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Imagine you finally made it to heaven. You step inside those gates and spend a thousand years in wonderful bliss. Then your heart gets lifted up in pride and you sin. Suddenly you fall into hell never to return.
That’s quite a scary thought. Satan himself was once a perfect angel. He was in heaven standing before God. But even then he managed to sin and fall from heaven. What is there to keep us from doing the same thing after all is said and done?
The answer is much more simple than many people realize. And it is much greater than many people can fathom at the same time. Love is the answer for why we were able to fall in the first place. And love is the answer to why we will never fall again after the resurrection.
Perfectly Imperfect
Some have claimed creation itself began imperfect. They say Adam and Eve should have been created without the ability to sin. Take that a step further and you have to wonder why Satan was also created and allowed to sin.
From the very beginning, the Bible makes a distinction between the nature of God and the nature of everything He created. God is eternal; creation is finite. God is perfect in all ways; creation is perfect only in what it was designed for. God is unchangeable; creation is changing.
If God wanted to make us absolutely perfect, unable to sin, and unchangeable, He would have had to create a God. The problem is anything created cannot also be eternal and uncreated. On top of that, anything created can be destroyed. In short, only God can be perfect in every way. Only God can be God.
Genesis 1:26
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Humans were created in the image of God, but not as gods ourselves. We were created perfectly for our intended purpose, but could not be perfect as God is perfect in every way. We could not be eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, or indestructible.
Because of this fact, anything less than God is breakable under the right conditions. So all of creation was vulnerable simply because it was a creation, not the Creator. It was perfect in its intended purpose, but not indestructible.
Genesis 3:13
13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
That’s why Adam and Eve, though perfectly created, fell into sin. They were made with free will, but they were not made indestructible and impervious to deception. They were perfect in what they were designed for, but not yet made as perfect as God.
In a way, perhaps this is one of the things God finds so endearing about us. We are weak and He is strong. We look to Him and He looks after us.
What is it about children that many find so endearing? What is it in men that makes us want to be protectors and care for our wives and families? What if they didn’t need us? What if they didn’t look up to us? I think this is how God looks at us.
We aren’t strong, we aren’t eternal, we aren’t indestructible. But He looks at us in our weakness and sees us as having “perfect imperfections.”
2 Corinthians 12:9
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Our weakness is the perfect fit for His strength. Our frailty is the perfect fit for His protection. And ultimately even our brokenness is the perfect fit for His gentle mercy and grace.
The Risk Of Free Will
It’s one thing to be imperfect, but it’s another thing to be imperfect while having free will. That automatically means we are going to make imperfect choices. And when the choice is between life and death we have a huge problem.
So why did God give us free will to begin with? The answer is one word: love. That word isn’t just a feeling; at its core it is a choice. Without free will there are no choices. So without free will there can be no love.
Joshua 24:15
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
God gave us free will in order for us to have the capacity to love Him. We had to have the capacity to choose Him or to reject Him. Perhaps the most important part about being loved is knowing that someone chooses you.
But that comes with risk. If you can be loved, you can be rejected.
Shakespeare once said, “It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.” There is some debate about that. Being rejected hurts. Losing someone you love hurts. But I’m inclined to believe it is still true. I’m also inclined to think God believes it too.
People who were happily married for many years and then lose their spouse never say the love wasn’t worth the pain. If they do, then it is only because of the pain of the moment. Give them time and then you will hear the truth. It was worth it.
That’s why, while knowing the risks, God gave imperfect beings free will. It’s because love is too valuable to throw away even just the chance for it.
And we know the result just as God knew what it would be. Some people reject Him and some people love Him. But it is always by each person’s choice, not by force.
The Fall Of Satan
Satan and the angels had the same choice. God gave them free will, and we can see their decisions as examples. Some rejected God and chose sin over righteousness, and death over life.
Sadly, since they cannot die, their penalty for sin is to exist eternally in a state of dying. And because they cannot die, there can be no salvation through the death of another in their place. That is why they are not able to be redeemed.
The choice was up to them. They chose what they loved. And we see the result of their choices, which are the same for people that choose the same thing: hate for all that is good, the desire to kill all that is alive—like a vicious and jealous ex that wishes they could take the place of the current spouse.
That’s why Satan hates people. He is jealous. At one time he was thought worthy to be by God’s side. Then when he saw man being loved by God, he said in his heart that he would destroy them. He used his free will to choose sin.
So what does a loving husband do when someone is trying to kill his wife? He defends her. Eventually, when they have shown they will not stop, He imprisons them forever. His love for His wife means death for those that want her dead. And He will not show mercy on them when that day comes.
To them love may not seem worth it. Those who feel wronged by their spouse often feel this way. Some people have sworn off love altogether. But those in love know that they would be willing to break a thousand unloving hearts to be with the one they love.
Romans 9:22-24
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
God knew the choices we would make. He knew the choice Satan would make. Yet He was willing to make those that would be saved along with those that would not. It wasn’t because of cruelty. It was because of love.
Each person has been given the opportunity to choose God with free will. So God has not been unfair. Even when the Bible speaks of hardening the heart of Pharaoh, it isn’t saying He did it without giving Pharaoh a chance. But knowing the choices he would make, God still gave him the opportunity to make the choices.
That’s how it wasn’t just God hardening the heart of Pharaoh. It was Pharaoh making the choice to harden his heart and God accelerating the choice-making.
God was willing to suffer the pain of rejection and loss of those that would choose death because He felt the love shared between Him and His bride was worth it. And while no one that chooses to perish sees it the same way, they made the choice themselves as to which side they would take.
Why Sin Will Not Be In Heaven
In the beginning God gave everyone a choice. Satan fell, and along with him mankind. God certainly knew this would happen. It was inevitable for something breakable to eventually break. But that’s the risk that was required for love to exist.
2 Peter 3:9
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
What so few people consider is that God didn’t just expect it—He had a plan on how to fix it too. Not one single person has ever been without a way to be redeemed and healed of their brokenness. Not a single person can say that God doesn’t love them and wants them to perish.
This is not a contradiction. In Romans 9:22 it says that God was willing to show His wrath, but that does not mean He wanted people to perish. The word “willing” has two meanings. One meaning is desire. The other meaning is not being opposed to a certain course of action.
God allowed the fall to happen so that we could fall on and in love with Him by our own free will. But He has never intended for us to remain broken. When we lay our bodies down, He will raise us up again with different bodies and pure minds.
You see, we Christians have made our choice. We love Him not because we have to but because we know He is worthy. Because of our love for Him our spirit wants to please Him. That means being righteous. The problem right now is that we have bodies holding onto old dead sins.
Here and now our love is proven, perfected, and at the resurrection it will be made unbreakable. That is the difference between the beginning and the end. The beginning started out with us innocent and unaware of sin. The ending ends with us being made innocent again and not only aware of sin but opposed to it.
When we lay down the flesh, we will have no needs or wants ever again. How can we be lifted up in undue pride when we are made worthy to be one with God? When you are at the top, it’s not pride to say you are at the top—it’s truth. How can we desire something we don’t have when we have it all? How can we desire harm on another when we love them?
We will still have our free will. But we won’t have any need or desire for sin. In this life, sin appeals to our brokenness. In the resurrection, the part of us sin appeals to will no longer exist.
Like God, we will not be capable of being tempted. We will be incapable of being tricked because we will know everything as He knows everything. That’s why there will be no chance of sinning in the new world.
Now, what will that new world be like? Popular interpretations of it are people sitting on clouds with harps. But that’s not what the Bible says. In our next study we will talk about the new heaven and new earth.
Continue To Unit 6:4 – What Is Heaven Like OR
Return To Christianity 101 Unit 6 – The Resurrection & the Big Picture