How can God be good
when so much is bad?

Everything that God created is good (1 Tim. 4:4) and it is so! Yet, we see a world today that is quite evil. We see otherwise ordinary people committing grievous sins against themselves and others. This raises a number of questions then regarding the doctrine that God is a good God:

If God is good, where did sickness and suffering come from?

If God is good, why did He make such an evil, senseless world?

If God's perfect world allowed Adam & Eve to roam about naked and unashamed then why do we now need clothes?

If God's creation was perfect, then why were animals sacrificed to Him?

If God's creation was perfect, then how could Adam & Eve have sinned -- they had no sin nature?

These and many other intriguing questions are answered in chapter three of Genesis. Consider such issues in your own life as we explore the answers in Genesis 3. As a result of Adam & Eve's sin, they realize their dreadful state before a holy God. When He comes to be with them, they hide. When God confronts their sin, they blame others. As a result, God justly punishes them, including the serpent used of Satan, for their sin. In mercy, God provides the first animal sacrifice as their covering for sin. In His great mercy, God sent them out of the garden so they would be unable to eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in their corrupt state.

Scripture Passage: Genesis 3:1-24
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Main Thought: Because of Adam and Eve's sin against God, all of humanity is born choosing to sin thus bringing painful consequences into the world. Nevertheless, God chose to give us hope through His promised Savior, Jesus Christ.

1. Though Satan was the tempter, Adam and Eve chose to sin.
2. Though God held each accountable for their sin, Adam and Eve played the "blame game.
3. Though God punished Adam and Eve justly, He mercifully covered their sin.
4. Though defiled by sin, Adam and Eve and all of us are redeemed through God's promised Savior.

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." (Genesis 3:1-7 NIV)

1. Though Satan was the tempter, Adam and Eve chose to sin.

In a perfect world, Adam & Eve pondered, argued, and rationalized until they chose sin. Here were two perfect people living in a perfect world who strolled with Almighty God in the early evening. What more could two humans want? Yet, Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and take control of their own lives. They considered the temptation of eating the forbidden fruit. Instead of rejecting it because of the Creator who loved them, they pondered it. They kept on pondering. While they offered a slight defense of what God had said, most of their time was spent inside their own thoughts trying to rationalize the action. The moment we ponder sin long enough to start rationalizing it, we have lost the battle. Eve reasoned in her own mind without consulting her Creator -- the One who loved her and wanted only the best for her. Her self-rule led to selfish disobedience -- sin. Self rule for you and I leads to the same selfish disobedience -- sin.

Today we choose to sin in different circumstances but really for the same reasons. A TV news camera crew was on assignment in southern Florida filming the widespread destruction of Hurricane Andrew. In one scene, amid the devastation and debris stood one house on its foundation. The owner was cleaning up the yard when a reporter approached him. "Sir, why is your house the only one still standing?" asked the reporter. "How did you manage to escape the severe damage of the hurricane?" "I built this house myself," the man replied. "I also built it according to the Florida state building code. When the code called for 2x6 roof trusses, I used 2x6 roof trusses. I was told that a house built according to code could withstand a hurricane. I did, and it did. I suppose no one else around here followed the code." (David R. Culver, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin from Leadership Magazine)

Even today, you and I cannot sit in judgment of Adam and Eve for plunging the human race into sin. God provided the standard to Adam and Eve and to us as well. We choose to sin ourselves because it is appealing, convenient, fun, avoids undesirable confrontation -- the list could go on forever. The circumstances may be more modern but the results are the same. We must each acknowledge the absolute truth of the Bible: "There is no difference -- for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:22b-23 NIV)

"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, 'Where are you?' He answered, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.' And He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?' The man said, 'The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then the LORD God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'" (Genesis 3:8-13, NIV)

2. Though God held each accountable for their sin, Adam and Eve played the "blame game."

Blame game is played when individuals refuse to be accountable for their actions. The New York City Transit Authority was sued by a man who was hit by one of their trains. He was hospitalized and nearly died but managed to pull through. At the trial, it became apparent that the man had walked off beyond the fenced in area which protected people from the trains. He had actually jumped in front of the quickly moving train hoping to commit suicide. Waking up in the hospital was a bit of a surprise for him. Undaunted, he decided to sue the Transit Authority for negligence.

Such is the course of action for many people today. People are refusing to be held accountable for their actions -- unless their actions have good or positive results of course. The lack of accountability leads to a general decline in productivity and efficiency as work is constantly redone. It is no longer politically correct for a manager to point out to his employee that he did something wrong. One may blame others but not themselves.

Another popular approach today is to blame the system or environment. "People don't make mistakes -- it is the business processes that are flawed!" This is the rallying cry of a discipline in corporate America called "reengineering." Blame the system or environment not the people. I heard on TV the other day the reason a man had such a history of crime is that the environment he was raised in was not conducive to positive attitudes and a good work ethic. What about the Garden of Eden? Here was THE perfect environment and the two perfect humans rebelled. Each of us must be accountable for our actions in order for any system to work or any environment to be "conducive to positive attitudes and a good work ethic."

God held both Adam & Eve accountable. God held Adam and Eve each accountable for their sin. In the Bible, God makes it clear that each is accountable for their thoughts, words, and deeds:

"[Jesus said:] 'But I tell you that men will have to give account
on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.'"
(Matt. 12:36-37 NIV)
"So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God."
(Romans 14:12 NIV)
"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.
Everything is uncovered and laid bare
before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
(Hebrews 4:13 NIV)

So God held Adam accountable for his sins and Eve accountable for her sins. They played the blame game. Adam said it was his wife's fault -- men, do you ever blame your wife when you get caught? Eve said it was the serpent's fault -- women, do you ever blame others when you yourself are at fault?

God held Adam accountable as the head of the family. When God confronted Adam and Eve concerning their sin (which He already knew about), God called out to Adam first. This is significant since Eve was the first to sin. It relates to God's order of authority in His creation. God has established the lines of authority for us: God is the head of Christ who is the head of the husband/father who is the head of the wife and family (1 Cor. 11:3 NIV). Since Christ is fully God, this is not referring to His nature but to His role as Savior. Similarly, the man is not superior to the woman in nature -- God created both male and female in His image (Gen. 1:27) -- but only in his role as head of the family. The basis for this authority is rooted in the creation order itself -- that God made the man first and the woman for the man (Gen. 2:7,18,21-25; 1 Cor. 11:7-10; 1 Tim. 2:12-14). This authority is not the result of sin but of God's desire for order and harmony in His creation even prior to their sin.

Along with authority comes accountability. Because Adam was in charge of his family, He was held accountable to God for the course the family took. While each person is accountable for his or her own sin, the husband/father is accountable to God for the family as a whole. Indeed, Adam is given the blame for humanity's fall into sin even though Eve sinned first (Rom. 5:12-13, 17-19).

Men, young and old, husbands and husbands to be, fathers and fathers to be, who will God call to account for the spiritual fiber in your family? Who will God expect to have been the family leader in moral and spiritual disciplines? Who does God expect will be confronting disobedience, disrespect, and foolishness by your family members? Who will God find is helping your family grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? Who does God expect to be down on their knees interceding for your family? Adam, where are you?

"So the LORD God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.'
To the woman He said, 'I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.'
To Adam He said, 'Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, "You must not eat of it," Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.'" (Genesis 3:14-19, NIV)

3. Though God punished Adam and Eve justly, He mercifully covered their sin.

Eve's sin of pride, lust, and unbelief had the just consequences of pain and misery. The punishment should fit the crime. For her reckless pride in desiring to be "god", for her lust after the desirable fruit, and for her unbelief that God provided all that she really needed, Eve was punished. She ushered in pain and misery into her world. She would desire to rule her husband but, instead, she would be miserable for he was destined to rule over her as head of the family.

Adam's sin of cowardice and failure to lead his family in righteousness had the just consequences of a cursed world and frustrated work environment. Man was made for work. After God created Adam, He put him to work. The work was not a chore in the beginning. A perfect world and a perfect job for a perfect man. It was truly a labor of love. God then blessed Adam with a family, starting with Eve. As the head of the family, Adam was given the command of God and the responsibility to teach it to Eve. Adam was to lead his family in righteousness. But when Eve was deceived and sinned, Adam was not deceived. He just did not want to confront his wife over what he knew was wrong -- men, have you been there, done that? I know I have. God punished Adam for eating the fruit but also for "listening to his wife." This does not mean you are free to ignore your wife -- you didn't hear that from me. What this means is that Adam was afraid to take a righteous stand for God. His punishment for this cowardice was a cursed creation. The ground was cursed. God did not curse the work itself -- man was made for work and everything that God created is good. But the work would now cost us blood, sweat, and tears. Thorns would grow right along with the flowers and fruit.

God did not want to overwhelm them in their punishment so He provided covering for their sin. God did not destroy Adam and Eve and start over though He certainly could have justly done so. They were duly warned of the consequences of disobeying God. Yet God IS rich in mercy. He instituted the first animal sacrifice as a covering for sin (Gen. 3:21). Why? "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." (Lev. 17:11 NIV) "And ... without shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb. 9:22 NKJV) of sin, that is. No forgiveness without blood being shed. All of this was a foreshadowing of the ultimate blood sacrifice which God's Son, Jesus Christ, would pay on a cross at Calvary.

" Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, 'The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.' So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." (Genesis 3:20-24 NIV)

4. Though defiled by sin, Adam and Eve and all of us are redeemed through God's promised Savior.

Even in judgment, God extended mercy to Adam and Eve. In an apparent unmerciful action, God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden putting cherubim (highest order of angels) as guards with a flaming sword. But God is rich in mercy. He did this so that neither Adam nor Eve would be able to eat from the Tree of Life in the garden and live forever in their sin-corrupted state. Adam and Eve had some idea of the magnitude of their sin since before they had enjoyed intimate walks with God in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8). Now they had no such walks for sin had broken their fellowship. But God IS rich in mercy. He further made known the beginning of a revelation of Messiah, or Christ, who would come as the Savior of the world. This Savior would take away the sins of the world and reconcile people to their Creator God. The revelation of Christ begins in Gen. 3:15 (the seed of woman not man whose heel would be bruised -- a major injury -- but who would crush the head of the serpent -- a fatal blow). This revelation of God's promised Savior continues through the Old Testament with some 300 prophecies concerning His birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection. God's mercy extended far beyond the garden all the way into eternity.

In defining the consequences of their actions, God promised that one day evil would be done away with. The Serpent represents those who follow Satan. All who sin are actually following Satan who is the "god" of this world. (Eph. 2:1-2;2 Cor. 4:4 NIV) Eve's offspring represents humanity but specifically foretells of Christ. This prophecy predicts a human Savior born only of the woman -- so that He would have no inheritance of Adam's sinful nature. Satan will bruise Christ but Christ will triumph by crushing the head of the serpent -- overcoming evil.

People cry out for world peace today. "Visualize Peace" say the New Agers. "Land for peace" say the Arabs to the Israelis. "My way or the highway" say the Saddam Hussein's to whoever will listen. And "gimme that" says one child to another. World peace is a lofty, desirable goal. But man cannot achieve a true and lasting peace until he deals with the problem of sin. As long as a sinful heart exists, peace will not be found. Peace with God is impossible for sin separates you from His presence. Peace with one another for you have not the love of God in you. Peace can only come when hearts are changed.

Jesus Christ crushed the head of the serpent -- He overcame sin and death -- when He died on the cross for the sins of the whole world. Through Christ, we are reconciled to God. Though the painful consequences of sin must still be dealt with in this world, we can have peace inside today and for all eternity when we turn to Christ. One day, Christ will return to claim His world and bring peace everywhere. Until then we must live in the world stained and corrupted by our sin.

Reflect on YOUR life: Jesus provided THE sacrifice for sin. He became "..., the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29 NIV) He not only covers your sin but takes it away. If you will turn from going your own selfish way and turn to God through faith in Jesus Christ -- God in the flesh who lived the righteous life in your place and then died in your place to atone for your sins -- God will forgive you. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who rose to life and promises life eternal to everyone and anyone who calls on His name! Then you have peace inside, forgiveness of sin, and the new life for which God created you in the first place!

Our Creator God loves you and wants you to know Him! If you would like to contact this ministry for further information or questions, please send your e-mail to:
Email: ministryrequest1@WordTruth.Com
Web Site: WordTruth.Com

Copyright 1999, Randy Lariscy.