In understanding God’s sovereign reign over everything, Christians have often pointed out that God stands behind good and evil asymmetrically. That is, the way that he stands behind good is different from the way that he stands behind evil. Indeed, God created everything good (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25 and especially 31), “for everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:4). This however, still leaves us with the question of who created evil. The problem with this question is that evil is not something that’s created, it’s something that’s chosen. Everything that God created was good, but good things (like tools) can be used for evil (like murder).
The account in Genesis describes God creating people with the ability to choose between good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). For many this doesn’t solve the problem at all, it only moves it to another place. We are still left with the question of why God would put a forbidden tree in the garden. The most satisfactory answer that Christians have suggested, is that one needs to be free in order to love. The tree itself isn’t evil (Genesis 1:31), evil comes through Adam’s choice to sin against God (Romans 5:12). God tells Adam and Eve to obey him because it’s him, not because it will help them in their marriage or their work, but because of who God is and because of their relationship with him. God gives them the freedom to love him and the freedom to turn against him.
Moreover, the bible tells us that God didn’t just create humanity with the ability to sin, but that he created them knowing that they would sin (Romans 11:30-32). However the bible goes out of its way to say that we are responsible for our sin. We cannot blame our rejection of God on God, he never forces anyone’s hand to sin. Our sin doesn’t take God by surprise (Genesis 6:5; 8:21), Jesus was not plan B following the fall (1 Peter 1:20, Ephesians 1:4). God is sovereign over our sin, but he is passive over our execution of it, that is, God allows us to sin. Some people think that this is enough to condemn God; if sin is the cause of suffering and death and God has the power to stop it then he is evil for allowing it to continue. However, our sin is not so easily divorced from us, in the parable of the weeds, God’s angels ask him if they can put an end to sin but God allows the evil to grow up with the good because he is merciful (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). Putting an end to all sin, suffering and death would mean putting an end to all of its causes, namely us.
God is extremely patient in allowing us to continue to rebel against him in order to give us more time for more people to repent. God doesn’t make it impossible for people to rebel against him, instead he uses our rebellion to display his awesome justice and mercy (Romans 9:22-23). God allows people to do evil, but he uses even evil to achieve his good purpose (Genesis 50:20, Acts 2:23). Evil wasn’t created by God, it sprang from our desire (James 1:15), specifically, our desire to take God’s place, being like God, knowing and deciding good and evil (Genesis 3:5-6). We are actively sovereign over our sin, that is, we are the perpetrators responsible for it. God is passively sovereign over our sin; in control, allowing us to sin and even using it to magnify his grace towards us (Romans 5:20-21).
The gospel brings a beautiful symmetry to an otherwise dark and gloomy picture. While we are active and God is passive in our sin, God is active and we are passive in his grace. We actively author our sin and God actively authors his grace. God passively receives our sin and we passively receive his grace. Just as sin sprang from our desire to climb our way up to God, God’s grace to us in Christ sprang from his desire to come down to us to save us (Ephesians 1:5-6). The role that we play in accepting his free gift of forgiveness is passive, faith is coming to God with empty hands, the only thing that we bring to the table is the sin that we need to be saved from.
We all choose to sin (Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:8) and are therefore deserving of death (Romans 6:23). God allows us to sin because he is patient, giving us more time to repent, and he even uses our evil deeds for his good purpose (Acts 4:27-28). God is sovereign over his grace and mercy, calling those whom he wills to receive his forgiveness in Christ. Those who accept God’s grace accept it with empty hands in humble thanks. For we are the active agents in our sin which God passively allows, he is the active agent in his grace which we passively receive.
