In this article, we will continue answering the question of: Why are we still dying after the Cross?
We will begin with the question: Was death a Divine punishment? Or was death a natural and spontaneous consequence of the violation of our first parents to the commandment and eating from the forbidden tree?
Death was a Divine punishment … Why?
First, to say that death was a natural and spontaneous consequence of the violation to the commandment by our parents is to face a very big problem: destruction of the dogma of redemption. We would then land in a bigger problem: that the sacrifice of Christ was not to fulfil the punishment since there was no punishment in the beginning, which is course not true.
Second: why was death a Divine punishment?
When God said to our Father Adam “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17)
This is not a warning of committing sin for just violating the commandment. It was also an explanation of the punishment of sin.
Death was the punishment.
And everyone has been subjected to and still is subject to death. The bible says that “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death”, until the public resurrection happens, when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality.
Why did God not allow the human species—our parents Adam and Eve—to die immediately after the fall??
Because humanity would have ended and the devil would have prevailed. And there would be no salvation.
Although man disobeyed and rebelled against God, He gave a promise of salvation to Adam and his sons. But this “physical” death was postponed until raising a generation. And when the seed of woman
“Christ” comes, He was to crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15)
With the postponement of the penalty of physical death, the other types of death as moral, spiritual, and eternal death all happened immediately and on the spot.
Although the salvation of Christ is offered to all of His creation, it was and still depends on how much the individual responds to the act of grace … God will not force anyone to accept the salvation that was accomplished on the Cross.
After the fall of mankind and before the Cross, all humans without exception were forced to go to hell, to eternal death which is the most dangerous type of death as mentioned in the previous article.
Those who rested on the hope of the resurrection were chanting:” because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay” (Psalm 16:10)
We will here mention a number of he consequences of the sin committed by our first parents Adam and Eve.
The expulsion of our parents from Heaven (Genesis 3:24)
Mankind inherited a sinful nature “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12).
Man lost the Divine image he had before falling in Heaven. When God created man, He said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, “(Genesis 1:26).Human nature has been corrupted and it became easy to sin.
Evil spread on earth.
Fear, shame, lust, anger, diseases of the soul and body, started to exist.
The body was corrupted. Adam started eating his bread with the sweat of his forehead. Eve started giving birth with pain.
The earth became cursed.
Nature became rebellious against man.
When God cursed the serpent and the earth, He did not curse man. This was for the following reasons:
A. Because God has already blessed man (Gen 1:8) And when God gives a blessing, it is not possible to turn it back.
B. If God cursed Adam and Eve, the curse would have affected the entire human race, along with the prophets and messengers and more importantly, Christ Himself in the flesh in the core of our father Adam.
To be continued …
Watani International
27 July 2019