The Story of Sin and Death
Genesis 2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded the man,
saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you
eat of it you shall surely die." [ESV]
- The phrase "in the day" is an idiom meaning "when" or "as soon as". The same Hebrew wording is used in Genesis 3:5, but rendered "when you eat" .
- One of the greatest problems with understanding the issue of Adam's sin is this death sentence. The same word is used for physical death and spiritual death. From this passage it is impossible to tell if God intends it to apply to physical death, spiritual death, or both.
- It is certain, however, that God meant what He said. He is emphatic. Therefore, Adam's death within the specified timeframe is certain.
- In this command, God expresses a fundamental principle (or law): When you sin, you die (spiritually). (Ezekiel 18, Romans 6)
- Just as God told Adam, there were immediate results as soon as he tasted the fruit: They became aware of their nakedness and they became estranged from God, which is spiritual death.
- Adam and Eve did not immediately die physically.
- The necessary conclusion from these facts is that God's command to Adam referred only to spiritual death and not to physical death. To conclude otherwise casts God as a liar because:
- God knew before He created Adam that Adam would eat the fruit and fall away.
- God told Adam emphatically that his life would end when he ate the fruit.
- But, some say, after Adam ate the fruit, God--in an act of cosmic mercy--did not instantly kill Adam.
- Before He created Adam, God would have known that He would not actually kill Adam instantly.
- Therefore, when God told Adam he would certainly die (physically) upon eating the fruit, He knew that Adam would not die (physically) at that time. That would be a lie.
- To make matters worse, the serpent said that Adam would not die upon eating the fruit while God said that he would. If they were both speaking of physical death, then the serpent is proved right, and God proved wrong.
- Adam’s sin led to his physical death but did not cause it. His physical death was brought about (caused) by actions God took after Adam sinned.
- Notice that this curse is not on man, it is on the earth. In fact, God cursed all His creation. This is mentioned in Romans chapter 8 where it says God subjected His creation to futility.
- God tells Adam that he will return to dust. This decay process takes place after death, making this God's first clear reference to Adam's physical death.
- However, the next passage points out that Adam's physical death has not yet been fully determined.
- To carry out the sentence of death, God expelled Adam and Eve from the garden and forced them into the corrupted environment of God's no longer perfect creation.
- Thus, the cause of Adam’s physical death (and ours) was God’s judicial act in cursing His creation and causing all of us to inhabit it.
After God placed Adam in the garden, He fashioned a woman (Eve) to be Adam's companion. Genesis 2:25 says that they were both naked and not ashamed.
Adam's Rebellion,
the Fall of Mankind
Genesis 3:6-10
So when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was
to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also
gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both
were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves
together and made themselves loincloths.
The Sentence of Death
Genesis 3:17-19
And to Adam he said, "Because you
have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I
commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it
shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the
sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out
of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." [ESV]
Gen 3:22-23
Then the LORD God said, "Behold,
the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach
out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever--"
therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground
from which he was taken. [ESV]
NOTE: Because vs Cause
The word “because” does not always indicate the cause of something. Ask a convicted felon why he is in prison, and he may answer “Because I (insert crime).” The crime led to the person’s imprisonment but did not cause it. To be imprisoned for a crime, a person must be arrested, tried, convicted, and then sentenced. Then the sentence is carried out. It is the act of carrying out the sentence that causes the punishment. Many things can intervene between crime and punishment: the person may remain a fugitive, or may be found unable to stand trial, or may be found not guilty, or may receive a suspended sentence. You can say that a person is imprisoned because he committed a crime. Or that the crime led to his imprisonment. But the commission of a crime does not cause the subsequent judicial punishment. Similarly, we all experience physical death because of Adam’s sin. But the cause of our physical death is the subsequent punishment imposed on us by God, not Adam’s sin or our own.
Summary
Adam’s rebellion resulted in three effects:
- Immediate effects on Adam and Eve’s very being: Spiritual death and a rebellious nature.
- God’s subjection of the entire creation to death and decay.
- Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden resulting in physical death.
In addition all of Adam's descendants are subject to physical death in a corrupted world and, due to their inherited nature, are destined for wrath.
Conclusion
What does this story tell us about sin
and death?
- Sin causes immediate spiritual death.
- Sin does not cause physical death. Adam's sin led to physical death because God subjected all of creation to death and decay and then removed mankind from Eden to live in the corrupted world.
- Therefore, when Scripture speaks about sin causing death, it should be understood to be speaking of spiritual death. (Romans 6:23)
