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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Ben Cline Johnathan Hernandez and Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
Well, today's question, I think it's really a great one because it's one that I've been asked as a pastor. Maybe you have too. I guess there's different ways of phrasing it, but the way it was worded here is, "why make man with a choice to sin? So in other words, when God made this great big, beautiful world, we see what a mess we've made of it. I mean, why give us the option, you know? Why not just make a perfect creation that couldn't go wrong? You know, that's what we're trying to do with all of our, I don't know, our computers and our AI, and I think we're pretty sure it's gonna end the world or something. No, I mean, God's got His plan. He knows when the world's gonna come to its close. I don't think it'll be AI. You know, so I think it is a good question. Because there's a lot of hurt and heartache in the world. Wouldn't it just be easier, better? Could we give God some advice? What do you think, Ben?

Ben Cline
Yeah. Could we, you know, go to God and say, "if you could go back and do something over again?" No, this is a question that really goes back to the reason why God created everything in the first place. You know, why did he do all of this work to put the universe together? Why did he do all this work to put the earth together and make the earth work the way that it does? You know, why did He create man? Well, He created man, and He created the entire universe to bring glory to His name. I mean, I think that's the overarching reason why He created everything. But I think that one of the main reasons that you see in scripture why God created mankind is because He desires relationship. And, you know, this question goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. You know, it's a question of when sin entered into the world. And, you know, you look back and understand that in God's creation, He put Adam and Eve into the garden, and then he put this tree in the middle of the garden called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And He gave them a command, he told them, "you shall not eat of this tree." And he gave them a whole garden full of trees that would've provided everything that they needed. But this one tree was something that would create an environment where it would give them a choice, right? And so, that choice was whether or not they were going to obey His command. And, you know, we see this even in that creation, even in placing them in the garden with that choice, that God is all about relationship. You know, He made mankind in order to, you know, enter into a relationship with His creation. And, you know, the choice is there. Um, what God wants from us is, is obedience. We all have that choice, just like Adam and Eve had that choice. Though, you know, we are are born with that sin nature that carries on from Adam through all generations. But what God still wants from us is obedience. And if you think about it, if God had created mankind and then not given us, you know, a choice of whether or not to obey Him or whether or not to follow him, that turns into, very quickly, a one-sided relationship, which we know is no relationship at all. Cause relationships are two-sided. They're very much two ways. And, you know, it's really important in this to point out a couple of things. You know, number one: God knew when He put Adam and Eve into this set of circumstances, He knew what the outcome was gonna be. Because God knows everything. However, that does not say that God wanted Adam and Eve to sin. That's not what He wanted for them. He gave them the choice to obey Him or disobey Him. And that's, you know, the choice that they made. It's not what He wanted, but He knew that that was gonna be the outcome. You know, and this is a question where we run into the free will of man and the sovereignty of God. And I don't know if we're gonna dive very deep into that today, but, you know, the fact that God gave us the choice to sin just shows us how much He loves us. It shows us that He wants us to desire the relationship with Him that He desires to have with us. And, you know, it's a difficult question to grapple with, because we think that it would've been as easy as just, you know, not giving the choice in the first place, right? But that's not what God had in mind at all when He created us. So those are some of my thoughts.

Gary Schick
No, I think those are really good thoughts, you know? So, the passage really is Genesis 2, "the Lord God," verse 15, "Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, 'you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." You know, people have asked a kind of related question, "what was it about this tree?" You know, I don't absolutely know that there's anything specific about the fruit on it, other than it could have been just a random anything, but that God was basically giving them a rule. A point of obedience for no other reason than, "I am the Lord, and you are my creation." And I think you pointed out rather well, is that, you know, the big picture is that we are made for God's glory. But when He made us, really He made us and gave us a very high position in creation for at least four things. 1. we've already touched on for just the aspect of relationship with Him. 2. we're told that we're created in His image, so we reflect Him. 3. so that we might rule under Him. We were created to rule, you know, rule over the creation under Him. And then finally, so that we would continue to rely on Him. And just kind of unpacking those one by one. You know, I think you touched on it rather well. God certainly could have made a bunch of automatons, you know? You know, like a computer program. We've kind of touched on that. So you put the information in and you know what you're gonna get out. It only can do what you have given a license to do. Why did God give us license to do these random things, you know? Other than the fact that you don't have a relationship when there's no one out there to relate to. And so that, just by definition it creates, in a sense, the necessity of some kind of a free agent to who can freely respond. We would be responding to God out of automation, but not out of real love. And well, scriptures say God is love, the triune God. He's lived in all eternity in relationship. When He created, He expanded the possibilities of that. And the angels had the same choice. You know, some of them have fallen. The difference is, we don't read about the redemption of angels. But for some reason, God has smiled on man in a way that we can be redeemed through Christ, which is so exciting. So yeah, there's a relationship aspect, but let's also not forget, you know, God says, "then let us make man in our image, in the image of God, He made them male and female." So what is that about? God is spirit. So, you know, physically, are we in His image? No, God's not sitting up there with gray hair and a beard or whatever. Nor is He a beautiful woman or something, you know? He is a spirit. He is not male, female, physical. But we reflect him. We are created in His image in terms of things like character. And again, a part of that is an aspect of freedom. We aren't able to create the environment we're in, but we are able to be creative within it in a godlike way. And He intended this, He intended that we would reflect him in this created order. And so part of that, again, comes to a certain freedom of not only freedom of choice and freedom of will, but just part of what it is to be a being with thought. And then, why were we put here, you know? To subdue and rule over, you know, and fill the earth. So we were put, you know, to care for the garden. We were put in this world to be God's overlords under Him in it. But again, what does that entail? He didn't just say, you know, "go do whatever you want here. Here's a creation for you. Go be the God of that creation." No, he says, "I'm putting you here to take care of it. You have free reign." But again, this one point of contact, this simple rule is a reminder that, "in everything you are under me. I am the overlord, and you are free. I have made this for you to enjoy, but in relationship to me." It all comes back to the relationship to God. And then finally, and this is ongoing even today. As forgiven children of God in Christ, we absolutely, in order to obey Him in any meaningful way, we have to rely on Him. In order for Adam and Eve to sin they, in a sense, had to first, take a step away from Him. They had to go about their own thoughts. They had to turn away from Him. They had to turn away from what He had commanded. They had to turn away from what they knew. They had to turn away from what they knew was right so that immediately afterwards, they're hiding in the bushes. You know, what is that about? Well, they chose to rely on faulty information from someone else. Satan. They chose to rely on what appeared to appeal to them. They saw that the fruit was good to eat and pleasing to the eye and all of this. And they chose not to rely on God. So, you know, as Christians, our sins have been forgiven through faith in Christ. We've been given new life. How are we doing, friends, at living the life? I'll be honest, there's days I just really struggle. And a lot of times, when I'm struggling, it's because I'm stupid enough to be trying to do it in my own strength. We are never meant to do that. You know, we read about Adam and Eve walking with God in the cool of the day. We are called to walk with Him, rely on Him, draw our strength from Him. You can't, listeners, you can't live to God's glory on your own strength. In fact, that won't glorify Him at all. That would just glorify you. "See what I can do?" But see what you can do in and through Him. Now that's a whole different story. And so, you know, as we seek to live a life, to give glory to God, let's think about those four things. Those four precious gifts that are newly ours again in Christ. They're restored to us through faith in Him. What is it that we could jeopardize, could actually lose in sinning? It's these things. What are the things that are restored? It's relationship, it's reflecting the creator, it's acting as ambassadors for Christ. In the creation, now under him, ruling under Him and representing His kingdom. Representative, I guess that would be. And then finally, it teaches us moment by moment by moment to rely to look to Him who is our life. Jesus didn't just say, "I will bring you the way. I will teach you the truth. I will give you new life." He said, "guess what? I am these things. I'm the way, I'm the truth. I'm the life. You can't have it apart from me. But in me, you have it all." So, Ben, you wanna, any more thoughts?

Ben Cline
No, I think that's great. This is such an important question and such a good one to be able to, you know, go all the way back to the beginning of the pages of scripture.