To define the penalty of the Edenic law is to give a simple
definition of death, for the law says, " In the day thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die." The simplest definition of death is
separation—separation from or cessation of life. When soul and body separate,
we die. The state of death is the opposite of that of life. Life is produced by
correspondence with environment. As long as we eat, drink, and breathe, we live.
When we are cut off from correspondence with these, we die. Spiritual life, like
physical life, is maintained by correspondence with environment. When we cease
to partake of the bread of life, to drink of the water of life, and to breathe
the atmosphere of moral purity, we die spiritually. "He that hath the Son
hath life; and he who hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5: 12)
.
There are three phases of death—spiritual, physical,
and eternal—all of which, either immediate!! or ultimately, are consequences
of the fall. God is the source of man's spiritual life. So long as Adam
corresponded with God through obedience to the divine law, he retained spiritual
life; but " in the day " that he transgressed God's law, he cut off
correspondence with his spiritual environment, separated himself from the
elements of life; in a word, he died. That man can live and yet be dead seems a
paradox, yet such was the experience of Adam. Such, also, has been the
unfortunate experience of his posterity. "She that liveth in pleasure is
dead while she liveth" (1 Tim. 5: 6). Isaiah said, "Your iniquities
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from
you, that he will not hear" (Isa. 59: 2). This is equal to saying that sin
had killed, for "the soul that sinneth it shall die" (Ezek. 18: 4).
The death of the soul is not the extinction of the soul, but a separation of the
soul from God, the source of its life. Paul said to the Ephesians: "And you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Even when we were dead in sins, hath he quickened us
together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) " (Eph. 2: 1, 5). Again, he
says concerning the Gentiles who walked in the vanity of their mind, or sinful
practices, " Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of
their hearts " (Eph. 4:18).
Death as a penalty of the law seems to have been
inflicted in its spiritual phase immediately upon man's transgression, for we
readily infer from the narrative in the third d chapter of Genesis that man was
driven out of the garden soon after his partaking of the forbidden tree; but the
infliction of the two other phases of the penalty—physical death and eternal
death —was deferred. Though it was " appointed unto man [Adam included]
once to die" (Heb. 7: 29), Adam lived physically many sears after his
transgression; but that he should die a physical death was made clear to Adam in
the words, "Dust thou art, to dust shalt thou return. "
Eternal death is the most serious and far reaching
phase of the penalty for sin. It is consequent upon spiritual death, or, in
other words, eternal death is spiritual death eternally perpetuated. The
infliction of this phase of the penalty was still longer deferred than the
infliction of physical death, for eternal death as a penalty for sin will not be
inflicted until the final sentence is passed upon the unredeemed millions at the
judgment bar of God. This eternal death, or separation from God in the lake of
fire, is called the second death, probably as distinguished from the physical or
first death. "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is
the second death" (Rev. 20:14). "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and
the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters,
and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev. 21: 8). Death, spiritual,
physical, and eternal, then, is the penalty for the violation of the divine law.
It is a self evident law of justice that penalty must
equal crime. The question arises, then, whether the penalty for Eden's broken
law is too great for the crime. Some have thought that the penalty for the
breaking of the Edenic law was out of proportion to the crime committed.
In determining the greatness of any crime, and
consequently in determining its adequate penalty, we employ the rule that the
enormity of the crime is governed not only by the motive and the intelligence of
the criminal, but especially by the dignity of the one against whom the crime is
committed. It would be difficult to arrive conclusively at the motive which
prompted our foreparents to disobey God's law. It may have been jealousy
injected by Satan; it may have been curiosity or a selfish desire for greater
wisdom; but we can not be certain of the exact motive. At any rate, the desires
were not legitimate.
That Adam and Eve were highly intelligent does not seem
open to doubt; for they were, before their transgression, the undegenerated
handiwork of an all wise and omnipotent Creator. That they knew both of the
law and of its penalty we have before proved. Their evil motive, conceived from
Satan, their high state of intellectuality, and their holy environment make
their crime enormous; but it is the dignity of the One offended that makes their
crime appear in its greatest enormity.
For illustration, a crime committed against an ignorant
and obscure slave appears not so great as one committed against an honorable and
cultured citizen. If committed against an officer of the law or a state
executive, the crime is considered still greater. Probably the most enormous
national crime is one committed against the chief executive of our nation. Who
would not immediately recognize the difference between the killing of an
ignorant person in a backwoods settlement and the assassination of a beloved
ruler? Adam's sin was not committed against a fellow being, his equal; it was
not an offense to an angelic being, slightly his superior; but his crime,
committed in the light of intelligence, was against the infinite goodness,
perfect holiness, and adorable kindness of a just and loving God. Viewed in this
light, the penalty for Eden's broken law is certainly not greater than Adam's
crime.
The enforcement of the penalty, moreover, was inevitable.
In the case of a transgression of law, one of three things must occur: the law
itself must be repealed; the honor, veracity, and dignity of the lawgiver must
be impaired; or the law must be enforced by the infliction of the penalty.
The Edenic law could not be repealed; for, as we have
already learned, it was essential to man's necessary constitution. It was
enacted, too, for man's highest good. The law of Eden, therefore, was "
holy, just, and good. " Whatever injustice might have been found in the law
after its violation, would have been found before its violation, and before its
enactment or institution. We conclude, then, that a law that was "holy,
just, and good" could not be repealed by a God who is himself possessed of
those same attributes, and that, since no one but God had power to repeal the
law, the infliction of the penalty could not be avoided through the repealing of
the law.
To permit the law to stand and the penalty to go
unexecuted not only would lower the dignity of God in the eyes of his subjects,
but would cause God to lie, for he had said, "on the day thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2: 17). Justice could not permit the
reflection of dishonor upon God, and God can not lie (Heb. 6:18).
Therefore, since the law could not be repealed and since
justice could not permit his dishonor, and since he can not lie, the just
penalty of the law—spiritual, physical, and eternal death—was the inevitable
consequence of man's disobedience.
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