Daily Lesson for Friday 21st of February 2025
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
“The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of ‘the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal.’ Romans 16:25, R. V. It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God’s throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, ‘that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ John 3:16.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 22.
Discussion Questions
- If God does not always get what He wants, how does this fact impact the way you think about what occurs in this world? What are the practical implications of understanding that God has unfulfilled desires?
- If we go back to the cake analogy in Thursday’s study, we can understand why, even though “God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan,” they went ahead and created us anyway. Love had to be in the mix, and love meant freedom. Rather than not create us as beings able to love, God created us so that we could love, but He did so knowing that, ultimately, it would lead Jesus to the cross. What should it tell us about how sacred, how fundamental, love was to God’s government that Christ would suffer on the cross rather than deny us the freedom inherent in love?
- Often we lament the evil and suffering in this world, but how often do you take time to ponder that God Himself laments and is grieved by suffering and evil? What difference does it make to your understanding of evil and suffering when you recognize that God Himself suffers because of evil?
- How does this truth—that many things happen in this world that God does not will—help you deal with your own suffering, especially when it doesn’t make sense and seems to lead to no good at all?
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<–Thursday
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You would have to be a hermit to miss the conflicts that have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the last three years. Many of the victims are civilians who would normally be going about their daily lives, shopping, teaching, building, playing, and romancing. But with deadly frequency, their lives have not only been interrupted but terminated.
It is easy for me, on the other side of the world to to debate the theology of good and evil, in the comfort on my home were the only noise is the rumble of traffic on M1. It reminds me of my trip to Iran. I have crossed Iran from east to west and looked at its huge cities, its modern highways, its deserts, and its pasturelands. I did it all from a height of 11 km in a flying aluminium tube. Did I see Iran? Yes, and what I saw was pretty impressive. But, I did not experience Iran. At home at the time I was working on my PhD with a fellow researcher, who was Iranian. I experienced more of Iran in my research office from my coworker than I could ever experience flying over the country.
Likewise, for many of us, the big evils of this world are viewed from a distance, but there are people within our own horizon who are experiencing evil and pain. That is where our theology must hit the road and work out in practice.
God did not sit in heaven, isolated from the problem of sin, but became human and experienced sin first-hand.
God did not fly over the problem he came down and was touched by our pain and struggle.
Understanding that God does not always get what He desires highlights the depth of human freedom and the seriousness of love in His government. Love cannot be forced—it must be freely given. This truth explains why God, though knowing the fall of man, still created us: love was worth the risk.
Recognizing that God grieves over evil and suffering helps shift our perspective. Instead of seeing Him as distant or indifferent, we understand that He is personally affected by our pain. This makes suffering less about a divine test and more about a shared burden—God suffers with us.
The reality that not everything happening in the world is God's will reassures us that suffering is not always a divine punishment or a predetermined plan. Instead, it is often the result of human choices and the great conflict between good and evil. This understanding helps us trust God even in moments when suffering seems senseless, knowing that He is working toward ultimate restoration.
The question is asked:"What difference does it make to your understanding of evil and suffering when you recognize that God Himself suffers because of evil?" My response follows:
Recognizing that God Himself suffers because of evil profoundly impacts our understanding of both evil and suffering. It reveals that God is not distant or indifferent to the pain and injustice in the world; instead, He is deeply involved and experiences sorrow alongside us. This realization shifts the perspective from seeing God as merely a judge of evil to one who also bears the weight of it.
The suffering of Jesus on the cross exemplifies this truth. God willingly entered into our broken world, took on human flesh, and endured suffering, rejection, and death. In doing so, He demonstrates that He is not immune to the consequences of evil—He shares in our pain and is actively working to redeem it.
This understanding offers comfort, knowing that we serve a compassionate God who fully understands our struggles. It also assures us that evil and suffering are not the end of the story. God's participation in suffering points toward a future where He will ultimately overcome evil, heal wounds, and restore all things. His shared suffering becomes a source of hope, reminding us that we are never alone in our pain, and that God is actively working toward our deliverance and ultimate victory over evil.
‘Further Thoughts’ quotes Ellen White: “The Plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam.” “It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God’s throne.”
What have we learned from Adam and Eve’s experience? Do we still doubt God’s benevolent Will and plan for our redemption? Do we still hesitate between choices? Do we still straddle the fence, unsure if He is worthy of our trust?
Our ever loving, caring, and compassionately just Creator God is waiting for us to freely give Him all that we are for Him to form in us again His Image. Do we trust Him enough to give our will into His hands?
He desires for us to choose Him because we love Him for who He IS; not because He ‘offers the better deal’. He wants to free us from our self-serving kind of love by offering us His God-centered, selfless Love instead.
God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are often placed together in Scripture.
The Sovereign divine work of God is proclaimed by Christ to Nicodemus in Jn 3:3-8: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again/from above he cannot see the kingdom of God…unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above. The wind blows where it wills and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who. It’s born of the Spirit.”
Human responsibility made clear in v10-v18. “…All who believe will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life… He who believes in Him is not judged…”
Jn 6:35,36: “I am the bread of life; he who come to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe (Human responsibility)
Jn 6:37-39 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day.” (Divine Sovereignty)
Jn 6:40: “This is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life and I Myself will raise Him up on the last day.”(Human responsibility)
Divine Sovereignty: “No one can come to Me (believe) unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God’. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me (Jn 6:44,45)
Human responsibility: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.” (Jn 6:47)
“All things have been handed to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the son, and anyone to whom the Son will to reveal Him (Matt 11:27) (Divine Sovereignty)
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest…(Mt 11:28-30) (Human responsibility)
Acts 2:23; 44:227,28 - Divine Sovereignty and Human responsibility together.
“Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off…” (Acts 2:38,39a) - Human responsibility.
“…as many as the Lord Our God will call to Himself.” (Acts 2:39b) - Divine Sovereignty
Both tenets are placed side by side. God has nothing to hide. Praise the Lord.
It is quite interesting that Jean-Paul Sartre’s concept of free will precludes God’s existence if “free will” exists at all; that if God exists humans cannot be free. But our concept of free will retains God but boldly limits His sovereignty.
In James 4:13-17 God indicates that it is evil arrogance to plan one’s future without saying, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” The priests and elders and others should have consulted God’s will when the many times they sought to kill Christ, even dragging him to a hilltop, but could not because it was not God’s will; until it was God’s will that they should kill Him. Christ even encouraged Judas to do quickly his dirty deed. And they must do it in God’s time. They planned to kill Christ after the Passover feast to avoid a riot by the people not even knowing that the people would support them. But they must do it at the Passover in God’s specific time. Christ, with sarcasm, referred to their inability to seize Him while daily teaching in the temple.
Could Herod or his wife kill or even arrest John Baptist without God allowing them, God’s permissive will? Can Satan do anything outside of God’s will? The lesson study “questions” God’s sovereignty over everything, as the Scripture clearly declares, when Israel was unwilling to do God’s will, His preceptive will. The covenant arrangement under Law was that the people would obey God’s precepts so that they would live long in the land and receive blessings. Disobedience would bring the opposite - curses, removal from the land. God and Moses said repeatedly that Israel was a stubborn stiff-necked people before they entered the promised land. Peter, at Pentecost, called for God’s people to “be saved from this perverse generation.”(Acts 2:40; Dt 32:5). God knew they could not obey as they intended (Dt 5:29; 29:4). The Law covenant with this single nation came in for a purpose - that sin might abound and be shown to be such an evil thing, so that it might be a teacher up to Christ, so that the people would cry out, under its bondage, for the redeemer from sin slavery, as Israel cried out under Egyptian slavery and were heard and redeemed. God’s reaction is for us to understand the depth of Israel’s hardheartedness, the natural human condition. Israel never came to the knowledge of its condition. They continued plodding on enslaved in sin trying to gain righteousness by law and rejected God’s righteousness, Christ. God’s reaction in human language to the depth of the soul corruption of the antediluvians was similar. In Adam mankind was made upright, “but they have sought out many devices”.
God remains sovereign as ever. His eternal purpose was carried out in the second/last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the new creation by redemption and regeneration; in which man, ruined to his lowest level by the first Adam, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, is exalted over angels to sit with Christ on His throne (Eph 3:8-12; Ps 8: 3-9; Isa 43:6,7).
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from and through Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Rom 11:33-36)
Kenny, depending on how I choose to read your comment, I can potentially agree with all you say. However, some of your wording concerns me.
We are studying about the interplay between God's sovereignty and the gift of the ability to make moral choices (what we call free will) which the Creator gave to humanity.
My question is this: Did God create Adam and Eve with the ability to make free moral choices? In other words, did they have the choice to either obey or disobey the Creator's law?
What happened to their ability to make free moral choices when they sinned?
In light of Adam and Eve's sin, what is the significance of Christ being "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world? (Rev. 13:8)
Did Christ intervene in the lives of Adam and Even in the matter of their ability to make free moral choices?
Inge, God gave Adam a will and wisdom and understanding to make wise and good choices. If Adam was given freedom to choose against God then what actually happened to Adam would not have occurred. The fruit was not poisonous as Eve perceived. It was good for food (Gen 2:9). Adam was created a servant son (Phil 2:7,8). God put him to work in the garden. He had all the freedoms consistent with his status.
If God indicated to Adam that he was free to choose against Him and then Adam ends up dying by that choice, that was mighty cruel of God. Everywhere in Scripture God is offended by His creatures opposing Him. Woes are pronounced on offenders (Isa 45:9,10; 29:16; Job 15:25; 40:8, 9; Ps 2:2, 3; Prov 21:30; Jer 50:24; Rom 9:20,21).
Adam became offended at God’s creation. He covered both their bodies. He runs and hides at the sound of God’s voice. It’s not the fruit that produced those things. It is God’s condemnation of their disobedience. Disobedience was not an option or choice given to the pair.
Thank you for your reply, Kenny.
However, your comment seems self-contradictory. You say that God did not give Adam the freedom to choose "against Him." Yet, Adam did choose "against Him."
If God did not give Adam the freedom to choose, there are appear to be only two other options:
1. God predestined/programmed Adam to rebel.
2. Adam chose to rebel of his own free will. In that case, who gave him that freedom to choose? Is there someone greater than God who did this?
According to your scenario, God did not give Adam the ability to choose, and God punished Adam for his choice - a choice God either predestined or a choice made possible by a power higher than God!
Sorry, but that doesn't make sense to me, and I don't find it supported in the Bible.
You also appear to indicate that if God gave Adam freedom to choose against Him and Adam reaped the consequences of that choice (death), "that was mighty cruel of God"?!
To me, that seems like a really strange conclusion. I wonder if you have ever been a parent. As a parent, I warned my children against certain choices, but I did not prevent them from making those choices (not that I could have!), and they sometimes made right choices, and other times they made wrong choices. Seeing my children choosing to be obedient was a highly rewarding experience, but it would have been pointless if they had no other choice - if they were programmed to obey, like a robot. I don't believe it's possible to have a genuine love relationship with a robot, even a highly sophisticated robot.
Do you believe it's possible to have a love relationship with a robot? Can God have a love relationship with creatures that have no freedom to choose against Him?
In the Bible I see many offers to choose God and live. Bible writers record frequent calls for people to choose obedience to God, to choose to follow Christ, etc. etc. Since the God of the Bible is the Creator God, just the fact that He calls for us to choose is evidence that He created us with the power to make moral choices - what we call free will.
As I mentioned earlier, after sin, Adam and Eve lost their freedom to choose, because they became slaves of Satan who does not allow free choice. (Think of a drug addict, for instance. Humanity is, by fallen nature, more addicted to sin than a cocaine addict is addicted to cocaine.)
Christ stepped in to offer Himself to bear the condemnation that sin produced and to offer fallen humanity another chance - a chance to choose God and live.
Inge, read my first sentence which says, “ God gave Adam a will and wisdom and understanding to make wise and good choices.” You wrote, “according to your scenario, God did not give Adam the ability to choose”. That’s false. My contention is that God gave Adam, His servant son, no attribute that could or would limit His sovereignty, as “free will” is said to do. ‘Free will’ claims to make choices independent of cause or any determining factors. It’s made spontaneously for no reason. It claims self governance in a way. What was the relationship between God and Adam?
Hmmn! "It is made spontaneously for no reason" I don't really think that is the definition of free will. It is about the capacity to choose rather than making arbitrary or random decisisons.
Dear Kenny,
I find your comments truly puzzling.
In my second reply to you I noted that "your comment seems self-contradictory." And it is exactly because your first sentence and subsequent points appear to disagree with each other.
As I noted, you wrote, "God gave Adam a will and wisdom and understanding to make wise and good choices." That is what we would normally call "free choice," and that is what is meant in our Bible Study Guide, and that is what most of us mean by "free choice" or "freedom of choice" or "free will" or "freedom to make moral choices." It is the ability or capacity to make a moral choice. And your first sentence suggests you believe that God gave Adam this freedom to choose.
But, as I see it, you contradicted your first sentence in your second sentence when you wrote, "If Adam was given freedom to choose against God then what actually happened to Adam would not have occurred." Thus in your second sentence you seem to say that Adam did not have the freedom to make a moral choice - a choice to obey God or not. You doubled down on this to write, "If God indicated to Adam that he was free to choose against Him and then Adam ends up dying by that choice, that was mighty cruel of God," further declaring that Adam did not have the freedom to make a moral choice against God.
And in your new response above, you say that it is false to understand from your comment that "God did not give Adam the ability to choose.”
However, in this comment you may be providing a key to your comments by providing a unique definition of free will - that free will "could or would limit His sovereignty, as “free will” is said to do. ‘Free will’ claims to make choices independent of cause or any determining factors. It’s made spontaneously for no reason. It claims self governance in a way."
I can't even understand what it would look like to make decisions "spontaneously for no reason." It is definitely not what is meant by "free will" in the lesson or in our discussion, as Maurice also noted.
Joe Mashburn's comment comes closest to making sense of your comments when he writes, "It also seems to me that Kenny is saying that when Adam and Eve disobeyed, God punished them for their disobedience. Adam and Eve did not have the ability to choose to disobey without consequences." Is that what you mean?
If that's what you mean, we are in agreement. It's just very difficult to have a conversation when we don't speak the same language OR attach different meanings to the same words.
Thank you for the conversation.
It seems to me that Kenny is saying that Adam and Eve were not given the freedom to choose with no consequences. Correct me if I am wrong.
It also seems to me that Kenny is saying that when Adam and Eve disobeyed, God punished them for their disobedience. Adam and Eve did not have the ability to choose to disobey without consequences.
I believe that Inge (and I) might look at this a little differently. God did not give Adam and Eve the ability to choose without consequences, but those consequences came from their choice, not a punishment from God. Here Inge can correct me if I am wrong. Inge has used human parents as an illustration. The situation would be similar to a parent telling a child "don't touch that stove, it is hot and you will get burned." But when the parent turns his or her back, the child touches the stove and is burned. The burn is not a punishment from the parent, but a consequence of the child's decision. I don't think that God told Adam and Eve "Do not eat of the tree, and if you do I will punish you with death." I believe that God gave the command not to eat of the tree so that Adam and Eve could really have a choice.
The death and evil that ensued was not a punishment of God for disobedience or making a wrong choice, but a natural consequence of choosing to set themselves up as gods. I think that Kenny is correct in thinking that giving someone a choice and then punishing them for making the wrong choice, is not really giving them free will. But I don't think that is what God did.
Thank you, Joe! Whether or not that is what Kenny believes, that is an excellent explanation, and it agrees with Kenny's line of argument. And your comment also illustrates why we have this blog: Different minds think differently - sometimes in opposition to each other - and another perspective can bring people together.
Thank you!
What is confusing for me, and probably readers as well, is that Kenny has suggested previously that Adam and Eve (and their offspring) had no free will. And he's not the only one with that line of argument. I'm hoping that your explanation will help others who have similar thoughts about free will being limited due to outside circumstances.
For the record: I understand, as Joe has so well explained, that God created humans with free will - the ability to make moral choices. Outside influences may affect the way we choose, but we still have the ability to make moral choices in spite of the inconvenience a moral choice may present to us.
There's also the other side of the coin: Satan does not want us to have free will, and after yielding to Satan's temptation, Adam and Eve would not have had free will if Christ had not stepped in to purchase that free will for them with the interposition of His taking the consequences on Himself as their Savior.
I believe that this discussion of free will is of profound importance. The suggestion that God did not create Adam and Eve with the ability to choose "against Him" is misrepresentation of the character of God - even if not intended by the writer. It is a misrepresentation because it implies that God is not a God of love but only a God of power who imposes His will on His creation. That is the kind of lie that Satan has been trying to sell to humanity from the beginning. Jesus gave you and me the commission to preach the Good News (aka gospel) that God is a God of love who gave Himself to save us from the power of the enemy of God and humanity.
Will we fulfill that commission by demonstrating His love in our lives?
Regarding death being the natural consequence of disobedience/separation from God:
Since God is the LifeGiver and LifeSustainer, separation from Him naturally results in loss of life. It's just a matter of how quickly and in what manner it happens, and that's up to God to decide, in harmony with the well-being of the whole universe.
God could have stopped providing life to Lucifer as soon as he sinned. What would have been the effect on the rest of His created beings?
He could have erased the memory of Lucifer from the minds of all His created beings after He withdrew His life force from Lucifer, so the fear factor would not have existed. So why didn't God do that?
Yes Inge, He could have done all that however, He wouldn't have been all loving in the process. He would have been all controlling. If God handles this Great Controversy in any other way than with full transparency then He will probably have to go through this ordeal again and again, playing a celestial "whack a mole" every time it reappears. Sure it would be cleaner and more efficient in the short run, but not in the long run. The way that this "Great Controversy" is being allowed to play out isn't cleaner or more efficient but will in the end be more effective. Affliction will not rise up a second time because the survivors in this longest war will have seen that God is fair, just, honest, and love. All questions will have been resolved once and for all.
Joe, thank you for your contribution. The scenario of the parent, the child, and the hot stove cannot be applied in the Adam and Eve situation. Every thing in the garden was pronounced good. Every tree was good for food. There was no threat to health or life in God’s creation.
God forbade eating of the tree of knowledge as a test of obedience. Eve perceived the tree as a threat thinking that they would die if they even touched the tree (“lest we die”).
But Eve could have taken the fruit from the serpent, tossed it to Adam, played catch for a bit, returned it to the serpent, and they would have passed the test, with flying colors?
Death was the righteous judgment on rebellion against Holy Eternal God. Christ suffered that eternal punishment for His people when God poured out His wrath on His Son. That was not the natural consequence of Adam’s sin. Death passed upon the creatures and the creation that did not sin with their ruler, Adam. They could not bear to see the beautiful body that God made for them. They became hostile to God and godly things. They coveted darkness hiding away from God. They could still make choices in general but would not choose godly things (Rom 8:5-8; 3:10-18; 1 Cor 2:14).
I think some don’t quite understand what “free will” meant to the originators of the concept. It was not simply making choices or decisions.