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The Problem with Evil

To believe in God is to believe God is the God of truth.[1] God hates the lie and the lying tongue,[2] but uses both to accomplish His will. This is exemplified by the serpent[3] in the garden of God.[4] The theme of the serpent runs throughout the Biblical narrative. The serpent first appears in the third chapter, in the first book, and is last seen in the third chapter from the last, in the Revelation God gave to Jesus.[5]

The serpent gives rise to hard questions. How and why the serpent came to be in God’s garden is a question theologians have danced around since men began contemplating the story. Where did the serpent come from? Perhaps more intriguing is how and why the serpent came to be in the garden of God.

The fact is, evil in the form of the serpent was already in the garden before Adam was tempted. If the serpent indeed personifies the devil, and the devil is evil, then both existed before Adam bit into the forbidden fruit. This is troubling enough, but what then does one do with “the evil” in Adam's heart preceding the act of eating the forbidden fruit? Simply put, where did the evil in Adam’s heart, the urge to disobey God, come from? What the serpent’s temptation of Adam reveals is the kind of heart Adam possessed before he ate the forbidden fruit. Adam was already in trouble, before he acted and reached out to grasp what God commanded was not his to take, when he succumbed to temptation.

The truth that Adam’s heart was in a state of disobedience to God’s command, before he actually partook of the fruit, is based upon the same principle inherent in the commandments given to the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai. The Ten Commandments were not given to God's people to keep them from sinning against God, or to keep a people from sinning against each other. God gave the commandments to His people, as the Apostle Paul expounded, “so that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.”[6] In other words, both the forbidden tree and the Commandments were created by God for the express purpose of revealing what exists in the heart of man.[7]

There are some thoughts to consider in relation to man’s heart.

The first: God knows the heart of man, as He tells us in no uncertain terms, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”[8]

Second, the apostle James nailed the problem of evil on the head—or, in this case, the heart. James reminded his kinsmen, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ’I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."[9] What happened to Adam in the garden is exactly the pattern James described. Adam was lured and enticed by his own desire brought forth by the promise of the forbidden fruit, expecting it to give him what he lacked and to make him what he was not.

Third, the heart of man is what God is in the business of changing. Only God can and does this for man, "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."[10] Jesus referred to what God does for the heart as being born again. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."[11] To be born again is to be found with the new heart.

 

To understand what God sees in the natural heart of man, and to also understand what must be changed if a man is to see God,[12] you must ask this: “What did Adam believe he needed when he stood before the forbidden tree, contemplating the promise of the fruit?” The teaching of Jesus about the human heart makes the answer self-evident.

The disciple James would have been present when Jesus taught, "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”[13] “These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man."[14] Adam was defiled by his own heart when he willfully reached out in disobedience to grasp the forbidden. Jesus taught, and James reiterated, the evil which tempts us as people proceeds from the heart.

In short, it is the unregenerate human heart which is the source of evil temptations.

Philosophically, it has been the battle between proponents of, man is basically good, and those who declare that evil lurks within man.

How do we justify evil in light of the innocence of a newborn child who grows up to be a Hitler, or a Stalin or a Bin Laden, whose hands are red with the blood of their victims? Here the conundrum of our species becomes obvious, and we look to shift the blame for the evil in our hearts to other sources, even in those whom we judge utterly evil.

This problem regarding the nature and source of evil is mostly ignored today, and at best is given mere lip service. In other words, we live in a culture that readily accepts the popular notion of “the devil made me do it,” even though this same culture (for the most part) dismisses the concept of a literal devil. But even in the conundrum of the evil heart, man is not without hope or help. For God tells His people through the prophet Ezekiel, to make themselves a new heart,[15] and then goes on to say, “I will give them such a heart.”[16]

 

The problem of evil is accentuated by the fact that everything, according to God, “was very good.”[17] If everything was good, perhaps as good as it could possibly be, since God Himself said so, how then are we to understand Adam’s desire for the forbidden fruit?

The larger question is, why was Adam so discontented that he could be tempted in the first place? If everything was very good, what could possibly have been lacking within Adam to make him want more? And how could the enticement of the fruit make a difference to Adam's being, since “all was very good?” Wasn’t Adam in God’s garden? Didn’t Adam enjoy a relationship with God in what we could imagine as perfect harmony? Wasn’t Adam living in a situation we would consider safe and well provided for?

To question (for those who dare to question) what happened in the garden presents us with the dichotomy of a Righteous God who allowed evil to separate the man He created in His likeness and image from Himself.

It is in this context of God calling His creation “very good” that we find the judgment by God against Adam for his disobedience. God had just the one commandment for Adam: Do not eat from the forbidden tree. Our own judgment against Adam for his disobedience is nearly always automatic. Often our first reaction is to assume that Adam messed up big time and that what he did by taking the forbidden was a bad thing.

But was it a bad thing? In the purpose of God, might not Adam’s disobedience be the beginning revelation that would lead to a good thing? What if Adam had not eaten of the forbidden tree, how then could God have revealed to us the second Adam, and what would be the purpose for the Christ?

It is extremely important to consider what exactly Adam might have hoped for in the forbidden fruit? But more importantly, was Adam's discontentment based upon a false hope, the hope that the fruit could confer on him a quality or possibility which was not inherent in him?

As we contemplate the events of the garden scene, the specter looms before us. The question which haunts and affects mankind at the deepest level is this: Was Adam tempted by a righteous desire? In other words, did Adam desire something bad, or was Adam's desire based upon something good, even if his desire led him to disobey God?

This conundrum is the engine that has driven redemptive history.

 

Our purpose at this point, is to speculate upon Adam’s motive when he stood in his nakedness before the forbidden tree. The nakedness of Adam is a picture of what he lacked inwardly or spiritually. With this picture of Adam’s nakedness before us, perhaps Adam thought the forbidden tree held the promise that he would be further clothed,[18] it was the way to become complete. And where might that have come from? Keep in mind that the promise of the forbidden fruit “was something to be desired, to make one wise like God.”[19]

To understand Adam's motive, it’s important to understand that he was already discontent, even in the context of “everything was very good.” Here, in the light of Adam's discontentment, we see him reaching for the fruit and thus the question “was Adam tempted with a righteous desire?”

When considering Adam's desire to be like God, even more provocative is the question, was this desire we see in Adam a fundamental desire which is to be found in all men, all of mankind? In other words, did God create within Adam the desire “to be wise like God,” whereby the human heart, as it was designed, would seek the object of perfection, namely God?

But even more compelling, do the scriptures ever speak of such a hope? We believe they do, since the purpose of Adam, found in his desire for the fruit, teaches us that the goal of redemptive history from the beginning to the end is “to be one with,[20] and like God.”[21]

To be wise like God,[22] knowing both good and evil, was the temptation that confronted Adam, and the forbidden fruit held the promise of fulfillment. Adam is often looked upon with disdain or wonder or both. People often wonder what might have happened if Adam had obeyed God and not eaten from the tree. However, entertaining that question is to lose sight of the fact Adam was tempted, and did eat motivated by the desire of a lustful and deceitful heart, revealing a greater design in the plan of God.

Some find it incomprehensible that God would allow what has been called "the fall of Adam." It makes many people to be very uncomfortable to realize that the forbidden tree was placed there by God so Adam might demonstrate to all concerned what was in his heart.

That it was the LORD who placed the forbidden tree within Adam's reach is not something readily taught, and one would be hard pressed to find others willing to discuss the subject. To ignore the matter altogether appears to be the path most taken.

Those who dare to step forward and debate the issue may run up against the objection that Adam was the precursor for the need for the pure heart.[23] The objection stems from the philosophical argument, already mentioned, that man is basically good. Those who hold to this argument often find it contemptible that the tree, the serpent and the temptation were all necessary in order to reveal the Glory of God in the redeeming of a people for His name’s sake. These truths, with their inherent arguments, are most often avoided, lest they bring the inquirer to face his or her shortcomings before the Sovereign God. In retrospect these truths are those “things the angels (heavenly host) long to look.”[24]

In the plan of God, conceived before the foundation of the world was laid, was the call for the Lamb to be slain.[25] In the mind of God, the Lamb[26] had already been slain before Adam reached out and grasped the forbidden fruit. Regardless of our feelings or how God has been judged, redemptive history is not an accident, nor is it in any way a reaction to the decision Adam made.

Everything that happened in the garden was foreknown before the foundation of the world.[27] The tree, the commandment not to eat of the fruit, the serpent, the temptation, the eyes of our first parents being opened, the shame of being naked, the fear of hearing God walking in the garden, God clothing them with the skins of animals,[28] the man and woman cast out from God's presence—all were necessary, leading to the provision that God's Lamb would be slain at the hands of wicked men.[29] In the fullness of time, God provided the Lamb as the necessary sacrifice[30] for the purpose of redeeming a people for the sake of His name.[31]

In order to bring God’s purpose to fruition, it was necessary for Jesus of Nazareth to openly exhibit, before the world, his obedience to God. If only one aspect of Jesus’ mission is crucial to recognize and acknowledge, it is this; he is the man content in the will of God and was obedient even unto death.[32]

In contrast, the first Adam reached out in his discontent to grasp what was not his to take. But “we see Jesus,”[33] who, through his love and obedience to God, exemplifies the man who lived his life content in the will of God. Jesus did so knowing full well what lay ahead of him. To miss this truth is to miss the purpose of His coming. "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”[34]

 

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