Why Didn’t God Kill Satan?

A Sunday school teacher wrote in with a question from one of her students:

“Why didn't God just kill Satan? Then there would be no sin.”

This is a good question! We know that God had a plan for history before he created the world. He knew that Satan would rebel, that Adam would fall into sin and take the entire human race descended from him with him, and that he would send Jesus to be the sacrifice for sin so we could be saved.

God could have kept Satan from tempting Eve (and Adam, who was also there—Satan uses the plural “you,” making it clear that Adam was with her the whole time), or he could have just started over and killed Adam and Eve after they sinned. However, we know that one reason God created was to glorify himself by displaying his glory in creation.

One aspect of God’s glory is his love and mercy, which he displayed by not killing Adam and Eve immediately and allowing them to have children, with the promise that one of Eve’s descendants would be victorious over the serpent. God displayed his love by choosing Abraham and his descendants, even though they were no better than anyone else, to be the people group Jesus would be descended from.

And of course, God displayed his glory most clearly in the incarnation of Jesus. Jesus is God in human flesh, which means he is both the perfect man and truly God. When he died on the cross as a sacrifice for sin and rose triumphantly on the third day, he displayed complete victory over Satan, which will be fully realized in the second coming.

Another aspect of God’s glory is his perfect justice when he judges sin, both that of Satan and the fallen angels, and that of people who don’t repent and trust in Jesus. God’s justice is so perfect that even the people being judged won’t be able to accuse God of being unfair. This also reminds us to share the gospel so that people can repent and trust Jesus while there’s still time.

So to summarize, God didn’t kill Satan immediately because he knew what Satan was going to do, and God allowed him to do it so that he could show that he is so good and so powerful that Satan can’t defeat him. He also used Satan’s rebellion to show how loving he is—so loving that he sent Jesus to die for us.

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