Man’s Freedom of Choice
God allowed Satan to tempt Eve because humans were created with the freedom of choice to obey God or disobey Him. In the very beginning, the Lord had very hard decisions to make: Would He create beings with the freedom to choose their own end? The Lord’s decision was made much harder by His foreknowledge (Isaiah 46:10). He saw that to permit free will would lead to death. But He also knew that only creatures with total freedom of choice could have a meaningful relationship with Him (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Without the freedom to reject the Lord, neither could there be freedom to choose Him (Galatians 5:13-14). The Creator loves His creatures, and He desires love in return (Revelation 3:20). The very essence of freedom is to be free from compulsion and any decisions taken are the individual’s own decision (Joshua 24:14,15).
So, even though the Creator knew that His creatures would use the right of free choice to go against Him, freedom was so essential that He made the decision to create them anyway (Ephesians 3:12). Once this decision was taken, it would not have been wrong to delete humans from His creative plans because if He did, freedom of choice would not be a reality.
The Fall
The Lord created angels perfect and with the freedom of choice, but Lucifer (Satan) chose to use his freedom to rebel against his Maker and many angels followed him in that evil course of action (Revelation 12:4). Lucifer was an exalted angelic leader and there was no excuse for his rebellion.
“And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7-9).
Sometime after the expulsion of Satan from heaven, the Lord created our perfect world (Genesis 1). And He gave our first parents (Adam and Eve) one and only one test of loyalty, that is, not to eat from the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17). And the Lord warned them that Satan will only be allowed to tempt them through that one forbidden tree. So, if they stay away from it, they will be eternally safe. The test was easy since they had all the trees of the garden to eat from.
Nevertheless, Satan, using a serpent, enticed Eve to eat from that forbidden. And she also gave the fruit to her Adam. And this is how they fell (Genesis 3). Then, Satan claimed the earth as his domain (Matthew 4:8, 9). It is very possible that he did not confine his efforts to this earth but tempted also the inhabitants of other worlds. For he had access to them as seen in Job chapter 1. Unfortunately, our world fell.
The Plan of Salvation
The loving heavenly Father, in His infinite mercy, offered the plan of Salvation. The Father sent His innocent Son to pay the penalty of man’s sins. “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).
The ultimate revelation of the heavenly Father’s love was at the cross where His justice and mercy were fully satisfied. Divine justice demanded that sin should meet its punishment, but divine mercy had already found a way to save mankind—by the voluntary sacrifice of His Son (1 Peter 1:20; Ephesians 3:11; 2 Timothy 1:9; Revelation 13:8). “Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed” (Psalm 85:10).
The victory of Christ over Satan at the cross, guaranteed the final destruction of sin from the universe (Genesis 3:15). This will be at the end of the millennium (Revelation 20:10). But Christ did not arise from this war unharmed. The nail marks in His hands and feet and the scar in His side will be eternal signs of the great battle in which the serpent bruised the woman’s seed (John 20:25; Zechariah 13:6).
In the end, the Creator will be vindicated before all of His creation (Psalm 22:27). His character will show that He is both a loving and a just Father, who is willing to do whatever it takes to save His creatures even to the point of sacrificing Himself. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
