Genesis 1:27 tells us, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”  We then read in verse 31, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, IT WAS VERY GOOD. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”  As the Lord created the earth and set it in order, after each day, He saw that “it was good.”  On the sixth day, after creating man, the Lord declared His creation was “VERY GOOD.”  All that the Lord created was good. 

Did God create sin and evil? 

Let’s read Genesis 2:16-17, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  Some have suggested that God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden to tempt Adam to see if he would sin by disobeying Him.  Let’s compare that thought with James 1:13, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.”  The Lord never tempts man to sin.  The Lord put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden to give Adam the opportunity to obey Him.  Without the ability to disobey, obedience has no value.  Adam failed and sin and evil entered into the world among men.  Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” 

The sinful, unrepentant heart of the unbeliever has no good in it at all.  We read in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”  We read in Psalm 14:3, “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”  The natural man (the person who does not have Christ as his/her savior) has no limit to his depravity. Things such as rape, abuse, murder, molestation, alcoholism, homosexuality are all things condemned in the scriptures, but still thrive in the heart of the natural man without Christ.  Certainly, this behavior breaks the heart of our loving savior, and he gives a grave warning in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”  These actions display the unrepentant, unsaved heart of those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.

However, let’s read verse 11, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”  “SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU.”  Here, the Lord is addressing the believer’s heart.  He is speaking to the one who has repented of their sins and put their faith in the Lord Jesus as savior.  They are no longer known by this degenerate behavior.  They have been washed, sanctified, and justified.  They are SAVED from the power and penalty of sin by believing on the Lord Jesus.  They have been made new as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 

Have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior?  Have you been made new?  Listen to the words of the Lord in John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”  (CC)  (495.2)