If God knew that we would sin, why did he create the world?

If God knew that we would sin, why did he create the world?Our tendency in answering this question is to look at it from a man-centred perspective: what’s in it for us? Wouldn’t it have been better for us never to have sinned?But the answer that the bible gives challenges us by taking a God-centred perspective. And it makes us step back and ask an even bigger question:Why did God create the world at all?
God didn’t create the world primarily for our benefit, he did it for his glory. He created a world that would display his glory most fully and most perfectly. That is to say, every aspect of God’s character could be shown in its most extreme form.If God had created a world in which no one sinned, what aspects of his character could he have shown? His creative power, his loving-kindness, his provision for his people.But what about his mercy? Or his justice? Or his wrath?And would we have seen even his creative power to its fullest extent if there had been no death and therefore no resurrection?Could we have known the greatness of his loving-kindness if he had not shown it to faithless Israel?Paul explains something of this in Romans 9:22-23
‘What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory…’God’s wrath expended against unrepentant sinners demonstrates the riches of his glory, just as his mercy shown to the elect demonstrates his glory.
Comments:
Why did God feel the need to prove anything about His character to Himself or to anyone, particularly the likes of His created sub-beings like angels and us? Why could He not have been satisfied to know this about Himself and leave at that? Why the big need to create a world and beings to whom you can show your glory? Was He not satisfied to just know it about Himself? Is He not all-sufficient? If there’s a true answer to this question, then the follow up question is Why, then, does He feel the need to create these very real people to show His glory to and expose these very real people, who He loves (?), to sin and evil and then send these very real people to hell to a very real suffering without hope for all eternity just to prove and display His glory to those who, by His won choosing, will not meet the same fate? Who is He doing this for and why? Isn’t He really just doing all of this for Himself and real, not imaginary, created beings burn in hell and suffer unending misery for all eternity because of it? We’re told that nothing in Him is lacking, but apparently, He was not just pleased just to know this about Himself and be satisfied with that.

Guadalupe Diaz
August 13, 2011 at 2:47 pmWHY? SIN IS BECAUSE OF ADAM AMD EVE SO WHY DO WE HAVE TO PAY FOR WHAT ADAM AND EVE DID WHEN WE DIDN’T EVEN KNEW THEM? THIS IS NOT FAIR. WHY IS THERE A HELL IF A LOT OF US ARE ALREADY LIVING A HELL OF A LIFE. THIS DOES NOT SOUND FAIR, i DO WANT TO BE SAVED BUT IT IS ALL SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND. LIKE ST. THOMAS SAID ” I WILL HAVE TO SEE TO BELIEVE. WHY IS THERE SO MUCH CONFUSION IN THE BIBLE. WE ARE IN A WORLD OF SIN, AND IF WE GIVE OURSELVES TO GOD NOW IT WOULD BE VERY HARD NOT TO SIN BECAUSE BIBLE SAYS SO.THE MORE I STUDY BIBLE THE MORE CONFUSED I GET. AND ALSO BIBLE SAYS GOD FORGIVES ALL SINS EXCEPT BLASPHEMY, SO I THINK MOST OF HUMANITY ARE SINNERS UNTIL WE DIE. THIS DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.