The Biblical Congruency of Rebellion

In previous posts, it was first articulated that sin is lawlessness, it is the rebellion against God, and all that is Holy. The second post demonstrated that the origin of evil was birthed in the free will desire of the heart to rebel against God. In this post, we will discuss how evil entered the world through the congruency of rebellion, demonstrating through one man’s sin, all of creation was corrupted by evil. This is the third article in the Lawless series, to view the previous articles click on the following links: The Biblical Congruency of Sin, and The Biblical Congruency of Evil.

During a recent conversation with a friend, who is dealing with a family tragedy, the question was posed, “Why is there evil in the world and why does God allow it?” In the previous post we understand that it exists because a sovereign God allows free will. He desires a relationship with those created in His image. We also understand that Satan has come to undermine the relationship that humanity could have with its loving Creator.

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
‭‭(John‬ ‭10:10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

“Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.”
‭‭(John‬ ‭8:42-45‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

Jesus is articulating that rebellion is the reason evil exists and why it still continues today. This simple explanation does not do the subject justice, so we will look at three reasons for evil’s continued existence through the congruency of rebellion. In order to please my wife, who reminds me that everyone has a short attention spans, I will attempt to answer this question in three short posts. These three posts will help you grasp a biblically congruent view of sin, grace, and eschatology. The answer will be provided to the question, “Why is there evil?”. In this post we will look at the first act of rebellion by man, the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.

“Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 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.””
‭‭(Genesis‬ ‭2:15-17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

Imagine only needing to abide by two rules, in order to please God. Tend and keep the Garden and do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What a life! Be a conservationist (Save the planet) and don’t let the knowledge of good and evil out into the world. In other words, “Don’t let the virus of sin out of the lab.” Sounds pretty good to me, although I would have been tempted to chop down that one tree. Then something bad happens, Satan enters the Garden. The first thing Satan does is to create doubt about what God had instructed. “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden??”(Genesis 3:1). Satan still continues to create doubt and speculation even to this present time. Think about all of the doubtful questions you may have regarding the Creator and His Word. Is the Bible really true? Does God really exist? Does God really love me? Why would God care about you? Is Bible prophecy real? It is in this doubt that we become unstable and reject truth in order to believe a lie. This begins the congruency of rebellion.

“Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life.”
‭‭(Deuteronomy‬ ‭28:66‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

They began to doubt God at His word, and in their actions of rebellion they gave up immortality for mortality. To this day every act of rebellion is rooted in fear, doubting both truth and God.

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”
‭‭(Romans‬ ‭1:20-23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

What happens next is that Satan manipulates the situation in order to bring the curse of sin into the world. Adam and Eve both eat of the tree and become afraid, and ashamed. Their guilt was so great that they even tried to hide from God. Think about this for a moment, how many times has guilt, shame and fear controlled parts of your lives? Satan uses fear, guilt and shame to control us. 

Adam and Eve brought not only sin into the world, but the curse (or virus) that came with it. When you read Genesis 3, there are two main concepts that you must pay attention to.

(1) God is not bringing the curse on man, but is telling them that it is the consequence of their actions. In other words, because you exposed yourself to the disease, you now get the disease and its symptoms. God did not curse Mankind, Mankind cursed itself because it chose to believe the devil over God.

(2) The virus of sin infects all of creation and mutates it. What was good is now corrupted by mutations. Animals, plants, soil, water, humanity and the planet are all affected by these mutations. God did not create the Black Widow spider, sin mutated it from its original purpose into its current scary state. The curse of the virus is why we have weeds in our soil, plagues and pestilence and other nasty things.

“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”
‭‭(Romans‬ ‭8:19-23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

It is because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve that the virus of sin was brought into the world. This rebellion leads to our doom through pollution, disease and finally death.

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—”
(‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:12‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

It is in the midst of this rebellion that a loving Creator, gives hope. God promised Adam and Eve salvation and restoration.

“For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
(‭‭Romans‬ ‭15:4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,”
(‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭15:3-4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

“but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
(‭‭John‬ ‭20:31‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

It is clear that God loves His creation and Satan hates it. Satan is the greatest environmental terrorist in history. He needed to bring sin into the world to destroy God’s creation. The good news is that God loves us and kept his promise to Adam and Eve by sending Jesus into the world. In the next post we will look at the second act of rebellion that perpetuated the congruency of evil and how it formulates into the modern day battle of transhumanism.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
(‭‭John‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)