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Genesis 3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

Of all the questions I’ve been asked as a missionary, “if God is Holy why do we still have ?” is the  most common (followed closely by “if God is Loving why do we have ?).

First the short answer…God’s justice comes uses a spiritual judgment instead of physical.

And now a long answer…

God told Adam and Eve if they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they would die (Genesis 2:16–17). Therefore Eve believed the moment she ate that fruit (or even touched it) physical death would immediately come.

Satan in Genesis 3:4 basically called God a liar, promising that instead of a curse that fruit was actually a blessing (Genesis 3:5) the Lord was trying to keep them from. And partially he was correct since Eve didn’t physically die right away.

But what did happen?

1. Adam and Eve were filled with Shame for the first time and hid from God
2. Instead of confessing thier sin, they blamed one another for what happened
3. Eve is cursed to painful child-bearing
4. Adam is cursed to painful work all his life
5. They would eventualy “return to dust” in death

So what was believed to be the final judgment (death) didn’t come for more than one hundred years later

This does make it seem as if God is either lying (they weren’t going to die physically) or made a mistake (miscalculated how long it would take for death to come. But there is a third option.

He wasn’t referring to physical death.

Many Bible scholars believe God here referred to a “spiritual death” or separation from His presence in Eden. A simple reading of Genesis three also strengthens this view since there is an immediate disconnect in the relationship between God and man.

All of us (myself included) are used to seeing physical justice being carried out when someone is wrong. This begins with a simple thing as sitting in the naughty chair because you ate a cookie, but extends even to our legal system.

There is a physical justice from God; follwing a persons death as they suffer for eternity in a lake of fire. The Lord however doesn’t want this to happen (II Peter 3:9) so in mercy He offers to all of us Salvation through Christ.

There is still a justice carried out, but it’s a spiritual one that flows out of a broken relationship with God.

While this may not seem like much, our inability to deal with the struggles and pressure of life on our own shows just how much we need God.

Part of me would love to see the wicked receive a public judgment from God because to be quite honest they deserve it (the Lord is helping me become more loving in this situation). But it’s important to remember God does judge sin, even if we cannot see it.

The shock of Satan over God’s command that Adam and Eve not eat from a certain tree (Genesis 2:15–19, Genesis 3:1) [1] created a seed of doubt in her mind about the love of God.

 

This doubt led Eve to change the command of God (3:2–3) [2], and opened the door for a direct attack from Satan (Genesis 3:4–5) that resulted in direct disobedience (Genesis 3:6).

 

The attacks of Satan haven’t changed that much over the years. He still loves to come by when God tells us no and whisper “why won’t the Lord let you do that anyways?”

Thankfully with Scripture we can give a much better answer to this question…God says no because with absolute freedom we would make a mess of things.

 

Think with me for a moment about the Garden of Eden

1. There was no suffering or pain of any kind (no death)
2. There was no sin (rebellion against God)
3. There was no anger (all relationships were in harmony)
4. In other words it was perfect

 

And what about after Adam and Eve at the fruit in Genesis 3:6?

1. Shame and hiding from God instead of a close relationship with Him (Genesis 3:7–10)
2. Seflishness instead of harmony (Genesis 3:11–13) [3]
3. What should bring happiness brings pain (childbirth) (Genesis 3:16)
4. What was easy is now incredibly hard (growing and harvesting of food (Genesis 3:17–19)
5. All mankind is under the curse of death (Genesis 3:19)

 

The point is God knows with complete freedom we will make a mess of things just like children given freedom to eat whatever they want will have oreos for every meal.

 

So instead of being a vindictive deity who tells us no because He’s afraid of giving us power, God is the loving parent who says no in order to protect His child from failure

 

It’s true that sometimes the Lord allows us to make our own decisions and eat oreos for dinner spiritually. But we can be thankful that most of the time he protects us from our own wisdom, and when we do fail is quick to gather us up in His loving arms.