“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.“ (KJV Genesis 3:4-5)
In the paradisiacal garden, God plants many fruit bearing trees. He tells Adam and Eve that they can freely eat of the fruit of all of them except one. The fruit of two of the trees are of particular importance. The fruit of the tree of life can give endless life. In fact, if one is destined to die partakes of its fruit, they will no longer die. The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, on the other hand, can bring death to one who would otherwise have endless life. God warns Adam and Eve that if they partake of the fruit of this tree, they will surely die.
The serpent tempts Eve in this garden of paradise and persuades her that partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil will not bring about their death but make Adam and Eve as gods because they will come to know both good and evil.
When this account is read today, it is easy to see that this serpent is the devil, who is a liar and has been a liar from the beginning. So it’s easy to see that he must surely be lying when he makes his case to eat the fruit of the one tree that Adam and Eve are commanded not to eat of. But what exactly did this serpent lie about? Would eating the fruit cause them to be as gods? Or would eating it as his command, move them further away from God? Would they die? Or would they continue their endless life but add to it this element of knowledge of good and evil?
Eve partakes of the fruit and persuades Adam and he eats it also. They knowingly do what God had commanded them not to do. They give heed to the evil one and chose to follow his instructions, which is a form of rebellion against God.
What actually happens in consequence of eating this fruit? As a result, Adam and Even are cast out of the paradisiacal garden. They are separated from God and from the tree of life, which they could freely eat of before. Now cherubim and a flaming sword guard the way of the tree of life. This ensures that Adam and Eve do not eat of its fruit before the word of God is fulfilled that they must surely die.
And die they do. The first death they experience is an immediate spiritual death. They become separated from God. Once in a state where they can freely commune with their Creator and behold his glory, they are now cut off from God. From their new perspective, God is no more. But it is not God who is dead, it is Adam and Eve who are spiritually dead.
Their bodies also take on a property that ensures their function as a tabernacle is now temporary. This form of death is fixed. It cannot be undone. It will surely come to pass.
If Adam and Eve had experienced temporal death as immediate as their spiritual death, the word of God would have been fulfilled when he said that they would surely die. However, such an immediate temporal death coinciding with their spiritual death, would also ensure that they would be lost forever, with no chance to be reclaimed from their spiritual separation from God or physical death.
Mercifully, a space is granted unto Adam and Eve between their first death, their spiritual death, and their temporal death. The purpose of this space between spiritual death and temporal death is to provide a probationary state, where it is possible, but not certain, to reclaim them from their separation from God.
To be reclaimed from their spiritual death, Adam and Eve must demonstrate that they are changed beings, wiser than they were when they freely chose to obey Satan. They are required to repent.
They once had fruit from many good trees to freely eat of but chose to eat of the only fruit they were commanded not to eat of. They rejected all of the many good and chose the one bad. Now they are put in essentially the same, but opposite scenario where there is all kinds of bad fruit to eat and only one that is good. The question now is, will they reject all of the varieties of bad and choose the good?
If they do not repent, they continue in their lost and fallen state, as if there is no redemption for them. If they do repent, they can be reclaimed from their spiritual death. But that doesn’t just happen. It requires intervention from God to provide a path that wasn’t there before.
With all this as a back drop, there are some questions that remain. Did listening to Lucifer and obeying his words actually make Adam and Eve more like God than if they had not listened to him? Or did heeding the serpent set them back, or further away from God? Was it a real fall or was it an advancement?
Was it the desire of God all along where He would say that he doesn’t want Adam and Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit, but really that’s exactly what He’s hoping that they will do? If that is the case, what other commandments operate in this manner? How regularly does God command one thing but actually want his children to do the opposite?
On another thought, if Satan persuades saying “there is no other way”, should I really trust that there really is “no other way” to be like God than to obey what Satan saying? Could it be that Satan is lying and there really is another way, even if I don’t see one at present?
Did obeying Satan really advance Adam and Eve further than if they had just obeyed God? Or was it actually a set back, that could nevertheless be overcome with God’s planning? Could Adam and Eve actually have been further along if they had not listened to Satan? Is there another way to be closer to God than to obey Satan?
The example of Jesus provides a peculiar response to this question. Jesus lives without sin because he never gave any heed to Satan at all. And yet there is none closer to the Father than Jesus Himself. He did not obey Satan, no, not even once. And he became like the Father. It is precisely because he gave no heed to Satan that sets Jesus apart from all else. It is his refusal to ever heed Satan that allows him to do what no other can. It is only because He never obeyed the liar that death could have no power over him. It is precisely because of his strict obedience to God alone that he could attain to the resurrection and bring about a perfect atonement.
Does obeying Satan ever get me closer to God than if I just obeyed God? If Satan is saying, “ye shall be as gods” if only I obey him, is that really the case? If I were placed in a paradisiacal garden and could choose to give heed to a liar or to obey God, what should I do? Is the answer to that question any different today than it was for Adam and Eve?