If Jesus was Sinless and had Free Will, how is the rest of creation not a mistake?
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First of all you start with a false premise. Jesus was not created! He is the creator. What is possible for him to be and become is not necessarily possible to create.
Secondly, something created in such a fashion that it would remain sinless would make it a very different kind of being than a sinful being that has been redeemed and made perfect out of imperfection. The latter is a MUCH HARDER feat and shows off the glory and the power of Christ.
There is no mistake. From the beginning God set out to do something hard to demonstrate the power of his Son. The history of salvation begins not at the fall of man (as if something went unexpectedly wrong) but before creation itself. Jesus is knows as the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. How salvation would work was decided and implemented and the results written down before man came along to test the plan.
Revelation 13:8 (ESV)
and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
Upvote:1
@Caleb hit some very important points. I think that this question, however, is an offshoot of a common objection to Christianity:
"How could an omnipotent God who hates sin allow sin. If He's omnipotent, couldn't He have prevented us from sinning?"
The answer to that, of course, is that God gave us free will because He loves us, and because He wants to be loved in return. Our love for Him wouldn't be real love if it were forced. We'd be little better than robots, programmed to behave a certain way.
The answer is so simple and so obvious that people gloss over it looking for a more "meaningful" answer, but the simple fact is that throughout scripture, love is the defining aspect of goodness. Jesus Himself said this. (Matthew 22:36-40)
Even in our limited human mental capacity we can understand this without giving it much thought at all. If you have children, think about this: They are disobedient, stress-causing, wallet draining beings, but would you trade them for a mindless robot programmed to act like the perfect child? Unless you're inhuman (or having one of those days with them), the answer is no. And the reason is because you love them in their imperfection, and they love you.
Their love is worth all of the hassles they cause for you. When they obey willingly and cheerfully, it brings you pleasure, it brings them pleasure to know they've please you, and brings you closer together.
This is why God gave us free will and gave us the capacity to sin. So that when we obey willingly and love Him of our own free will, it brings Him and us true joy, and is the ultimate definition of "good".
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