The Greatest Sin Became the Basis for the Justification of All Sin

A.E. Knoch made a powerful argument concerning sin and the sovereignty of God:

“We are sure, then, that sin, or failure, never had any place in God Himself. But we can only maintain this position so long as we acknowledge that it has a place in His purpose… If God wills the salvation of all, and, because of forces outside Himself, is unable to accomplish the desire of His heart… it would demonstrate to the whole universe that He had come short of the goal He had set for Himself.”

End comment.

Knoch’s point is simple but profound:

Sin is failure. God cannot ultimately fail.

Therefore, sin cannot be an accident that entered God’s creation and permanently destroyed what He intended to accomplish. Sin is evil, but God is powerful enough to use even evil within His purpose and ultimately eliminate it.

The greatest demonstration of this is the cross.

Humanity’s Greatest Sin Accomplished God’s Greatest Purpose

What greater sin could humanity commit than murdering the Son of God?

Christ was betrayed, falsely accused, tortured and crucified.

Yet Scripture says:

“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”

Acts 2:23

Notice both truths.

Wicked hands crucified Christ.

Yet it occurred according to God’s “determinate counsel.”

Acts 4:27–28 goes even further. Herod, Pilate, Israel and the nations gathered against Christ:

“For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”

The cross was evil from humanity’s perspective, but it was never outside God’s purpose.

And here is the astonishing result:

Humanity’s greatest sin became the means through which God deals with all sin.

The murder of Christ became the sacrifice of Christ.

Human rejection became the occasion for reconciliation.

Death became the pathway to resurrection.

God took the darkest act humanity ever committed and turned it toward the greatest good creation will ever experience.

Joseph Shows the Same Principle

Joseph’s story gives a smaller picture of the same truth.

His brothers hated him, threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery.

Years later Joseph told them:

“Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good… to save much people alive.”

Genesis 50:20

This doesn’t say God merely repaired what Joseph’s brothers ruined.

The brothers meant evil.

God meant good.

Even more remarkable, their evil became part of the process through which they themselves were eventually saved from famine.

Joseph told them:

“Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.”

Genesis 45:5

They sold Joseph.

God sent Joseph.

Their sin eventually contributed to their own deliverance.

That points directly toward Christ.

What About Judas?

Judas’s betrayal was unquestionably evil.

Yet his betrayal was also part of the events leading to Christ’s crucifixion.

Judas intended betrayal.

God was accomplishing salvation.

And if Christ’s sacrifice ultimately reconciles all things, then even Judas’s terrible act cannot permanently defeat God’s purpose for Judas.

That doesn’t justify Judas’s motives or call his betrayal good.

It demonstrates something far greater:

Christ’s accomplishment is greater than Judas’s failure.

One day Judas will have nothing in which to boast. If he is ultimately reconciled to the Christ he betrayed, his salvation will become an extraordinary demonstration that grace truly is greater than sin.

The Cross Transforms the Meaning of the Problem of Evil

This is where Knoch’s argument becomes so important.

God doesn’t need evil to become good before He can use it.

He can take something genuinely evil and bring from it an outcome completely contrary to what the evil intended.

The cross proves it.

Humanity produces hatred.

God reveals love.

Humanity produces condemnation.

God produces justification.

Humanity produces death.

God produces resurrection.

Paul writes:

“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.”

2 Corinthians 5:19

At the very moment humanity demonstrated its hostility toward God, God was accomplishing reconciliation through Christ.

Adam Cannot Ultimately Be Greater Than Christ

Paul makes the contrast explicit:

“As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.”

Romans 5:18

If Adam’s failure successfully reaches all humanity but Christ’s righteousness does not, Adam’s act ultimately has the greater effect.

But Paul’s argument is the opposite.

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

Romans 5:20

Sin abounds.

Grace superabounds.

Adam brings death.

Christ brings life.

This reaches its conclusion in 1 Corinthians 15:

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

1 Corinthians 15:22

And finally:

“That God may be all in all.”

1 Corinthians 15:28

God doesn’t merely contain the damage caused by sin.

He completely overcomes it.

Judgment Still Has a Purpose

None of this makes sin insignificant or eliminates judgment.

Joseph’s brothers eventually had to confront what they had done.

Likewise, God’s judgments expose, correct and set right what sin has produced.

But judgment cannot become an eternal monument to God’s inability to accomplish His purpose.

If God’s purpose is reconciliation, judgment must ultimately serve that purpose.

Paul says that through Christ God will:

“reconcile all things unto himself… whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”

Colossians 1:20

And what accomplishes this?

“The blood of his cross.”

Once again, the greatest human crime becomes the instrument of reconciliation.

The Greatest Sin Shows Why God Cannot Be Defeated by Sin

This may be the deepest lesson of the cross.

If God can take the murder of His Son and turn it into the means of reconciliation, what sin could possibly be greater than His ability to overcome?

Joseph’s brothers meant evil.

God meant good.

Judas betrayed Christ.

God accomplished salvation.

Humanity murdered Christ.

God reconciled the world through His death.

Death swallowed Christ.

Christ emerged victorious.

And ultimately:

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

1 Corinthians 15:26

Sin is real.

Evil is real.

Judgment is real.

But none of them are eternal.

God does not fail because His creatures fail.

The greatest sin humanity ever committed became the very means through which God will ultimately deal with all sin.

That is the triumph of the cross.

Sin does not get the final word.

God does.