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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Why didn’t Adam and Eve immediately die for their sin (Genesis 3)?
Submied to Dr. James Sulfridge
in paral fulllment of the requirements for the compleon of
DSMN 500
Discipleship Ministries
By
Anthony Bean
Why didn’t Adam and Eve immediately die for their sin (Genesis 3)?
God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “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” (Genesis 2:17). However, Adam and Eve ate of the tree and lived to tell about
it. How can we reconcile God’s warning with their connued existence?
Interpreters typically answer this queson in one of two ways. First, many note that Adam
and Eve did die, though not immediately. The Hebrew phrase translated “in the day” in Genesis
2:17 is somemes used to mean “for certain” (e.g., Exodus 10:28; 1 Kings 2:37, 42). So, Adam
and Eve “certainly” died; it’s just that their death took place much later (Genesis 5:5). This view
is also supported by Genesis 3:22, in which God determines to bar man from the tree of life to
prevent him from living forever. Adam and Eve lost eternal life, were expelled from the Garden
of Eden, and eventually experienced physical death.
The second way to view the warning of Genesis 2:17 is that “death” refers to spiritual
death. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, they experienced a separaon from God,
a loss of relaonship due to their sin. Their rst acons a@er sinning were to cover themselves
up and hide from God (Genesis 3:7-8). This alienaon from the Source of Life can be viewed as
spiritual death.
A third approach understands that both physical and spiritual death were with the result
of original sin. The moment Adam and Eve sinned against God, their souls were separated from
God, and their bodies began to die. Their spiritual deadness and suscepbility to physical death
have been passed on to all humanity (Romans 5:12).
Praise the Lord, He did not abandon Adam and Eve. He provided clothing for them
(Genesis 3:21) and allowed them to have children (Genesis 4). He also promised “the seed of
the woman” to crush the power of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). This promise was fullled in
Jesus Christ, who defeated sin and death on the cross and provides abundant life now (John
10:10) and eternal life with God in heaven (John 3:16). As Romans 5:19 says, “For as by the one
man’s [Adam’s] disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s [Jesus’]
obedience the many will be made righteous.”
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