By Peter Kaye |

Where did Sin come from?

God did not create sin, but He created beings with free will who have the ability to sin. This includes Satan, fallen angels (demons), and humans. To be clear, sin is a falling short of God’s standards. Sin is not an entity or a thing that “exists”; it has no independent being. Rather, sin is a lack of something, a failure to fully obey God’s law and live up to His glory (Romans 3:23).

When He created the universe and our world, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31; cf. 1 Timothy 4:4). This “very good” creation included humanity and the angel that would later become known as Satan. At this point, no humans or angels had yet sinned, but they had the potential to do so. God did not create any being sinful, yet a group of angels rebelled against God in heaven and became sinful.

Satan’s fall from heaven is symbolically described in Isaiah 14:12–14 and Ezekiel 28:12–19. An angel named Lucifer wanted to “ascend to the heavens” and be “above the stars of God” (Isaiah 14:13). Verse 14 adds he desired to make himself “like the Most High.” God judged Lucifer by removing him from God’s ongoing presence (Isaiah 14:15). That fallen angel is now known as Satan (“adversary”) or the devil (“slanderer”).

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