The Body Of Death

Genesis 2:17

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The spoken Word of God is law for those whom He has created. The law was “not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” The first couple broke that law. They immediately died a spiritual death in which they were separated from God.

Finding themselves to be naked, they sewed figs leaves to hide their shame. Now when the Lord approached Adam, He asked Him, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the forbidden fruit?” Now one could say that the fruit of the tree, containing the knowledge of good and evil, once ingested, made them aware that they were naked. However, Paul declares something more to have happened to the fallen couple.

God told Adam that disobedience would cause him to die. The wantonness of man’s soul and the sins of his conscience separated him from the Father. This was death. Though Adam was still walking and talking, he was a dead man. His body became a body of sin and death.

Romans 5:12

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Romans 7:24-25

24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Once sin was conceived in the flesh, it brought forth death in the flesh. The flesh became a body of death. Sin worked death in its members. The soul and the physical body itself were held in the captivity of death.

DEATH: 1. thanatos NT:2288, "death," is used in Scripture of:

(a)the separation of the soul (the spiritual part of man) from the body (the material part); the latter ceasing to function and turning to dust. John 11:13; Heb 2:15; 5:7; 7:23.

(b) the separation of man from God; Adam died on the day he disobeyed God, Gen 2:17, and hence all mankind are born in the same spiritual condition, Rom 5:12,14,17,21, from which, however, those who believe in Christ are delivered, John 5:24; 1 John 3:14. "Death" is the opposite of life; it never denotes nonexistence. As spiritual life is "conscious existence in communion with God," so spiritual "death" is "conscious existence in separation from God."

Acts 17:30

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Romans 5:13

(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

IMPUTE:

1. logizomai NT:3049, "to reckon, take into account," or, metaphorically, "to put down to a person's account," is never rendered in the RV by the verb "to impute." In the following, where the KJV has that rendering, the RV uses the verb "to reckon," which is far more suitable, Rom 4:6,8,11,22,23,24; 2 Cor 5:19; James 2:23.

2. ellogao, or- eo NT:1677 denotes "to charge to one's account, to lay to one's charge," and is translated "imputed" in Rom 5:13, of sin as not being "imputed when there is no law." This principle is there applied to the fact that between Adam's transgression and the giving of the Law at Sinai, sin, though it was in the world, did not partake of the character of transgression; for there was no law. The law of conscience existed, but that is not in view in the passage, which deals with the fact of external commandments given by God.

(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright (c)1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers)

Romans 5:14

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Regardless of sin not being laid to man’s account, as the character of transgression, death still reigned. The spirit of Satan entered man and the whole creation. According to Paul, Satan had the power of death. In other words, he had the power to separate man from God spiritually, as well as destroy the body in which man lived.

Hebrews 2:14-15

14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

We were subject to the spirit of the bondage of death all the days of our lives.

Romans 5:15-21

15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.