The Contest Between Good and Evil

By Dr. Dean O. Wenthe

One of the perennial questions that human beings raise is: Where does evil come from? This question has taken on a new urgency and immediacy due to the recent natural disasters of hurricanes, earthquakes, and the tsunami phenomena. It is interesting that some suggest that the very presence of evil challenges the existence of a good and gracious God. After all, these voices suggest, if there is an all powerful and good God that was prior to all things, how could the present order with all of its attendant evils be present in the world?

Sacred Scripture has a very direct and clear analysis of this question. The opening chapters of Genesis (1 and 2) indicate that God created a world utterly good. Indeed, in Genesis 1:31 God pronounces, after surveying His creative work, that it was "very good." Similarly, at the end of chapter 2 there is purity and human innocence. Adam and Eve lived without clothing and they were not ashamed.

This background is important, for in chapter 3 there is the tragic action of Adam and Eve in choosing to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The question immediately arises: Why did God permit even the possibility of such eating in a good world? The most satisfying answer is quite profound, namely, God’s love. This understanding of the Fall indicates that God extended Himself so fully in the creation of Adam and Eve that He gave them free will. In other words, God wanted Adam and Eve to love Him freely and fully, not simply because there was no alternative but because they had chosen Him as the One to honor. Tragically, Adam and Eve refused this love. They wanted to be like God. Quite simply, God’s love in extending such capacity to Adam and Eve was rejected in a manner that was quite idolatrous.

Perhaps an analogy from the realm of teenagers would help. When a young man or a young woman turns 16 or 17, it is highly probable in American culture he or she will seek to acquire a driver’s license and request permission from their parents to drive an automobile. Most of us would consider it harsh and unloving if a parent would simply refuse the privilege of driving. Much more loving and supportive are the parents who extend to their teenager the trust along with the necessary cautions to mature into a responsible driver. There is, as it were, a moment of truth when the young man or woman exhibits whether that parental trust, love, and confidence are well deserved.

Given this Biblical analysis of the origin of evil, it is equally striking that God does not abandon His creation, though He indicates in the opening verses of Genesis 6 that human imagination is now only evil (Gen. 6:5). In the flood God, as it were, started creation anew and continued the promise that He had given to Adam and Eve through Noah and Shem that there would be an answer to the death and evil that had come with Adam and Eve’s rebellion. The Old Testament is a record of that promise following the bloodlines of the Old Testament through Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David. It is in Christ, the Seed of the woman, that we see the Second Adam-perfect, innocent, and holy in every respect. He takes into Himself the evil that plagued the creation from the beginning. Saint Paul puts it so pointedly in 2 Corinthians that "He was made sin for us who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21).

In beholding the incredible love of God extended to us in His Son on the cross we behold the triumph of God’s saving grace over the power of evil as our Lord pronounces, "It is finished" (John 19:30). His resurrection is a public display that God the Father now recognizes this new order and new creation that Christ has brought into being and that all who are in Christ participate in. So in our baptism we are joined to Christ’s death and to His resurrection. This means that there is no vice grip of evil upon us in this world. Rather the loving embrace of Jesus renews and restores our lives.

It is now our privilege and responsibility to go forth and to indicate to men and women everywhere that we, not God, are the source of evil as we experience it in this world. But even more importantly we are to share the answer to evil in every life, namely, the saving presence of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Dean O. Wenthe is President of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he also serves as a Professor of Exegetical Theology.