04. The Nature of the Penalty

CHAPTER IV The Nature of the Penalty The soul that sinneth, it shall die.- Ezekiel 18:4. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. - Genesis 3:19. 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 Timothy 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" (Isaiah 59:2). This is equal to saying that sin had killed, for "the soul that sinneth it shall die" (Ezekiel 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) " (Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:5). 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 " (Ephesians 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" (Hebrews 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" (Revelation 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" (Revelation 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 break The soul that sinneth, it shall die.- Ezekiel 18:4. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. - Genesis 3:19. 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" (Genesis 2:17). Justice could not permit the reflection of dishonor upon God, and God can not lie (Hebrews 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.