Why Did Adam and Eve Get the Death Sentence for a Small Sin?

Why Did Adam and Eve Get the Death Sentence for a Small Sin?

I’ve seen this question come up a lot in the discussion groups I’m in: “Why does God have to destroy someone for just one sin? When Adam and Eve ate a fruit they weren’t supposed to eat, they got the death penalty; isn’t that incredibly harsh? Shouldn’t they have only gotten a lesser sentence instead, done jail time, and then been reinstated with God? Why was death the penalty given; it seems too extreme for the small crime of eating a forbidden fruit?”

I've noticed that people have a tendency to ask these kinds of questions taking for granted the current state of things. For example, using Adam's first sin interchangeably with a small sin a person commits today.

The truth is we need to be asking these questions from the framework of what the world was like at the time of Adam before the gospel was instituted in this world, before Jesus came and died on our behalf. Because the world we now live in is not in the same situation Adam was in, and many of the conditions do not apply in the same way from then to now. Within that framework we can ask the question "In a universe where there was no punishment of death for a small sin...what would transpire? What would the natural unfolding be for God withholding the death sentence for sin. What logically would result from this?"

This is the question we need to be asking.

Let's look at what happens when someone commits a sin - not the sins we now commit in our present condition which is a condition where Christ already stepped in pledged Himself to die on our behalf...and which He carried out by dying for us in the year 27 AD. This situation is not the same as Adam's first sin, and we make fatal errors in our logic and our theology if we merely substitute Adam's first small sin with any small sin someone in our time commits.

What I mean is let's look at what happens when a perfect being commits a sin. A being that has eternal life and will live forever if they stay obedient to God. A being that is making the fatal leap from rightness with God into a fallen state when they sin their first sin...

When Adam sinned his first sin he broke the covenant with God...and his whole nature became corrupt. This is not to say at this point he was pure evil with no good desires - he wasn't in the same state as Satan who had committed the unpardonable sin, because Jesus offered pardon to Adam right away and Adam accepted. But if there had been no Jesus to offer pardon to Adam, Adam would have quickly become just like Satan as there would be no way to respond to the Holy Spirit and be changed back into Christ's image.

So what we see here is that without Jesus' redemption, even one small sin leads to human beings losing God's Holy Spirit, falling out of relationship with God, and becoming as wicked as Satan. This is the natural progression that happens due to even one sin; it's not something arbitrarily imposed by God.

So this state of things where people are a combination of good and evil in our character, and we do some good things and some bad...is not the state Adam would have been in without Christ. Adam would be in the same state as Satan, completely evil through and through with no benevolent thoughts or actions ever crossing his mind, cut off completely from the Holy Spirit.

And what must be done with such a person? Like the devil, such a person must die. They will only work wickedness if they are allowed to live. No good will come from them living on after the point of becoming total evil. Look at the devil for proof of this. He has lived on for thousands of years after he became pure evil, and he has only done evil and wickedness since that time, never a good action of any kind. He has only sought to steal, kill, and destroy that entire time.

Really, in the end there are only two options for every person - complete holiness, or complete sinfulness. This idea that a sinner can have some good and some evil in them and that it would be harsh to destroy someone with some good in them (which is true; God would never destroy someone who had hope of believing in Jesus and responding to the Holy Spirit and being converted) - comes about due to the fact that we are already used to a state of things where Jesus stepped in as the stoning sacrifice and gave us all the ability to respond to the Holy Spirit - even unbelievers who sometimes respond and do some benevolent actions inspired by the Holy Spirit.

This state of things where we're even asking this seeming paradox of how death could be the penalty for a small sin committed by a person who is a combination of both good and some evil is brought about because Jesus died for us and brought about this state of things. This is not how Adam would be if he had done his small sin and Jesus had not died on his behalf.

And it's also not the state any human being is in after life in this world is over and the judgment commences. At that time everyone will either be as holy as the angels and resurrected to glory, or as evil as the demons and resurrected to damnation.

We are in an in-between state of things now, where every person is either working out their salvation or their damnation by their choices in relation to Christ and their acceptance or denial of Him.

Conclusion: So the conclusion is that it is not God who arbitrarily sets death as the penalty for sin. A person becomes completely evil and cut off from God due to their sin - yes even one sin sinned in perfection would do this. And death is not only the just sentence of a merciful God who could never want a being who is totally evil to live on in such wickedness and misery, but it is also impossible for a person to live without God as God is the Source of life. Thus cut off from Him it's impossible to live.

The only reason why people in this world have life right now - even unbelievers - is because Jesus died to give us time in this world to make our choice, hoping we would choose to repent and follow Him.

If Jesus had not done this Adam and Eve would have been destroyed instantly with God's judgments. Life would have been impossible. Holiness and goodness in them would have been impossible. And no other human beings would have ever lived, because the race was legally bound to Adam. Jesus had to buy us back with His death; without His death Adam legally sold us all into death.

The Bible tells us “man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) This is the terms of the covenant that the angels and Adam had before the fall. Life can’t happen if we keep all the other commandments but break one. If we do not lie or steal or kill, but we commit adultery for instance, this is not the path of life, but the path of death, and this is why death came to Adam for breaking only one command. He failed to live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, come out from God’s authority, and became his own god, broke faith with God, and broke the covenant He had with God.

Keeping every word was the terms of the covenant, and these were not arbitrary terms that God could change, but terms based on truth and eternal for that reason. Truth, having Christ as its basis, never changes.

The law of God says “the person who obeys them will live by them.” (Leviticus 18:5). Before sin the path to life was in obedience to God’s commands. No Savior was then needed because Adam hadn’t sinned.

Before sin the law of God was inherently life-producing, and had Adam and Eve never sinned they never would have fallen under the power of death and would have lived forever.

“For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.”

Romans 10:5

But after sin the law that normally brings life, brought death, because Adam and Eve were guilty offenders under the death penalty.

“So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.”

Romans 7:10

James explains how the breaking of even one law makes someone corrupt.

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”

James 2:10-11

Perfect Obedience God's Right, and Also the Only Thing That Can Make Heaven Heaven

If you think about it perfect obedience is God’s right, as God, and those who violate perfect obedience have no right to live and must be destroyed. If God is truly Sovereign and divine (and He is), and if He is perfect love and absolute moral goodness and perfection, (which He is), then it’s never ok to disobey Him, even on one point. Indeed it’s impossible to imagine a perfect world and a perfect existence where the angels for instance obeyed God 99% of the time and sometimes said no to Him. They glorified Him with their lives 99% of the time, and then talked back to Him the other 1% of the time. Perhaps they told lies and stole from each other 1% of the time too. There's a reason why we can't imagine an angel that obeys God most of the time, and disrespects Him part of the time, and still think of them as being angelic. Because the disrespect shone Him would mar the perfect obedience, and bring in a fallen heart to that angel. They wouldn't be an "angel" anymore; they would turn into a devil. And a place where angels sometimes talked back to God wouldn’t be heaven at all. That wouldn’t be perfection at all. There’s no way that could be allowed.

Also there would certainly have to be wrath for talking back to God who is holy and perfect love. There couldn't just be a slap on the wrist for disrespecting Him. That wouldn't make any sense at all. A perfect angel disrespects Him, gets a slap on the wrist, and then goes back to loving and serving God the next day?

It just wouldn't be right. And it wouldn't be heaven if things like that happened.

Anyone who sins against God cannot live and must die immediately. His Word is law. He is Sovereign. It’s actually really strange that we live in a world where people disobey God and that that could exist. The only reason it exists is because of the war and how Satan needed to be defeated before he could be destroyed. But all sin has always been illegal in God’s universe and it has always carried the death penalty with it. Christ’s blood is the reason we can even be alive to take a breath or have another minute of existence. He pledged to die on our behalf and His death gave the human race a chance to choose God and a life in this world in which to do it.

Perfection the Only Loving Standard
The high standard shows God’s love for men and angels. He is not willing that any of them should live any other existence other than 100% purity, 100% peace with God. This is needed for our happiness. Even the sins we commit here in this world that we are forgiven by Christ for, cause pain and misery to us. We lament them, and repent of them, and cooperate with God for Him to change us so we commit less of them. We do not enjoy sinning and there is misery in sinning. We of course do experience the peace of God when Christ forgives us, but then we get up the next day and sin some more, bringing more misery. So there’s pain even for the saved Christian in this life. But imagine living eternally in sin without a Savior! Imagine if God allowed some sins and there were angels and humans who God permitted to sin sometimes. All the sins you’d commit over the first few hundred years, would weigh you down and cause so much misery you would probably beg God for death.

The Bible is clear that the wicked, those in their sins without a Savior, are miserable.

“There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.”

Isaiah 48:22

“…thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

Revelation 3:17

“…destruction and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they do not know.”

Romans 3:16,17

We need purity and righteousness in order to be happy. Anything less than 100% purity and 100% righteousness, brings pain and suffering so great such people would beg for death after a certain amount of time.

Thus it is loving for God to make the standard perfection.

Jesus appropriately called the people of His day evil (“If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” Matthew 7:11) Clearly these people did some good acts, like feeding their children, yet Jesus doesn’t call them good; He calls them evil.

The Apostle Paul tells us:

“As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Romans 3:10-12

James explains how strange our condition in this world is, even among the converted:

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.

My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?

My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

James 3:10-12

Notice how he says “these things should not be” and explains that really it’s impossible for this to happen. It really doesn’t make sense to bless God and curse your fellow man. If we love God’s law and we hate the principles of evil and love the principles of love, then we ought to hate both forms of wrong, and we ought not to do either. Jesus’ character is congruent. He only does what is good. Ours isn’t and we do both good and evil. Thus our whole character is corrupt (before conversion) and we are thus evil.

We’re really an anomaly in the universe because we do both good and evil. But the Bible is clear that there will come a time when “he who is filthy remain filthy still and he who is holy be holy still.” Revelation 22:11 Earth is in a transitory state, but eventually all people will either be evil like the demons, or holy like the angels, as this is the only state that really makes any sense and which we’re all heading to. Indeed the fig tree will bear only figs and the grapevine will bear only grapes; indeed fresh water only will flow from the spring and not both fresh water and salt water.

The breaking of any commandment is to go against Jesus’ character of love and do something un-Christlike. When Adam did something un-Christlike it wasn’t just an action; He became unlike Christ when He did wrong. His whole nature became corrupt. Adam’s character became fallen and evil because he did something evil and un-Christlike, and he fell from the covenant he had with God.

Someone who is evil can’t live forever – that wouldn’t be right and would immortalize sin and Christ defeated all the works of the devil at the cross – and by doing even one evil act a person loses their Christlikeness and becomes unlike Christ in their nature. Thus God has to destroy them.

But, we know we have a Savior who interposed and stepped in to pay the debt for us, and to live a perfect life on our behalf, in order to offer His righteousness in our place. Since our debt has been paid we can be justified, and since Christ destroyed sin in the flesh and enabled us to have power in our flesh through Him, we can overcome sin in our character, and every day we can become more and more like Him.

“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Romans 6:14

“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Romans 8:3-4

Praise the Lord for the hope found in Christ!

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

At the heart of this question in many atheists hearts is the desire to sin and not be destroyed for it. To go on in sin without repentance, and without being called into account and face the day of reckoning. It’s a hatred for justice (and also a hatred for true mercy; they want sin to be allowed; they aren’t looking for mercy). And anyone who hates justice (and true mercy) is not speaking from an innocent motive. I don’t think they really understand what they are asking when they desire God to allow Adam and Eve to live after eating the fruit, and for small sins to go under the radar. No one – themselves included – would desire to live forever in sin. While they love sin and hate justice and goodness, the misery it would yield over time would, I believe, cause them to desire death, and to see the goodness in God that He makes the standard what it is and refuses to lower it. His plan is through Christ to forgive us and lift us up out of sin, not to lower the standard.