A Few Thoughts About Adam Not Dying When He Sinned

Why didn’t Adam die instantly when he sinned?

Genesis 2:16-17 ESV And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 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.”

The human race would have become extinct.

The devil would have won in his battle against God.

There would be no need of Messiah.

Adam did die:

B1 Physically:

C1 Promised: Genesis 3:19 NIV By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.

C2 Fulfilled: Genesis 5:5 ESV Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

B2 Spiritually:

C1 Adam did, so will we: Colossians 2:13 NIV When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,

C2 All people do because of the sin nature we inherited from Adam: 1 Corinthians 15:22 NIV For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

B3 Verse describing both: Romans 6:23 NIV For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Personally, I believe we were created for fellowship with God and to serve Him forever. Adam lost both. If God hadn’t intervened as Messiah, our Passover Lamb, there would be no hope, no life, no fellowship, and no opportunity to serve God.

God knew this would happen. He was not surprised, shocked, caught unaware, etc.

He had a plan.

God’s decisions and plans are in perfect wisdom, love, and holiness.

1 Peter 3:18 ESV For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

1 John 2:2 WEL He himself is the propitiation [appeasing and reconciling sacrifice] for our sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

John 3:16-17 WEL For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that anyone believing in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Those who believe now have fellowship with God restored and serve Him forever.

C1 1 John 1:3 NIV We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

C2 Romans 12:11 NIV Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

C3 John 12:26 NIV Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

Death is sure

Death, in the Bible, is called

• Sleep
  
  • These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” (John 11:11, NKJV)
    
  • Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:60, NKJV)
    
  • and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as [they were] from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4, NKJV)
    
• Putting off
  
  • For we know that if our earthly house, [this] tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1, NKJV)
    
  • knowing that shortly I [must] put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. (2 Peter 1:14, NKJV)
    
• Requiring the soul
  
  • “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ (Luke 12:20, NKJV)
    
• Going into silence
  
  • The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor any who go down into silence. (Psalms 115:17, NKJV)
    
• Yielding up the spirit
  
  • Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying [her] out, buried [her] by her husband. (Acts 5:10, NKJV)
    
• Returning to dust
  
  • In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you [are,] And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19, NKJV)
    
  • You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. (Psalms 104:29, NKJV)
    
• Departing
  
  • For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, [which is] far better. (Philippians 1:23, NKJV)
    

Regarding the term sleep

• A cultural term of Jews ( Deuteronomy 31:16; 2 Samuel 7:12; 1 Kings 1:21; 2:10; 11:21,43; 14:20, and others). For example, And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame [and] everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2, NKJV)
  
• Appears as sleep. When the body is in the casket, it appears to be sleeping.
  

We are more than a body. We are body, soul, and spirit. If one cannot accept this, we have a physical part and a spiritual part.

• Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, [Yes,] my soul and my body! (Psalms 31:9, NKJV)
  
• Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn [for] my transgression, The fruit of my body [for] the sin of my soul? (Micah 6:7, NKJV)
  
• And it will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, Both soul and body; And they will be as when a sick man wastes away. (Isaiah 10:18, NKJV) Even if the word body is translated creature, the word body means flesh. It would make no sense to translate this as both creature and flesh. Many modern translations simply interpret soul and body as person.
  
• “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28, NKJV)
  
• Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NKJV)
  

People are seen living, thinking, and doing after the flesh is in the grave.

• Luke 16:18-31. Even if one takes this as a parable, the parable shows consciousness after death.
  
• For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, (1 Peter 3:18-19, NKJV)
  
• And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on [God] and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 7:59, NKJV). It would make no sense for Stephen to pray, “Lord Jesus receive my breath.” The Lord Jesus also had a spirit: And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” Having said this, He breathed His last. (Luke 23:46, NKJV)
  
• For we know that if our earthly house, [this] tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in [this] tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. (2 Corinthians 5:1-4, NKJV)
  

Jesus and the thief of the cross: Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? “And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43, NKJV). It makes no sense to tell someone that you are talking today. They are not stupid. So, “Assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise” is totally nonsense. What sense it is to tell someone that you are talking to them today, when they already can figure that out. Also, where Jesus will be, the thief will also be. If Jesus went to Paradise at death, so will the thief.