One of my friends in seminary read your article and asked, “Then why did God create sin?”

Is this a bad question? Should it be “cause” and not “create”?

What are your thoughts?

To say “create” or “cause” would mean about the same thing in our context, and both words are applicable, so both are fine.

We are not using the word “create” in the same sense as God’s original creation out of nothing, but we are referring to God’s control over things that he has already created. Although God must actively cause evil thoughts and inclinations in the creature, and then he must actively cause the corresponding evil actions, he does not create new material or substance when he does this, since he is controlling what he has already created.

It is true that a person sins according to his evil nature, but as Luther writes, it is God who “creates” this evil nature in each newly conceived person after the pattern of fallen Adam, whose fall God also caused. And then, God must actively cause this evil nature to function and the person to act according to it. Luther writes that God never allows this evil nature to be idle in Satan and in ungodly people, but he continuously causes it to function by his power.[1]

Luther perceived the biblical and metaphysical absurdities of affirming anything short of this; in contrast, the weak view (common to Reformed Christians) is an unbiblical, unnecessary, irrational, and sophistical evasion. If our position is hyper-Calvinism (it is not), then it means that hyper-Calvinism is the correct and biblical view. Fatalism is also the wrong label for it.

As for God’s purpose for sin and evil, first, as we acknowledge the biblical teaching that God is the sovereign and righteous “author of sin,” even if we cannot say why he causes sin and evil, it would not undermine what I have said. Even if we do not know the reason, our view does not contradict Scripture or itself. It would only be a matter of incomplete information.

Nevertheless, we indeed have the answer, and it is in the very passage that we examined from Romans 9:

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?'” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath – prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory – even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? (v. 19–24)

According to Paul, one reason God created the reprobates is to provide a context in which he can reveal his wrath – something that the elect will otherwise never witness or experience. The reprobates are for the education and edification of the chosen ones. They maintain a world of struggles and temptations for the elect, and in the end the elect will witness the outpouring of divine wrath against them.

One important benefit that the love of God makes available to Christians is spiritual illumination:

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. (John 14:21)

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)

Knowledge about spiritual things is one of the least prized gifts from God, but to be a friend of God means to have such knowledge. Many show that they do not truly love God by the scorn with which they regard doctrinal studies, although they would like to think that they love him. We should make it our priority to obtain understanding and knowledge about God:

This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Knowledge about God is the most valuable treasure, and everything else is “dung” in comparison (Philippians 3:8, KJV). In offering his chosen ones reliable information about himself, God is giving them one of the greatest gifts that he can give anyone.

God created the reprobates – “the objects of his wrath” or those who are “prepared for destruction” – so that he may reveal this aspect of his nature to “the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory” (Romans 9:22-23).

Since Christians have been “saved from God’s wrath” (Romans 5:9) through Christ, this is one divine attribute that they will never experience, and therefore it must be demonstrated to them in other people. God desires to offer his chosen ones knowledge about himself, and this shows us to what lengths he will go to make himself known to his people.

People might dislike this explanation, but it is what the Bible teaches. All that God does is intrinsically good and righteous, so it is also good and righteous for him to create the reprobates for the above purpose. Some would be horrified by this, because they are more concerned about man’s dignity and comfort than God’s purpose and glory, but those who have the mind of Christ would erupt in gratitude and reverence, and affirm that God is righteous, and that he does all things well.

[1] See Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, and Vincent Cheung, Commentary on Ephesians.