Once upon a time when there was no time… God made a plan.

Everyone loves a good story. God is the greatest storyteller of them all. Countless years ago, He began a drama that dwarfs all dramas in terms of plot, character, and setting by a near infinite order of magnitude. The stage and scope of God’s drama occupies the entire physical universe and all that is beyond–hidden from us. God is the archetypal writer who has written a drama with heroes and villains, life and death, triumph and tragedy. In this drama, God has given His creatures the freedom to choose. But as the writer of a novel foreknows the choices his characters will make God foreknows the choices we will make.

He chose, in his wisdom, to create as He created. His goal is to bring glory and honor to Himself so that His creation might rejoice in that glory–for we are heirs of it. In His wisdom God determined a fallen and redeemed world would be more glorious than a world which never fell. We who have trusted Him will receive His accolade, as actors receive applause at the end of the play.

Eternity, the Angelic Creation, and Creation of the Universe:

God has existed eternally in perfect harmony. He exists as One in nature or essence and Three in person or role as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Godhead share attributes of sovereignty, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, veracity, eternal life, righteousness, immutability, justice, and love. In eternity past God created sentient beings to serve Him. These were angels–spirit beings with great knowledge and power. He named the preeminent angel ‘Lucifer’, the ‘Day Star’ (Isaiah 14.12). He was governor of heaven and had the privilege of orchestrating the worship of God (Ezekiel 28.11-19).

Sometime after God created the angelic host, He created the physical universe (Job 38.7). At some point, Lucifer became displeased with his exalted role. He wanted more than to be the highest and most beautiful creature of God: he wanted to be God. Instead, he became Satan, the adversary of God, a twisted, fallen creature. In his rebellion, he convinced one-third of the angels to follow him against God (Revelation 12.3-4). This began ‘sin’ in the universe. Thus began the conflict of the ages between good and evil–evil, which is goodness gone bad, spoiled. Instead of millions of wills working in harmony, there became millions of wills in opposition to God.

The Creation of Mankind:

We have no information of how long the angelic creation existed before God created man.

Why did God create Man?

The best answer is He created man to resolve the angelic conflict and the problem of evil. From what the Scriptures indicate, God wished to demonstrate His goodness and that man would choose Him for his own sake. This is what faith is all about. The book of Hebrews tells us it is impossible to please God apart from faith (Hebrews 11.6).

The one thing God wishes from us (and the only way we can have a relationship with him) is by our trust. The book of Job provides a wonderful microcosm and mini-drama of the larger drama God is playing out with the human race. When we believe God, when we exercise trust in the Cross-work of Christ for our salvation (believing the gospel–that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, 1 Corinthians 15.1-4), we agree with God that we are incapable of pleasing or commending ourselves to Him by our own efforts. We are left to trusting and depending on His (God’s) goodness and work on our behalf. This act of faith is a choice of sides. Such an act of faith is a defeat for Satan.

When we put our trust in Christ, we transfer our allegiance from those in rebellion against God, His enemies, whose chief is Satan, to God. God originally created man perfect, without sin. He enjoyed a perfect relationship with his Creator. Satan, hating God, perceived (rightly) that man’s creation was a threat to him and his ambitions.

Satan is the great enemy of both God and man and (Satan) wishes to enslave and destroy the human race. He deceived Eve into eating from “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” – the one tree’s fruit that God had forbidden Adam to eat (Genesis 2.15-17). Adam, in contrast to Eve, was not deceived (Genesis 3.13; 1 Timothy 2.14); he knew what he was doing and ate in rebellion. God had warned Adam that the day he ate from the Tree he would “surely die.” Adam and Eve died immediately–not physically (that came later) but spiritually.

“Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world [Gk. aion, age], and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12 (KJV)

Man’s relationship and communion with God, which they had enjoyed freely without inhibition, ended. Theologians call this “the Fall of man” (humanity). From this one act, spiritual death passed to all humanity. The Scriptures reveal we are “in Adam” and being of Adam’s lineage, his sin imposed a DEATH sentence upon all humanity (1 Corinthians 15.22).

God was merciful, however, and drove Adam and Eve from Eden to prevent them from eating from “the Tree of Life,” which had the ability to restore and rejuvenate them physically. Without this “Tree of Life” their bodies weakened and decayed until they died physically (cf. 1Cor. 15:56). But God gave Adam and Eve the promise in Genesis 3.15 that a redeemer would come to redeem the loss they had brought upon themselves and the human race.