II. Adam Died judicially on Day of Transgression

Perplexity is often expressed over the clause, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). The simple fact is that, judicially and implicitly, Adam did die on the day that he sinned. He thereupon became a mortal, dying creature. His doom was fixed, his fate sealed. He passed under the irrevocable sentence of death. His life was forfeit, and he began to die. Although he might live on for an hour, a week, a year (or 930 years, as Adam did—Genesis 5:5), it was but a respite under condemnation, a delay, or stay, of execution. If, however, he were to live forever, there must be a rescue, a redemption, an act of amnesty and grace. Otherwise, the death debt incurred must be paid in full. He must in due time die. That is the fundamental point.CFF1 71.3

1. RHETORICAL FIGURE OF PROLEPSIS EMPLOYED

This warning of immediate death is held by many able Bible students to be an instance of what in rhetoric is called prolepsis—an anticipation of that which is future as if it were already present. It is a common figure of speech. Thus, when one is falling over a precipice, has taken poison, or has committed a capital crime, he is often referred to as a “dead man”—even if he should live on for days, weeks, months, or even years.CFF1 72.1

When the angel of death had smitten their first-born, the affrighted Egyptians cried out, “We be all dead men” (Exodus 12:33). When Aaron’s rod budded in condemnation of the rebels, the Israelites exclaimed, “Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish” (Numbers 17:12). Even God Himself employed similar words in addressing the presumptuous Abimelech: “Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken” (Genesis 20:3).CFF1 72.2

2. OTHER INSTANCES ARE NOT MISUNDERSTOOD

A strikingly similar expression occurred when Pharaoh said to Moses, “Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die” (Exodus 10:28). Yet no one would think the king faithless to his word if, under sentence, Moses waited for some time for execution. Again, when Solomon gave charge to Shimei concerning the tenure of his forfeited life, he declared: “It shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die” (1 Kings 2:37). Yet none would contend that he must flee, be arrested, tried, and executed all on the same twenty-four hour day. Thus he exclaims, “Thy blood shall be upon thine own head.” The intent is clear.CFF1 72.3

So, out of it all, one thing is sure: The execution of the Edenic sentence upon Adam, “Thou shalt surely die,” would indicate anything rather than the thought that man was to live on in endless immortality. ^{11) In twenty other places the same term, “surely die,” occurs, and all of them refer to literal death. See Genesis 20:7; 1 Samuel 22:16; 1 Kings 2:37, 42; Jeremiah 26:8; Ezekiel 3:18; Ezekiel 33:8, 14; etc.} Had there been no redemption, Adam would have utterly perished.CFF1 72.4

3. SANDS IN TIME’S HOURGLASS BEGIN FALLING

The death that God threatened actually began in Eden on the very day of transgression, as Adam came under sentence of death. When, after Adam’s transgression, God declared to him, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19), He was but passing the sentence of which He had previously warned, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).CFF1 73.1

From that day preparation was under way for the ultimate execution of the sentence. On that very day Adam was ejected from the Garden of Eden, where grew that life-giving tree of life, the eating of the fruit of which would have perpetuated obedient life forever. He was now cut off from the channel through which deathlessness was designed to flow to him. The sands in time’s hourglass of existence had now begun to fall.CFF1 73.2

4. FINALITY OF DEATH IMPOSED NOT SPECIFIED

But as to the duration, or finality, of the death decreed for disobedience—whether it would be final and irrevocable, with no awakening; or, whether life would be restored through a resurrection, for final award or punishment—not one word was said in advance. That omission was surely designed, making it possible for God to bring forward at the appropriate time and circumstance the provision of grace through Christ that He had purposed before sin entered the world. But the sentence of death, whether the first natural death, or the final second death, was passed upon all men.CFF1 73.3