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"For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast" (Psa. 33: 9).
This is seen to be true in Gen. 1: "And God said, Let there be light, and there was
light" (Gen. 1: 3).
At the close of the record of the second day we read "and it was so". Again and again
we get the phrase "and it was good". Light is good, but light here is not moral but
physical. The gathering of the waters, the growth of grass, herb and tree, the rule of sun,
moon and stars, the creation of sea monsters and creeping things are called "good", but
not in the moral sense. It is inconceivable that the dry land could or would refuse to
"appear", it is outrageous to think of either rewarding the sun when it shines, or of
punishing the moon when the sun is eclipsed. Here in Gen. 1: we have a mechanical and
physical creation, but with the advent of man, the moral element enters, and with the
moral comes the contingent "IF". It would have been impossible without altering the
nature of man for such words as "it was so" to have followed the command concerning
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; man's obedience was not inevitable. As a
creature man was pronounced "good" (Gen. 1: 31), but whether he would "do good"
could not be ascertained apart from trial and proof. Moral good cannot be ready made, it
must be acquired.
There were three ways in which evil could have been prevented:
(1)
God could have created a being who was incapable of sinning. Had He done so, the
creature thus formed could never have risen above the level of a brute beast. His
actions would have been governed by the promptings of instinct, and would have
had no moral value.
(2)
God could have created a being capable of sinning, and yet have kept him from all
possible internal and external temptation. Had man been thus formed and hedged
about, he would have remained innocent, but would never have been upright. He
would have been as innocent as an animal is innocent, but could never have been
upright as a man can be upright.
(3)
God could have created man, and allowed temptation, and yet have prevented him
yielding to it. If this had been done, the very act would have destroyed the moral
nature that had been formed. Enforced goodness, coerced love, compulsory
worship are contradictions. Goodness, love and worship are emptied of their
essential meaning the moment the principle of compulsion enters. God can create
innocent beings, but in the very nature of things, the creation of a virtuous character
or a ready-made righteousness is impossible. A virtuous character cannot be
bestowed by Divine fiat.
This leads us to the vexed subject, the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the
first place it must be remembered that it is not "good and evil" that were open to Adam
and Eve, but "the knowledge of good and evil". Now it is affirmed in Gen. 3: that God
said man has become "as one of us, to know good and evil" (Gen. 3: 22) and in
Heb. 5: 14 we find such knowledge commended and indeed desirable in those who were
"perfect" or adult, as contrasted with those who were but "babes". Adam was a babe so
far as experience was concerned, and to acquire an adult's knowledge with a babe's
experience was fatal. Man was made "for a little, lower than the angels", though destined