faithful, their place in God's favor would remain eternally secured.

Thus all God's creatures who are answerable to moral law were not only at the creation constituted free moral agents, but also their happiness was conditional upon their loyalty to their Creator. Then as now the way of peace lay in the path of unswerving obedience to all God's righteous requirements—righteous only because they are right, and right simply because they afford peace, joy, and life.

In this unrestricted freedom of choice and action, and in no other way, could there be perfect happiness, not alone for the creature, but for the Creator as well. Man on his part could not be perfectly happy unless at all times he should do that which was the result of his own free choice. He could not be eternally happy unless he should always freely choose the right according to God's standard, which alone is right.

On the other hand, God, for whose glory man was created, would not be perfectly glorified unless at all times man should freely choose the service of love, or perfect obedience to all the requirements of God's law of love. Hence, for the success of God's government, His subjects must not only be free to choose, but they must freely choose the right. Thus would perfect harmony and perfect joy pervade all the universe of God.

But for God's creatures to be free moral agents, as free to choose the wrong as the right, the Creator must take the risk of the possibility of sin, or the wrong choice by some individual at some time. Sin having once entered, the only power that the God of love could use to reclaim the rebellious is the Gospel, for the Gospel is "the power of God" to save the lost. In this way would the Creator show His subjects that He does love them, even to the giving of His own life for their salvation; and when God thus makes known to all the beholding universe the riches of His grace in His kindness to us through Christ Jesus, thus proving to a demonstration that God is love, that "love seeketh not her own" but others' good, that love is "the bond of perfectness," the greatest of all attributes, and that obedience to God is but a service of love, then all created intelligences will forever freely and fully choose for themselves the service of God and the character of God.

Thus will be fulfilled the promise: "Affliction shall not rise up the second time." "Tho I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more." Nahum 1:9, 12. Then will be realized the happy state, not simply of a world redeemed from sin, but of a universe forever secure from all approach of evil. Well then may be described the rapturous sound: "And every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them, heard I saying, Unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever." Rev. 5:13, R.V. But this will not be then in prophetic strain by an exiled seer in an island solitude, but it will be the swelling anthem of praise from the redeemed host of all ages, as they stand before the throne of God, saved,—forever saved. H. C. GILES.

[The next article in this series will be entitled "The Father of Lies," a consideration of Satan.]