Why did God give Adam the ability to sin? I once heard an answer to this question and I thought that it was weak. The answer goes like this: If God did not give Adam the ability to sin, then Adam would have been a robot and he would not have been able to love God genuinely.

That answer is weak because Jesus does not have the ability to sin and He is not a robot. He has a genuine love for God the Father. The saints in heaven do not have the ability to sin and they are not robots either. They have a genuine love for God. Moreover, even if a person did not have the ability to sin, God could give that person the desire to love God and the ability to act according to his desires.

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Curt Hayashida
member, Community Bible Church (Non-denominational)
Vallejo, CA

Curt, Adam was born posse peccare, posse non peccare (able to sin, able not to sin). Adam was a true moral free agent who possessed an unencumbered free will. Adam was created and placed in the garden and given a task:

In addition to the purpose for which he was created Adam was given a command that prohibited him from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:

The implication is that Adam had the ability to obey or disobey. If Adam was created non posse peccare (not able to sin) then there would have been no reason for God to give this prohibition.

Why did God give Adam this ability, to sin or not to sin? By exercising his free will Adam would glorify God by his obedience. This is the essence of the covenant of works. It is also what the Arminian believes free will to be like today. It dispels the notion that God created Adam to be a moral and spiritual robot.

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Bill Brown
Elder
Grace Baptist Church
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

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Excellent perception! Discern first where the source of all goodness is and abides, and you are on your way to solving your puzzle.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by your last sentence. Could you explain it a little more.

Blessings!

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Charles Plauger
Member/Grace Reformed Church
Oakland, MD

Some people think that if you did not have the ability to sin, then you would be forced to love God. My response is that if a person has the desire to love God and acts according to that desire, then he would not be forced to love God.

Right! I ask them, "Does God have the ability to sin?" The answer is "no". Since he is limited to only doing good, does this mean that we praise him any less? Rather, he deserves more praise because he can only do good. Also, since Christ was not able to sin, was not he then limited to only love God? Of course.

The point is, we are limited or forced to act according to our nature. God is limited or forced to do good because his nature is good. So is Christ.

Is a dog a robot because it can only bark, and not meow? Is a cat a robot for a similar reason? No, we act according to our nature. So, when it comes to Adam, this is the tricky issue to resolve. What was Adam's nature?

This question is akin to the question "Why did God permit the fall to happen?"

I think that some caution should be used, as only God can give a full answer to this (the question being part of his secret will). That being said, I think that some deductions can be made, although maybe not enough to satisfy some curious minds.

1) God willed the fall to happen. He predestined it, and designed the plan of salvation to bring us out of it.

2) Why did he do this? The only safe answer I can think of is for his own glory.

Rom 9:17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." [7]
Rom 9:18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
Rom 9:19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"
Rom 9:20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it , "Why have you made me like this?"
Rom 9:21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Rom 9:22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
Rom 9:23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,

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Jeff Bartel
Mechanical Engineer
Member - Trinity Reformed Church - RPCNA

"To believe in the power of man in the work of regeneration is the great heresy of Rome, and from that error has come the ruin of the Church. Conversion proceeds from the grace of God alone, and the system which ascribes it partly to man and partly to God is worse than Pelagianism" (The Reformation in England (London, 1962), Vol. 1, p. 98)

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