HOUSMAIL HM#024                                                                                                                                   1 April 1999

EVERYONE seems to talk about when Adam sinned. Almost NO ONE ever seems to take the time to mention that Adam REPENTED!

However this must have been the case!

The penalty incurred by Adam's sin was:
"IN THE DAY that you eat ..... you shall SURELY DIE." (Gen 2:17)

Note: "IN THE DAY" means "that very same day".
According to Young, the words "SURELY DIE" describe the CERTAINTY of the event.
i.e. It was absolutely certain that Adam was supposed to die that very day. (Which would explain why Adam and Eve hid. The day was almost over .... and when they heard the sound of God walking in the garden, they thought He was coming to carry out the sentence!)

Did Adam die on the very same day that he sinned?

NO!!! HE DIED 930 YEARS LATER!

Why didn't Adam die that VERY SAME DAY?

The answer is in Ezekiel 33:14-19:
"Though I say to the wicked, 'You shall SURELY DIE,' ....." (v14)
(That was what God SAID to Adam)

"Yet if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he shall surely live, he SHALL NOT DIE ....." (v14-15)
(That is how God DEALT with Adam)

"None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right, he shall surely live." (v16)
(That is what HAPPENED to Adam - he did not die that very same day - he lived on for another 930 years!)

The reason given by Ezekiel? REPENTANCE!!
"Yet your people say, 'The way of the Lord is not just'; when it is their own way that is not just. When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall die for it. And when the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does what is lawful and right, he shall live by it." (v17-18)

CONCLUSION
Because Adam did NOT die that very same day, it seems obvious that he must have made the same repentance offered in Ezekiel, and experienced the same promised forgiveness.

Therefore when Adam died at the age of 930, this was NOT as a PENALTY for his sin. (God does not forgive and then punish!) Rather it was because from the beginning, CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY has always been an essential part of the original creation plan ..... and the Gospel Of The Kingdom!

All of this is part of the Gospel preached in Eden, when God told the serpent that one of Eve's seed would eventually "bruise his head". (Gen 3:15) By that "promise" to the serpent, God restored to Adam and Eve the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM ON EARTH (which had been declared in Gen 1:26)

That same ancient Gospel is renewed for ALL OF US by Jesus. When we REPENT, our sins are pardoned, and God does not deal with us as our sins deserve!

"He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor requite us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us."
(Psalm 103:10-12)

And when we die at the end of this mortal life, it is NOT because of Adam's sin, and it is certainly NOT because of our own sin! It is because:

"All these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." (Hebrews 11:39-40)

Allon

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