“The soul who sins is the one who will die.” Ezekiel 18:4

The word of God must stand whether it is promising eternal life or the sentence of death. If God changed his mind, we would not be able to trust him; but we know that he never changes and is always faithful to his word. James 1:17; Malachi 3:6

The sentence of death would be carried out. Adam did not die instantly from a thunderbolt from heaven, but began to die from the moment he was sentenced. It was a slow process—Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years (Genesis 5:5). During Adam’s day (time period), the death sentence of Genesis 2:17 “thou shalt surely die” can be very emphatically stated by the Hebrew idiom, “Dying thou shalt die.” All of Adam and Eve’s children would be born im- perfect and under the same sentence of death. Adam and Eve were sent away from the trees of life in Eden and into the part of the earth that was still a wilderness. For six thousand years their descendants would suffer and die. The death penalty brought with it much sorrow and pain and trouble to everyone.

So the disobedience of Adam and Eve caused them to lose their lovely garden home and their fellowship with their Creator. God placed a cherubim with a flaming sword at the entrance to the garden so Adam and Eve could not eat of the perfect food that was there, especially from the Tree of Life. As time passed, Eden would become full of weeds and thorns and thistles like the rest of the earth.

Adam and Eve had to work hard to get enough to eat. They worked long hours to make gardens and a new home to live in. It must have been difficult for them as they remembered how wonderful it had been when they lived in the garden God had made for them.

Eventually they died, and their children and their children’s children died also because all were under the sentence of death through Adam.

But God knew this would happen and had already planned how he would some day bring them all back to life on earth. It was for this cause that Jesus came to earth and died for mankind. His death and resurrection rescued mankind from the death sentence that came upon Adam. He did this willingly and with love for all people.

Adam and Eve were sent away from the tree of life in Eden.