NO, NO, NO. It was by one man's disobedience that death entered the world. Death came to all men because all men sinned.
Yes, yes, yes.
Adam and Eve were already mortal. Physical death is not what entered the world when Adam disobeyed God. We KNOW Adam and Eve were mortal because the threat of death would be meaningless to an immortal creature. The word "
immortal" means unable to die or not subject to death. Immortal creatures can hear, "
Do not eat or you will die," and respond, "
Meh, I'm immortal; I cannot die." To believe Adam and Eve were made inherently immortal is to make meaningless God's command
and to make God a liar. We KNOW they were mortal because an immortal creature does not need a tree of life. An immortal person could eat from the tree of life and their life would not be extended one second
because they are already immortal!!! We know they were made immortal because the author of Hebrews explicitly stated it was apportioned for man to die once (not multiple times = physically dead, dead in sin, dead in Christ, second death, etc.) and then face judgment. We KNOW they were mortal because 1 Corinthians 15 states we are sown mortal and corruptible, not immortal and incorruptible (or immortal and already-corrupted). We KNOW death existed in Eden prior to Genesis 3:7 because God made all the plants and animals to reproduce and for an apple tree or a cucumber to reproduce it must produce seeds that
die in the ground and become a new plant that produces more seeds and more plants. Death is inherent in reproduction, but it is not the death of sin. As I mentioned in a previous post..... if Adam was made inherently mortal then the laws of physics would be different. If he were immortal then he could jump or fall off a mile-high cliff and survive the sudden impact at the end of the fall.
Nothing could kill him.
Humans were never immortal.
The death to which Paul is referring in Romans 12 is the death of sin. Some people call it "
spiritual death," but that phrase is nowhere found in scripture. What scripture calls it is "
dead in sin," or "
dead in transgression." That is why I used the phrase "
transgressional death." It was
transgressional death that came to all men, not physical death. Physically, all humans were going to die anyway.
- If a good and sinless person dies physically then s/he physically dies good and sinless can eat of the tree of life and be raised immortal.
- If a person sins then s/he has instantly become dead in sin and if that person physically dies dead in sin, then they will die a third death in the fiery lake. That person has died physically dead in sin. They have not physically died good and sinless.
- If a person sins then s/he instantly becomes dead in sin but if they subsequently believe in Jesus they are made alive again and dead to sin. They are changed. They are changed from dead in sin to dead to sin. They are changed from dead in sin, to dead in Christ and being dead in Christ is what makes one physically immortal, not being made human. Humans are NOT made physically immortal. The only way to be physically immortal is to eat from the tree of life. When that formerly good and sinless person who has become not-good and sinful dies in Christ he will be resurrected and in his resurrect be transformed from mortal and corruptible to immortal and incorruptible. That was the plan from the beginning: it was apportioned for man to die once and then face judgment. If a person has sown to the flesh, they then reap eternal life, but f they have sown to the Spirit then they reap eternal life. No one was born with eternal life.
And I have proven the unborn are indeed and inescapably born dead in sin. Would you like me to repeat that information? If I were to provide convincing information, would you let go of the notion the people are pure and good and sinless before they are born?
NO, NO, NO. It was by one man's disobedience that death entered the world. Death came to all men because all men sinned.
Transgressional death, not physical death, entered the world when Adam disobeyed God. That is a form of death that had not previously existed in the world beforehand.
Now look at "all men sinned." Is Paul making a statement only about the past, only about those men who lived prior to Romans 12:5? Or is Paul making a statement that is true of all people, male and female, men and women, young and old, in
every generation? We KNOW from
Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory. That is just as true today as it was when Paul wrote the verse. All have sinned. It isn't just the people that lived before Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, that verse also applies to all the humans born between that time and this one, and it is also true of all the people on earth who will live after you and I have physically died. We also know the wages of sin is death.
Transgressional death comes to all who have sinned.
Death came to all men because all sinned.
Death has [already] come to all men because all men [will sin]. There is only one man who has ever lived a completely sinless life and there is only one man who will ever live a completely life and that man is Jesus, the Son of God. There won't be any other sinless people. He is it; the only one. Sin and sinful death are just as inevitable as physical death. It is just as inevitable of the unborn as it is of the born.
That is not the way God originally made humans.
