In the beginning the relationship between God and man was perfect, harmonious and joyful, that is, until man disobeyed God. God gave him freewill (the freedom to choose, to be what he can be) and he chose to disobey God.
14 (God) left (man) free to make his own decisions. 15 If you wish, you can keep the commandments, 16 to behave faithfully is within your power. 17 He has set fire and water before you; put out your hand to whichever you prefer. Man has life and death before him; 18 whichever a man likes better will be given him. ECCLESIASTICUS 15
The disobedience led to serious and dire consequences:
Man’s purity was stained with sin. His nature transformed from godly (radiant, beautiful and pure) to ugly (dark, sinful and impure).
God hid from him, and he from Him, because God was a consuming fire to the impure (Deuteronomy 4:24). He might not look at God’s face and live (Exodus 33:20).
The Spirit of God who was residing in the spirit of man had to vacate it because it could not contain the Spirit and live. The vacancy left a vacuum which the demonic spirits filled. They indwelt the spirit of man and clung to it like to a pestering leech. The indwelling enabled them to nudge man to disobey God some more (Ephesians 2:2). And it resulted in the heart of man turning “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9 kjv). It produced evil thoughts, lewdness, sexual immorality, adultery, greed, envy, theft, murder, malice, deceit, slander, arrogance and folly (Mark 7:21-22).
The spirit of man is the virtual head of the soul of man. Proverbs 20:27 and Ephesians 3:16 describe it as man’s inmost being. Luke 6:45 and Ephesians 3:17 refer to it as the heart of man.
Man (whom Genesis 2:7 kjv describes as a living soul) was clothed with garment of flesh (Genesis 3:21). It offered him an alternative lifestyle like drunkenness (loss of God-awareness), dissension (rebellion against godly order), sensuality (limited sense of reality), carousing (excessive pursuit of fleshly desires), selfish ambition (self-centered life direction), envy and jealousy (covetousness), immorality (unfaithfulness), outbursts of anger (intemperance), idolatry and sorcery (ungodly practices in search of power), partisanships (factionalism), and social conflicts (enmity, heresies).
Galatians 5:19 identifies the alternative lifestyle as “acts of the sinful nature.”
Man was banished from the realm of the living and made to walk the realm of the dead. Psalm 115:16 says, “The earth the Lord has given to man.”
In lieu of superabundance, he found poverty and want. The earth was cursed (Genesis 3:17). He had to labor by the sweat of his brow so he could eat and drink.
God took away man’s breath of immortality. Sickness, aging and death visited him—a reminder to us that anyone who does not deal with the corruption that is in him, to dust he will return (Genesis 3:19).
Man was estranged from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18). He lost his connection and access to omniscience and omnipotence. His creativity turned into mediocrity and, often, into failure.
Lucifer usurped man’s dominion. Man (who was left without authority and power to act for and on behalf of God) began to feel weak, insecure and fearful, even of those he used to lord.
In short what happened is that man lost his blessings. Joy, serenity and contentment stopped overflowing in him. They were replaced with conflict, restlessness, emptiness and suffering.
The serious and dire consequences were passed on to everyone in the whole world (Romans 5:12).
Second Death. Man entered the first level of the realm of the dead (call it the First Death). Consequently, all of us were “born physically alive but spiritually dead” (Ephesians 2:1).
12 Sin entered the world through one man… and in this way death came to all men. ROMANS 5
3 “God did say, ‘You must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent [Lucifer] said to the woman. GENESIS 3
4 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. EZEKIEL 18 kjv
On the Day of Judgment the situation could be worse. All the impure-who-stay-impure will be degraded further and estranged farther from God. They will be thrown into the Second Death, where their poverty and suffering will intensify. Revelation 19:20 describes it as the lake of fire and sulfur.
Second Death will mean constant torment. The human flesh will be burned to the bone. New flesh will grow but the fire will burn it again. The process will be terribly and repetitiously painful.
17 The Light of Isra’el will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume His thorns and His briers. ISAIAH 10
19 The people will be fuel for the fire. ISAIAH 9
31 The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire. ISAIAH 1
1 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them… 3 “Then you [who revere My name] will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things.” MALACHI 4
The condemned will long to die but death will elude them.
18 Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. 19 As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning and morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through. ISAIAH 28
A friend remarked, “I may be ignorant of the Word of God but if in good faith I remain faithful to the teachings of my church, then perhaps God would spare me. Maybe I could escape the Second Death.”
Brother, ignorance of the Word is no excuse; it’s death. God said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.” God said it so you won’t miss the mark. Miss the mark is the literal translation of the word “sin.”
17 If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible. LEVITICUS 5
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