8 - Free Will, Love, and Divine Providence | God's Love and Justice

Everything created, whether spirit or matter, exists only through the active preservation of God. Each element has its task within his law, whereby matter functions without responsibility. Angels and humans, on the other hand, act consciously and fulfill their purpose, while their existence continues to depend on God. The spirit, as the image of God, functions only through love. It must receive this love in order to pass it on.

Lucifer broke his mind and believed he could be God. As a result, he separated himself from the source of love and could no longer fulfill his task. However, his life remains in God's hands. He cannot die unless God wills it. Lucifer's self-deception led him to think that he could exist on his own. This was possible because God has no access to his inner self. God could only help him by making him aware, on the basis of the law and his construction, that what he wants is impossible.

So God allows evil to a limited extent so that it can be recognized and eliminated - not by compulsion, but by conviction. The will is free and unrestricted in the truth (child of God). In the lie, on the other hand, it is no longer free and limited. To summarize: God's omnipotence relates to everything that has been created, as he actively sustains everything. What a spirit thinks is beyond God's control, but all acts of a spirit are only possible with God's consent. God's providence takes into account the limits of his creatures and enables them to recognize what evil does. What this means in detail is the subject of the eighth part of the series “God's love and justice”.