How is it that people are sinful, if they were created in the image of God, who cannot sin?
Sin is a turning away from the Good, made possible by the divine gift of self-determination, the freedom which belongs to the image of God. God did not create sin; he created freedom, without which there can be no love. Sin is from the devil (Greek diabolos), the one who tears apart word from reality and truth from life: “He was a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he utters a lie, he speaks of his own because he is a liar and the father of lies” (Joh 8:44; see Q171, Q431).
St Irenaeus explains the motive of the devil’s assault upon the human race: “The devil was jealous of man, God’s creation, and sought to create enmity between man and God” (St Irenaeus, Against Heresies, IV.40.3; cf. Wis 2:24; see Q107, Q158).
