“In His Image”

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Since my giant “discovery” of the Gospel this past year, I have been thinking a lot about salvation, and my logic is coming up short and creating a huge hole in the picture of God’s gift of salvation.  My thought process is fallen, and I know that just because it doesn’t make sense in my brain, that doesn’t mean it’s not the truth.  I tend to warp things in my head, and I wanted another perspective on this.

Problem: There are two scenarios for the creation of the human race.

1. God created us as imperfect and purposely inserted the flaw into our nature that allowed and allows us to choose sin.  This doesn’t seem like the correct scenario because there is no glory in “stacking the deck.”  There is no glory in fixing a problem that you created, and more over, the fact that He created the original problem would put us in a position of deserving to be fixed and deserving His salvation. This directly affects the Gospel.  It calls into question our responsibility for our actions.  For if we are not the cause of our sin, then we do in fact deserve God’s salvation, and it is terribly unjust for Him to deny salvation to so many.  This option directly contradicts everything I have learned about the character of God and unless my logic is unsound, can be ruled out.    (Although in Exodus, God clearly hardens Pharaohs heart and then punishes him.  This, to me, doesn’t fit into the ‘just’ characteristic…)
2. If we rule out the first scenario, that leaves the option that God did create us as perfect.  But how can perfection degenerate by itself?  Shouldn’t the definition of perfection include sustainability?  Even if we had the free will to choose, how could a perfect nature fail, give in to temptation, and choose to sin against God?

Sincerely,
Perfecting Perfect

Dear Perfecting Perfect,

‘Perfect’ means ‘complete’ or ‘having all the desirable and required elements’.  Perfect doesn’t mean that something can’t be broken or fail.  A car engine can be in perfect condition, and yet, if you don’t put oil in it – it will break.  A house can be perfectly constructed and still be destroyed by an earthquake.  When God made Adam and Eve, He made them without defect (Gen 1:31).  They were made exactly as He intended them – in His image (Gen 1:26).  Adam and Eve were designed with eternal souls and the ability to choose their own destiny.  They were perfectly designed with the free will to choose to love God or to choose to rebel against Him.  In fact, if mankind were designed so that it would be impossible for them to sin – they wouldn’t have free will.  God has given us the great gift of choice, and it is up to us what we do with it (Deu 30:19).

On a separate note, let’s address the issue of the Pharaoh’s heart being hardened.  It is true that Ex 4:21 says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but Ex 8:15 says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.  Both are true.  God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by sending Moses to take his slaves away, and Pharaoh chose to allow the plagues to anger and harden his heart instead of soften it.  God sent the events that affected Pharaoh’s heart, and Pharaoh chose how he would react to them.  Once again, we see God giving man the freedom to choose his own destiny.

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