The fall of man raises many questions that are not answered in Genesis.
Why did God give man the ability to disobey?
To answer the question why God gave man the ability to disobey, we need to take a step back and ask why God created man.
God created man (male and female) in His image and likeness. Throughout the Bible, God declares that He will have a people and He will be their God. In 2 Corinthians 6:16 God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
God created man to dwell with God for all eternity. He created man in God’s image. They had intelligence above all other creatures on earth and had the ability to commune directly with God. Man lived in paradise with no lack of anything and was given dominion over all of the earth.
But, “in the image of God” can mean many things. One meaning is intelligence combined with free will and self-determination. Man was given a choice to obey God and live or disobey God and die.
Man was free to make this choice and was warned of their self-determination of whether to live in God’s presence or to die outside of God’s presence. The fall of man could have been avoided through obedience. However, Adam and Eve did disobey and all who have followed in their generations have also disobeyed and fallen.
God created man to reign as an heir of God’s throne. However, from the beginning there was a villain: The Serpent of the Garden of Eden! He had access to the garden. He had access to Adam and Eve to tempt them to disobey God. The Serpent twisted the truth and deceived man causing the fall of man.
He told man if they disobeyed God they would become like God. Once man did this the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil…” Genesis 3: 22 NKJV. However, the consequence of the fall of man is that God cast judgment upon the Serpent, Eve, and then Adam.
So, why did God give Adam and Eve the ability to fall? In John 10:9-10, Jesus said, 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
This passage provides the key to answer the question. God created man to dwell with God for all of eternity and gave man dominion over Earth. The Serpent is the thief. He came to steal man’s position with God, to kill man and to destroy man.
However, the Serpent failed to understand that in attempting to steal, kill and destroy man, the seed of Eve would kill and destroy the Serpent. The Seed of Eve is Jesus Christ.
The Serpent did not understand that God would Himself redeem man from the curse of death and restore man from their fallen state to righteousness for those whose name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Jesus paid the price of death and now holds the right to forgive or not forgive.
Those who confess Jesus as Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead shall be saved. Their names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Thus, Jesus said. “I came that they may have life and have life more abundantly.” We can understand life easily enough. But what does it mean to have life more abundantly?
We can start by looking at the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. “[T]he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (NKJV). These fruits represent abundant life.
Wikipedia defines abundant life to refer to life in its abounding fullness of joy and strength for spirit, soul and body.
Without free-will and self-determination, man cannot experience these fruits. Without free-will man cannot truly worship and love God and cannot be a joint heir with Christ. Man was put to a test. Man failed the test due to the deceitful cunning of the Serpent.
The penalty for the fall of man is that man has to struggle through life separated from God. But, the Seed of Eve (Jesus) lived a sinless life and suffered an unjustified death to redeem man from the curse of death once and for all.
The Serpent in the end is destroyed and cast into the Lake of Fire to deceive, steal, kill and destroy no more. Man on the other hand is given the opportunity to accept salvation and to live in righteousness with God forever as a joint-heir with Christ. In short, abundant life consists of eternal life with God not through fear and edict, but rather through love, obedience, loyalty and gratitude.
This is why Jesus said in John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.“ Thus, abundant life is a life of freedom in which man can choose to go in and out and find pasture while living in the presence of God.
Man will live in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Pain, suffering and sorrow will no longer exist for man. They will be content with their position in the Kingdom of God. God will bless man abundantly.
He will not be a robot to abide by God’s commands, but rather will rule in righteousness and fullness with God for all eternity.
In conclusion, God made man to have free will and self-determination. God did not want man to fall. God wanted man to live within this free will and self-determination through obedience to God. Free-will and self-determination is necessary for man to benefit fully from his relationship with God.
However, this relationship must be built upon truth, righteousness, obedience and loyalty to God. The risk of creating man in God’s image and giving him free will and self-determination is that man can disobey and choose to risk dying.
Fortunately, God decreed that the Serpent of old is beyond redemption and must ultimately be destroyed. This is why God never interrogated the Serpent after the fall of man. Instead, God immediately cast judgment of death upon the Serpent, but the death was not immediate. The death occurs on judgment day when the Serpent is cast into the Lake of Fire and will no longer deceive the nations.
However, Adam and Eve were somewhat of a pawn and left vulnerable to test their obedience in the hands of the great deceiver, the Serpent. They failed. God gave them the chance to repent. They confessed, but they never repented. Eve blamed the Serpent and Adam blamed Eve and blamed God for giving him Eve.
God had mercy on Man and in His judgment of Adam and Eve, God provided for the redemption of man and his generations through the Seed of Eve, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ crushed the head of the Serpent by his sinless life, death, resurrection from the dead and ascension to be seated at the right hand of God the Father.
All authority has now been given to Jesus. Jesus holds the power to forgive sins. For those who confess Jesus as Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead, they shall be saved and live for eternity with God. For those who reject Jesus and His salvation, the fall of man and its consequence remains with them.