Where does sin come from?

An interesting theory on where sin ultimately comes from...

God is perfect, but why couldn't He make us perfect just like He is? Where does sin come from?

There's an answer that I find helpful on this issue: because of reason X, which is true in the same way that 2 + 2 = 4 is true, only God can be 100% perfect. That is, only God can be a completely perfect being.

Therefore God cannot make any other being equal to Himself in perfection. So God can make beings that are 99% perfect, or 99.999...% perfect, but only God can be 100% perfect. This is a fundamental limit on the nature of reality and God's power, because only the creator, only God, can be completely perfect.

Of course, in reply, it might be said that a computer program can be made to perfectly calculate someone's tax returns, and what about a perfect circle existing? So some types of perfection can be made outside of God, mainly relating, I guess, to something achieving a defined purpose. But only God can be completely perfect in every way. So a perfect circle cannot be completely perfect like God can be completely perfect. I think this makes sense.

So Adam and Eve could be created 99.9999...% perfect, but not perfect like God is. And neither can we.

And from that tiny, tiny amount of imperfection, after maybe billions and billions of years (it doesn't say how long they were in the Garden), Adam and Eve experienced the 'Fall'. And we would have done so in the same position, because we have a tiny, necessary amount of imperfection as well. The Garden was a good situation but, ultimately, it can't work forever.

The only way around it is for God to insert Himself into reality as a created being, with our vulnerabilities, and overcome our 'necessary imperfection' - our ability to be tempted by evil - by being God as well as human.

The way it works for God as a created being is that, for instance, Jesus would never sin in any possible situation because He is God although He was tempted because He is human (Heb 4:15).

Then God-as-a-created being absorbed all the effects of our necessary imperfection - our sin - into Himself on the cross, as a result of which everyone can "be found in [Jesus], not having a righteousness of [their] own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ" (Phil 3:9).

That solves the problem created by our necessary imperfection, which is the way it always led to sin - it's not a problem if you have a goodness which is not your own, but which is Christ's.

Ultimately, God found a way to forever sidestep our necessary imperfection through the cross, in a way that wasn't available in the 'Eden setup', although the Eden setup was 'very good' (Gen 1:31).

The incarnation, quickly

Just like humans have a soul because we're made in the image of God, so God (not the image, but the actual God) has a soul. Jesus was God's soul in a human body.

Podcast: How did God become a man?

Podcast summary:

How did God become a man? First we must look at the image of God. When it comes to being a person, having a mind and intentions, we're exactly like God. That implies there can be a kind of 'crossover' between finite and infinite. An analogy: you could say that our body and brain is on one side of a mirror, and our mind/person is on the other side in a subjective reality. For Jesus the man, the mind on the other side of the body/brain was God in God's reality.

Title: The incarnation
Time: 18:21 minutes
Size: 8.4 MB mp3

Direct link to the audio file (Right click and 'Save As')
Link to the audio file page

Further Reading:

Do humans get the image of God through Jesus?

Some speculation on Jesus being the image of God versus humans being in the image of God...

For Christ:

Colossians 1:15-16: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him."

Colossians 2:9-10: "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority."

John 5:26: "For even as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself."

For humans:

Genesis 1:26: "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness"

James 3:9: "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness."

John 1:4: "In him was life, and that life was the light of men."

John 1:9: "The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world."

The question is: how can humans be made in God's image, since God is infinite and humans are finite?

Another question is: what does it mean to speak of an infinite God? What does 'infinity' in that context mean?

One answer is to say that the infinite is essentially a person, and a unified whole.


(Click to enlarge)

Suppose that the only way that something can be a person is through being infinite. Infinity, and only infinity gives consciousness, love, morality and free will.


(Summary of this view, click to enlarge)

I think what these verses COULD mean is that God incarnated Himself into creation as Jesus, as someone that could have both infinite and finite aspects. The infinite part of Jesus was God, God's soul and therefore personality, and the finite aspect of Jesus was His physical body in the universe (although all finite things are also held together in Jesus - Col 1:17).

I think that the way God made finite creatures in His image is that through Jesus God somehow gives finite humans access to His infinite qualities like personhood etc. Jesus gives 'light' (or 'image-of-Godness') to finite creatures.

So humans take on the 'image of God' through Jesus, through whom every human has access to infinite qualities like personhood, consciousness/mind, love, morality, and free will.

Jesus is the 'door' through which humans are made in God's image.

This explains how we have free will, consciousness, a moral sense that holds us accountable before God's standards, even though we can never explain it. Since our reason is finite. But we're not Gods - Jesus is God and we get these things through our existence in Christ, which people who never come to God will one day lose.

The incarnation

(A helpful picture for understanding the point-of-view of this article below, click to enlarge).



An interesting way of thinking about the incarnation (where God became a man - Jesus) might proceed along these lines:

First off, let's say that consciousness is kind of similar to our concept of 'infinity.' You can never have more than one actual infinity, e.g. infinity plus infinity equals infinity. Let's say that, like infinity, 'mind' is possessive. So you can never have more than one being who is completely made out of mind. The being who is completely made out of mind we call 'God.' So there can be only one God.

Because you can't have more than one person who is 'completely mind' (one God) all other minds must be 'half-minds.' Being a 'half-mind' means that your mind needs to be based off a physical brain. Humans are 'half-minds' because unlike God, our mind is dependent on and makes use of a physical brain.

Let's say that normally, when God makes a half-mind (like you or me), we immediately have our OWN personality the moment mind and brain meet. This personality is totally unique for each of us and different to God's personality.

The way the incarnation worked is that instead of creating another unique personality when He made Jesus' body (which God did for everyone else), God used HIS OWN mind in the body of Jesus. So Jesus did not have a separate 'mind' to the Father but Jesus had the Father's mind matched to His brain. So Jesus had the soul/personality of God Himself. Therefore the soul of Jesus was the soul of someone who had chosen to do the right thing for an eternity (God) in every possible situation. Thus Jesus found Himself always choosing to do the right thing - because His soul was a perfect soul. Accordingly, He was sinless even although He was tempted in all ways as we (Heb 4:15)! And of course this means that Jesus and the Father are one (John 10:30) as they are the same soul (even though Jesus has a physical body, unlike God who is 'completely mind').

So Jesus and the Father are one - Jesus' soul is the soul of God, although the Father has more 'mind' than just a soul. The Father is 'completely mind' as opposed to 'half-mind-half-brain' like you, me, and the incarnate Jesus (note: being completely mind makes God a trinity, allows Him to look at minds like we can look at a painting, among other things).