The Problem of Evil
1 John 3:8
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
God is all-powerful (Psalm 46:11), all-loving (1 John 4:16), and all-holy (Isaiah 6:3). The Bible makes those assertions about God. But if God is all-powerful, all-loving, and all-holy, then why is there evil? We talked about that at our Bible study on Sunday. We came to this conclusion: we can’t quite comprehend the problem of evil.
If God is all-powerful, all-loving, and all-holy, why doesn’t he stop evil? Is God responsible for the evil in this world, even indirectly? The Bible tells us that God is in control of everything, and nothing happens that God does not allow to happen (Acts 17:25-28). So where does evil come from?
We know that God does not approve of evil. He makes that clear in his Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-18). He intends to punish every evil intention and action (Revelation 20:11-15). If God would punish every evil intention and action, and yet be the source of those evil intentions and actions, he would neither be holy nor just, as the Bible claims him to be.
God indeed created the world in perfection. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). To God, only that which is perfect can be called “very good.”
The Bible tells us, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12). Adam and Eve, tempted by the devil “who has been sinning since the beginning” (1 John 3:8), brought sin into the world. Evil is not God’s will. In fact, evil is defined as the opposite of God’s will. Evil is not an entity unto itself but instead is the lack of good, just as darkness is not an entity unto itself but the lack of light. Evil flows from the will of the devil and from the will of sinful people.
God allowed the man and the woman, and continues to allow men and women, free will. If not for free will, our love for God would simply be out of obligation and not out of choice. God doesn’t want robots or puppets. From us human beings, the crown jewel of his creation, he wants freely given love. Evil comes when God’s creatures do not love him above all things.
The problem of evil is not easy to comprehend. It is not easy to solve. That’s why for thousands of years, Bible scholars have made attempts at theodicy, that is, attempts to vindicate a holy God in the face of evil. A completely satisfying solution may never be found for our understanding.
But God has provided the solution for the problem of evil. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). Jesus came as a mighty conqueror to defeat evil. He did this by placing the violations of God’s will on his back, the sins of the entire world, all the evil ever committed, and nailing it to the cross. By his death he has broken “the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Evil is solved. God counts evil people as holy through faith in his Son.
This is our assurance in an evil world. Though evil surrounds us, it will not swallow us. Though evil lives in us, it will not defeat us (Romans 7:21-25). “And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, though all may be gone, our victory is won; the kingdom’s ours forever” (“A Mighty Fortress is Our God” stanza 4).