One of the nagging questions of theology that continues to present profitable opportunities to think hard is the existence of sin. Why did God allow it in the first place? This is a tough question, but John Piper has helped me partially answer this. I believe, as per my understanding of Piper's stance on this, that the world we live in will reflect the glory of God in the highest possible degree. That is, at the end of time when all is said and done, God will be revealed as more glorious then He would be in any other world. Christ's atonement will be seen with the uttermost glory possible. So, somehow, sin had to be part of that picture. Along those lines, I present this quote from Jonathan Edwards which declares that it is a more glorious work to uphold our souls in grace than it would have been had we never sinned to begin with; the display of God's grace and glory is greater in our sinning then it would be in an Edenic innocence.
So 'tis a more glorious work of power to uphold a soul in a state of grace and holiness, and to carry it on till it is brought to glory, when there is so much sin remaining in the heart resisting, and Satan with all his might opposing, then it would have been to have kept man from falling at first, when Satan had nothing in man. Jonathan Edwards, Sermon - God Glorified in Man's Dependence
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