A look at Scripture

"Dying, thou shalt die"

[Genesis 2:17].

The "Garden of Eden" was a place of provision and protection for Adam and Eve. They were fragile, living in virtual paradise, enjoying the sanctuary of friendly intercourse with God until one afternoon a fascinating creature visited the garden in Eden to challenge the couple about the subject of "death." He was the most skillful of creatures. He moved gracefully and spoke as a minister of light, with much authority. His ancient Hebrew name was Nachash, the shinning serpent. This profound legion does not tell us "Why" or "How" he came into the protected and hallowed area of the garden. However, his visit made a dreadful impact upon the young couple.

The shinning visitor somehow understood the effects of powerful persuasion. He used questions in his conversation with the young couple. He questioned their understanding of God's wishes concerning the two trees and Eve fell for the questioner's misrepresentation. At that moment, when Eve ate of the tree, Adam chose not to loose his wife and lover in this stratagem of the Shinning One. So, Adam also took the plunge with her, not caring what happened afterward.

As a result, the outrageous conduct of disobedience effected all Adam's children and their children and their children in an unfortunate manner. The warning from God was that "in the day that you eat of it.dying, you shall die." Adam should have taken his eyes off of this tree and tended firstly to the voice of God. For obedience to God should have been the superior goal. Wisdom must always follow obedience, not develop in disobedience and the rejection of God's instruction. However, Adam disregarded divine guidance and caused a consequential forfeiture of protection and admittance to "tree of life" for him and his future families.

After God told Adam that he would die in the day that he ate of the tree, the shinning Nachash told the young pair that they would not die. Now, we must ask, from whom was truth told, God or Nachash? If God spoke to them of physical death, He lied. For they did not die physically in that day. If Nachash spoke to them of physical death he did not lie. So, for us to keep the record straight as to who told the truth and understand the kind of death, of which God spoke, this death must be "spiritual" or in some way different from physical death. It must be, in order for God to be true and for Nachash to be the father of lies.

It is apparent that Adam and Eve did not physically die during the crucial "evening and morning" of their defiant conduct. Had that happened, there would have been no lineage from Adam or a "kinsman redeemer" to repair the dilemma. However, we can say, without any stretch of the imagination, that from the day that Adam chose to disobey God, he became and was classified spiritually as "a dead man walking."

Adam and Eve partook of "the knowledge of good and evil" and were unable to handle the newly gained knowledge. They saw themselves naked and in defiance to God's noble request. This caused them to hide from God. The wisdom of maturity leads to fellowship with God, not into hiding. Somehow, the action of Adam proved that he was not mature enough to handle "the knowledge of good and evil." He should have waited for God to give it to him later, at the proper moment in maturity.

Adam was immediately altered by the invasion of this unwelcome curse and was locked into being "mortal," eventually dying physically. Mortality was caused by a simple disobedience to God's revealed authority. Mortality is the absence of the life of God. We will later find out about living without life.

The Hebrew wording of the warning to Adam was, "Dying, you shall be slain (future / infinity)." This judgment changed Adam and Eve's biological and spiritual makeup. They became sinners out side of God's presence and blessing. They became poisoned mortals, spiritually separated from God (dead) and waiting to be killed physically. They were also rent asunder from the "Tree of Life," which would have given them a new quality of life, called elsewhere in scripture, eternal life. They also lost the protection of the Garden, the place they met with God. Their God was now dealing with them in a far different way than He did at the first.

The fitting sentence of "death" took effect immediately upon the pair in their breach of the divine command and was also an absolute spiritual disaster for their forthcoming families. We have come to understand that the spiritual "death" that encased Adam's "soul" was a calamity, infinitely greater than the natural death of all other living creatures.

In the very beginning, God had fellowship with Adam and Eve as He walked and talked with them as friends. However, He warned Adam that trying to be like God, in order to know good and evil would bring the sentence of "death" or spiritual separation exclusively upon him as a divine and severe punishment.

Therefore, we conclude that this "death" was not an original component in the formation of Adam. Adam could choose this kind of "death" as well as the special "life" that the "tree of life" represented. Even though he lived some 930 years, he was barred from the "tree of life." This addition to physical life and death was imposed upon him and was the consequence of his disobedience to God's direct instruction to him. This "death" was a harsh penalty for him and a horrible tragedy to be visited upon his descendants. "In the day that you eat" did not extend to 930 years down the road of time. Adam died during the "evening and morning" of the day that Eve handed him the enticing fruit of the tree of "the knowledge of good and evil."

The apostle Paul said, "Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death (entered also) by (riding piggy-back on Adam's) sin; and so (the result being) death passed upon all men." This "death" was not exclusively physical because Adam was already living in and susceptible to the hazards and conditions of life. This "death" had a very devastating and spiritual implication. God is Spirit and humanity must worship Him in a spiritual way. Man must also walk in the spirit if he is to please the Spirit/God.

Therefore, this "death" was a judgment for Adam to be separated from the spiritual life source and fellowship with God. What happened to Adam (spiritually) that day, soon became a physical reality in being kicked out of the garden, the place of fellowship with God.

The cautious thinker will soon see that spiritual death was Adam's genuine misfortune and it was to be reversed without eliminating the physical consequence. The student will also observe that Jesus was the only one who was ever promised that His flesh would not suffer decay. He was the only one who was without sin. The miraculous birth of Christ removed Him from the "death" that was attached to Adam's descendants. This spiritual "death" was no help in men not sinning. It seemed to be the greatest encouragement to sin. Everyone sinned because of the sentence of death. Sinfulness still carries physical consequences, even though the Christ has removed the judicial curse of "spiritual death" by way of the Cross.

The apostle Paul tells the Corinthians that in the farmer's storehouse of grain and seeds, one sees that the outer shell of seeds are not preserved or restored to life. The outside naturally dies and decays in the planting. Physical bodies will be subject to that consequence, because they were from dust, mixed with sin.

After AD 70, resurrection life brought immortality to light and was then and still is present in us before we ever meet physical death. This new condition is because the inside of the seed was given immortality at the presence of Christ in AD 70. Today individuals rise into heaven in a new body. This will happen only after the outer shell of the seed dies. Mortals are not raised, immortals are. If the Immortal God abides in man, though a man dies, yet shall he live again?

As "death passed upon all men," all men find themselves sinning and actively hiding from a good God. The breach of one man's sin brought an immense alienation from the invisible friend of heaven. The invasion of this "death" upon humanity carried with it no joy, blessing or hope. It was totally a physical and spiritual isolation from God and His blessings. It was the ultimate dismissal or removal of humanity from fellowship with the all wise Spirit of the Living God.

The invasion of this "death" was not like the natural process with the "hazard factor" of death among "the whole creation." For natural death was not a punishment upon the animal and plant domains. How could plant life be sustained when animals needed to eat the plants for their sustenance? Plants die in the natural process of feeding animals. It is a hazard factor. Yet, it is natural to life. Animals would die if they could not eat the plant life. This was the normal process of life and death. Life included physical death.

The invasion of the "death" penalty was a dreadful tragedy for Adam's sinless unborn children. We see this same scenario throughout the history of Israel in the Bible. It is echoed again in Isaiah 24 through 27, which was a prophecy of universal judgment, in which God condemned all nations of the earth. As also in the story of Noah's flood, God condemns the earth as well as the nations in it. The cosmic upheaval for earth continues in verse 23. In Isaiah 34, the land was punished as well as the people. We notice again that in Joshua 7:1 that Israel sinned even though the crime was Achan's, and that God's anger was directed toward all of Israel. When the sin of Achan was discovered, not only was he put to death, but his sons and daughters and his livestock were as well. All of his belongings were also destroyed. It was only then that God's anger was appeased.

As sin/death entered the human race through Adam's disobedience, it became a spiritual matter that must be spiritually dealt with by the power of the one and only Holy Spirit. It then became evident that God would cancel the power of "death" and lovingly reverse it into a spiritual resurrection, i.e., and a metamorphosis by the righteous action of an immortal other.

The new question for humanity was: Which descendant of Eve would be qualified to become the supreme sacrifice to bring eternal life and immortality to humanity through the anti-type, "tree of life"?

If the first Adam had been created as a mortal, the sentence of natural death would not have been so alarming. For all mortals would automatically die sooner or later. How would the sentence of physical death threaten or exchange anything for the mortal, for whom death naturally comes eventually? However, if Adam were created immortal, his fusion with "death" would have been an intolerable punishment of something he did not already naturally possess in the process of his formation.

When Christ, whom Paul called the second Adam was "made perfect" through suffering, He reached full maturity ("perfect") and became everything the first Adam lost. It was then that the Christ of God relinquished and set aside his joy and possession of immortality when He chose to spiritually die. He renounced the "joy that was set before him" of immortality. No one could take His spiritual life. He gave it by the act of His own will. He lost the delight as He made the choice to sacrifice His immortality upon the cross and embrace spiritual "death" or separation from God by the deliberate act of His own free will.

When upon the cross the Lord cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" God abandoned His Son. This was "the death" that wiped away the immortality of the Christ. Only God could give Christ immortality again. It would be in calling him forth from death into immortality or the deathless presence with God, His Father. For three days Christ was in hell as a mortal without spiritual life. He was separated from his Father and God in this death. It was physical. However, it was much more. It was the dreaded and frightful spiritual death. Then on the third day, God gave immortality to His son. And this immortality brought Him to life and was promised to all when resurrection and the Parousia or Presence arrived.

The first Adam was created in the image and likeness of God, Who possessed "immortality, (as He was) dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see." Had Adam not sinned, he and Eve might have lived (without experiencing the "hazard factor") to meet the second Adam face to face.