Two trees were emphasized in the creation story the “Tree of Life” and the “tree of good and evil”
“The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9 NIV)”
God commanded that they can eat “ANY” tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
“And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:16-17 NIV)”
Notice that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the only one not allowed to be eaten, implying that they were allowed to eat the tree of life as long as they don’t eat the other one. The tree of life was for them to supposedly live forever.
“And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” (Genesis 3:22 NIV)”
The punishment of eating the tree of knowledge is that they will certainly die. By forbidding the man not to eat the tree of life after they defy the only commandment, the man will now certainly going to die, God did not specifically mention when but it will certainly happen. And it did.
Now, there are verses that say, “FOR IN THE DAY THAT YOU EAT YOU SHALL SURELY DIE” (NKJV) which kinda indicates WHEN they will die. But, actually, there is a difference when you said, IN THE DAY than saying, IN THAT VERY DAY. “IN THE DAY” is a term to indicate what would surely happen to start on that day. Meanwhile, “IN THAT VERY DAY” is a term used to indicate what will happen on that very day. Apparently, what is written is “IN THE DAY”
In analogy; when I said, “IN THE DAY” that you steal, you shall go to jail surely”. Does it mean that the person who steals will be in Jail in that very day? No right, you have to catch the person first, call the police, file a case, win in court and go to jail, there is a process in between to get to the assured punishment. So, God did not mean that they will die really on that very day physically and the serpent was aware of this. Hence, the serpent targeted Eve first as she was not there when that commandment was given. And, to be sure whether Eve really understands the commandment, the serpent asked first to gauge her awareness about it. And, she answers with an additional “touch” (Gen 3:3) which was not mentioned in the commandment. From that point forward, the deception succeeded.
“Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died. (Genesis 5:5 NIV)”
To date, nobody escapes literal death, it always has been the wages of sin. Not spiritual death, death is something permanent, there cannot be spiritual death while you are still living on earth because, while you are living there is the chance of redemption. When you said to someone that if you sin you’ll have spiritual death, it is as if you are putting a permanent judgment since death is associated with something permanent. Spiritual death happens only after literal death and it simply means, permanent separation from the presence of God.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 NKJV”
This proves that we did inherit the first sin our ancestor had committed. Unless God intervened, no one has been exempted in the past neither today nor tomorrow as His word has long been established from the beginning that, once said it will not come back empty.
“so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11 NIV)”
Click here to read “Is Tithing as According to Mal 3:10 after the death of Christ a Sin?“