No standard of goodness exists apart from God, and no standard of evil can exist without reference to God’s goodness. God cannot be subject to a standard of good outside Himself, and He alone embodies and defines good, against whom all good is measured. Moral evil exists as contrary and opposed to God’s perfect goodness. But, is moral evil the equal opposite of good?
Evil began as a choice of the will in created beings, with its first appearance in Lucifer. God, however, can never be the source or cause of evil. In fact, moral evil cannot and does not exist apart from the will of created beings. We describe and discuss it as a concept or principle, but it only exists as a choice of the will. It involves more than the mere absence of good because it includes an active opposition to the goodness and authority of God.
Moreover, the days of moral evil are numbered and will end when God destroys its unredeemed promoters forever. The new heavens and earth will be without sin and its curse, while the saints will dwell sinless with God for eternity.
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress (Isaiah 65:17-19 ESV).
As the bride of Christ, we long for the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him” (Revelation 22:3 ESV). Evil, then, is a temporary stain in the universe that can never be co-equal with good. It brings terrible destruction to its subjects, but only exists as a weak and beggarly thing in God’s grand scheme of things. Those who live and die in its service will be shattered to terrify no more. Satan, the source of all evil, will have his eternal torment in the unquenchable lake of fire.
Good will have no such fate as an eternal perfection of God, who lives without beginning or end. Good existed eternally prior to God creating the heavens, earth, angels, and people, and will continue forever. Perfect and everlasting righteousness will reign forevermore while evil will long be forgotten. “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind” (Isaiah 65:17 ESV). When we are tempted to despair at the increase and influence of the evil disturber of peace and goodness, we do well to remember that his days are short and judgment sure. In the meantime, he unwittingly strengthens our faith and pushes us to Christ, for “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 NAS). We should be thankful that we will soon dwell in the light of God’s perfect holiness, with nothing to disrupt our view and experience of His infinite beauty, least of all, evil.
Next Up: Does Free Will Require the Option to Choose Evil?
© 2015 Craig Biehl, www.pilgrimsrock.com
The notion of the option to choose evil as necessary for God to create beings with a free will has been offered by some to explain why evil exists in a world created by a holy God of infinite power. At first glance, it looks like a reasonable explanation for the existence of evil. But, is moral evil as necessary for free will a biblical idea?
To begin, God is infinitely and eternally free and has never had the option or desire to choose evil. Yet, God is the freest being in and beyond the universe. Also, we will never be more free than in heaven where no evil or the option to choose it will exist. Heaven would be ruined by the presence or possibility of evil.
Also, Christ set us free from the power, penalty, and ultimately the presence of moral evil; He did not set us free to have the option to choose it. “Having been set free from sin, [we] have become slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18 ESV). In Christ we have become “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). Truly, “If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Our situation has been infinitely improved in Christ, but not by the option to choose evil.
The choice of evil not only cannot improve one’s situation, it reduces true and biblical freedom. For instance, imagine yourself in a nice restaurant. You open the menu and see many excellent and tasty choices. What you don’t see on the menu are cat box pizza, rotten eggs, or dirt casserole. Now ask yourself, were you cheated? Would you complain to the waiter that your menu excludes pizza sprinkled with used kitty litter? I hope not. Would you be more free with the option of disgusting choices on the menu? Does the choice of something that will taste terrible, make you sick, or even kill you improve your situation or make you more free? Absolutely not.
Biblical freedom involves the ability to choose the best thing, not the ability to choose evil or that which hurts us and dishonors God. Our situation is not improved one iota by the option to choose things that destroy us and others. When Christ set us free, He empowered us to choose the things which benefit us and others the most, to choose the best of the best—to choose Christ. We were born in sin with the ability to choose evil, but Christ set us free to choose Him. We look forward to the day when evil is banished forever, and the infinitely good and free God dwells with His children made holy and free in Christ. There we will freely love and be loved by the infinitely excellent and lovable God. We shall be like Christ and we shall be free.
Next Up: Is Evil Required to Know Good?
© 2015 Craig Biehl, www.pilgrimsrock.com
Is the existence and knowledge of moral evil necessary for the knowledge of good? And if so, would that not easily explain how evil exists in a universe created by a holy God of infinite power who both hates evil and could have prevented it? Let’s see…
Going back to the Garden of Eden, did Adam and Eve need to know the taste of rotten food to know the food was delicious? Can you appreciate steak or apple pie without tasting dirt or steamed okra? We can all appreciate a good back scratch without stubbing a toe or getting hit by a truck. And while we can take good things for granted and better appreciate our blessings when we lose them, it does not follow that we can’t appreciate good things without knowing or experiencing their opposite. We certainly can.
If Adam and Eve could not have known good until they knew evil, they could not have known God prior to their sin. God is good, yet Adam and Eve knew God personally and lovingly prior to their sin. And it seems contrary to the entire witness of Scripture that if Adam and Eve had obeyed and been confirmed in eternal life that they could not have known God as good, with whom they would dwell in a loving relationship for eternity. If they could not know good, they could not know that which defines God’s character and therefore could not have known and loved Him.
Moreover, Adam, Eve, their descendants, and the world were not improved by that which is contrary to God and eternally destructive. Sin kills and destroys. But if knowing good requires knowing evil, the entrance of sin was a good thing that improved everyone’s situation. Of course, God can bring good, even infinite good from sin, but that does not say that good requires sin.
Also, knowledge of evil was never needed among the persons of the Trinity for each person to know and love the goodness of the others prior to creation. But if evil were necessary for the knowledge of good, then evil would have been necessary for the persons of the Trinity to know good, an impossibility. God has never needed anything, least of all evil. Yet, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have existed forever in perfect goodness and knowledge, even prior to creation when evil did not exist. God never needs evil to properly know good. Perhaps God does not need evil to know goodness, but people do? But we will know God’s goodness in heaven where evil will not exist and “the former shall not be remembered, nor come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17).
Additionally, the idea that evil is required to know good implies that God is unable to create beings capable of knowing and loving Him apart from that which He hates. Like the false claim that God is too high to communicate with human language, this debases God as unable to communicate His excellence to His creatures without the assistance of that which is most contrary to Him. God would no longer be independent, but dependent on His worst enemy to accomplish His will. Evil would be redefined as that which brings about the greatest good, accomplishing what God could not do without it, requiring a wholesale redefinition of how Scripture explains evil and the attributes of God. On the contrary, God in His infinity, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and wisdom, can do whatever He pleases without limitations. He needs nothing to accomplish His perfect will, least of all moral evil.
Next Up: Does God Require Evil to Display His Glory?
© 2015 Craig Biehl, www.pilgrimsrock.com
Scripture clearly teaches that God displayed His glory in the person and saving work of Christ. In fact, nowhere is God’s glory more clearly seen than in Christ. Does it follow, then, that evil is necessary for God to display His glory? After all, Christ displayed His glory by saving sinners. To answer this important question, we need to distinguish between two entirely different things, namely, God bringing good from evil, and God doing evil that good may result. The former is true while the latter is blasphemy.
To begin, God’s glory as dependent on evil makes God dependent on that which is most contrary to His character to accomplish His purpose to display His glory. Put another way, it says that God is independent and needs nothing, except evil; He needs evil to accomplish His will. After all, God displays His infinite glory by saving evil people. Yet, again, we must distinguish between God bringing good from evil and God doing evil to produce good.
Christ displayed God’s infinite excellence by bringing infinite good from infinite evil. Yet, Scripture strongly condemns those who say “let us do evil that good may come” (Romans 3:8). God is perfectly righteous and cannot do moral evil for any reason. “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4 ESV).
Imagine God unjustly condemning billions to eternal suffering to display His goodness to a few. The thought is repugnant in light of God as holy and righteous. “As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezekiel 33:11). Does a mass murderer display goodness by sparing a few, or does someone beating an innocent animal display his good character by dressing the wounds? Are you impressed with such “goodness”? Is this really God’s glory? In attempts to understand God’s sovereignty and holiness in light of the existence of evil in the world, we should always remember that God’s sovereign rule is a holy rule; God’s foreordination of all things is a holy foreordination. God’s holiness makes His power and rule good and beautiful. Satan’s power is evil and ugly precisely because it is unholy.
Moreover, if God does moral evil to produce good He would be guilty of that which He condemns in others; His critics and despisers would be correct in their accusations against Him. Christ’s redeeming work would be a mockery of God’s excellence if He suffered for that which God is blamable, produced by God’s dependence on evil. The Gospel would be turned on its head and the glory of God tainted beyond repair. Satan’s ongoing blasphemies would have merit and Adam and Eve would have been correct in affirming the serpent’s lies. God commanded Adam and Eve to not eat of the tree lest they die. But did God secretly want them to sin and die, along with the billions Adam represented? Was the serpent correct in calling God disingenuous with malicious motives in His command to not eat of the tree? The thought is blasphemous. Are we really to doubt God’s word as Satan would have us do? May it never be!
In the end, the refusal to accept mystery in light of God’s perfect excellence creates great problems and leads to a denial of God’s perfections. In Christ we have God’s glory on vivid display, including His holiness, righteousness, and infinite hatred of evil. Christ endured infinite suffering that God might be just in justifying the ungodly (Romans 3:21-31). God could not compromise His perfect justice one iota to save a single soul. He upheld His righteousness in saving sinners at infinite cost to Himself. Therefore, God has provided all we need to know His perfect character. We can rest in His infinite goodness, while speculation beyond what He has revealed will lead us astray.
© 2015 Craig Biehl, www.pilgrimsrock.com