If Jesus was Sinless and had Free Will, how is the rest of creation not a mistake?
score:6
First of all you start with a false premise. Jesus was not created! He is the creator. What is possible for him to be and become is not necessarily possible to create.
Secondly, something created in such a fashion that it would remain sinless would make it a very different kind of being than a sinful being that has been redeemed and made perfect out of imperfection. The latter is a MUCH HARDER feat and shows off the glory and the power of Christ.
There is no mistake. From the beginning God set out to do something hard to demonstrate the power of his Son. The history of salvation begins not at the fall of man (as if something went unexpectedly wrong) but before creation itself. Jesus is knows as the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. How salvation would work was decided and implemented and the results written down before man came along to test the plan.
Revelation 13:8 (ESV)
and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
Upvote:1
@Caleb hit some very important points. I think that this question, however, is an offshoot of a common objection to Christianity:
"How could an omnipotent God who hates sin allow sin. If He's omnipotent, couldn't He have prevented us from sinning?"
The answer to that, of course, is that God gave us free will because He loves us, and because He wants to be loved in return. Our love for Him wouldn't be real love if it were forced. We'd be little better than robots, programmed to behave a certain way.
The answer is so simple and so obvious that people gloss over it looking for a more "meaningful" answer, but the simple fact is that throughout scripture, love is the defining aspect of goodness. Jesus Himself said this. (Matthew 22:36-40)
Even in our limited human mental capacity we can understand this without giving it much thought at all. If you have children, think about this: They are disobedient, stress-causing, wallet draining beings, but would you trade them for a mindless robot programmed to act like the perfect child? Unless you're inhuman (or having one of those days with them), the answer is no. And the reason is because you love them in their imperfection, and they love you.
Their love is worth all of the hassles they cause for you. When they obey willingly and cheerfully, it brings you pleasure, it brings them pleasure to know they've please you, and brings you closer together.
This is why God gave us free will and gave us the capacity to sin. So that when we obey willingly and love Him of our own free will, it brings Him and us true joy, and is the ultimate definition of "good".
More post
- 📝 Where is the verse about people sinning because they know God will forgive them?
- 📝 How do Christian theologians view and/or use Jewish commentators?
- 📝 Enoch and the Inclusion of the Gentiles
- 📝 Do Luke 1:48 and Luke 11:27-28 contradict each other?
- 📝 Why do Catholics make the sign of the cross at the Eucharist?
- 📝 Was Adam anatomically God's image, as Michelangelo's painting seems to indicate?
- 📝 On the Seventy Sevens Prophecy of Daniel (9:24-27); and in particular, what length of a year is likely being alluded to?
- 📝 What is the historical origin of the "Last Supper" expression?
- 📝 When were "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" in Colossians 3 first argued to refer only to the Book of Psalms?
- 📝 What is the hope in Roman Catholicism?
- 📝 What determines the denominational "value" of a given Bible translation?
- 📝 How can Luke 9:49–50 be reconciled with the idea that Christ is the only way?
- 📝 Remembering vital scriptures?
- 📝 What place do ritual and ceremony have in the church today? (Liturgical POV)
- 📝 What is the basis for the LDS (Mormon) teaching regarding Atonement in Gethsemane rather than at Calvary?
- 📝 Why did Jesus say, "Do not touch me"?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for modern-day prophets?
- 📝 How is new humanism different from the catholic teaching?
- 📝 What is the justification for relying on faith healing and conventional medicine?
- 📝 If the Catholic Church teaches "babies and bonding", is having sex at an old age a sin?
- 📝 How do Catholic marriage laws differ by region?
- 📝 Would the Anglican Church consider themselves Protestant?
- 📝 Why did Daniel consider the allotment of food and wine to be wrong for him to eat?
- 📝 God as the Ground of Being
- 📝 Why do people die but angels do not, but both have sinned?
- 📝 What is the reasoning behind the belief that Eve was NOT created on the sixth day?
- 📝 Were Malachi and Isaiah normally bound or grouped together?
- 📝 Why do JW think other faiths are unbelievers?
- 📝 Is the Summa Theologia infallible to Catholics or not?
- 📝 Why Moses is not Sargon I?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 If Jesus was Sinless and had Free Will, how is the rest of creation not a mistake?
- 📝 How could Jesus be born during the reign of Herod, and when Quirinius was governor of Syria, if those periods were not contemporary?
- 📝 If we will have free will and be sinless in Heaven at the same time, then why did God not create a world with sinless free creatures to begin with?
- 📝 When and how was the doctrine of the one divine will established?
- 📝 How can Jesus be both root and offspring of David if he was only a man and did not pre-exist his incarnation?
- 📝 How was Jesus the Seed of David if Jesus is God who created Man (Adam), and David is the seed of Adam?
- 📝 How can apologists argue that if Jesus did not rise again then Christianity and the Church would not have lasted, when other religions have?
- 📝 What was the Early Church's (ante-Nicene period) view of the interplay between free will (or lack thereof) and salvation?
- 📝 Why was Jesus not welcomed and carefully tested by the Jews if they were (and are) actually waiting for Messiah?
- 📝 How do Catholics and other Christians respond to the US Bishops' teaching that Matthew was not written by it supposed author?
- 📝 How Does Catholicism Refute the Reasons Muslims Claim That Jesus Was Not Crucified?
- 📝 Why was Descartes' interpretation of the Catholic transubstantiation not approved by Church and how can it be improved?
- 📝 Sin Nature and the Sarx, how can Jesus be sinless if all flesh is evil
- 📝 Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith claimed that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. How did he know it was really the Father and the Son?
- 📝 Take away the gospels, and how do we know that Jesus did what he was recorded to have done in terms of miracles?
- 📝 How long was Jesus in the tomb?
- 📝 According to those holding that Lazarus was literally raised from the dead, why did Matthew, Mark, and Luke not mention it?
- 📝 How does free will fit with the doctrine of predestination?
- 📝 If the Holy Spirit is God, and God can not be in the presence of sin, then how can the Holy Spirit dwell in me a sinner?
- 📝 How could Jesus be descended from the royal line of David if he was born of the Virgin Birth?
- 📝 From where do Jehovah's Witnesses derive the doctrine that Jesus was and now is Michael the Archangel?
- 📝 How similar was the resurrected body of Jesus to his physical human body?
- 📝 How do Christians respond to the criticism that Jesus of Nazareth did not bring world peace?
- 📝 What is the basis of the view that Jesus was separated from the Father and Holy Spirit upon death?
- 📝 According to Protestants following the Reformation, what did Jesus mean when he said "do this and you will live"?
- 📝 How can John the Baptist be the greatest man born of woman, when Jesus was also born of woman?
- 📝 Why was Jesus called Jesus, and not Immanuel?
- 📝 How was the translation of the Book of Mormon shown through Joseph Smith's seer stones and hat?
- 📝 For people who believe in Jesus and not the devil, what happened in the desert?
- 📝 How will Jesus be recognized at the time of "Second Coming"?