Part 4: What was sin's penalty? (iii) You shall not surely die

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’’’ Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5) 

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:44)

 

Ye are of a father -- the devil, and the desires of your father ye will to do; he was a man-slayer from the beginning, and in the truth he hath not stood, because there is no truth in him; when one may speak the falsehood, of his own he speaketh, because he is a liar -- also his father. (John 8:44 – Young’s Literal Translation) 

I have referenced John 8:44 because I believe it highlights that the lie first told in the Garden of Eden was being perpetuated many centuries later. In most translations the link is concealed by the English, but the literal translation (as seen in the YLT quote) shows that Jesus was calling Satan the father of ‘the lie’ (or ‘falsehood’). English Bible translators have obscured this by either saying he was the father of ‘a lie’ or the father of ‘lies’. Perhaps not considering there to be a connection to one specific lie the translators generalised the term. This is understandable. After all, we deem it unlikely that Satan has only ever told one lie. However, this is another case of interpretation rather than direct translation of the text. Even if it does not make sense to call him the ‘father of the lie’, that is what the text says and it should have been translated as such. 

If we are to attribute one specific lie to Satan then the best place to look is his conversation with Eve. God had given a direct warning that, were the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil to be eaten, Adam would ‘surely die’ (Genesis 2:17). Satan’s advice was the exact opposite: a deliberate lie. In fact, the Hebrew construction of the verse places the negative ‘not’ at the beginning of the statement so as to emphasise how contrary Satan was to God’s warning: it literally reads ‘not – you shall surely die’ when one would have expected normal Hebrew construction of the expression to read ‘you shall surely not die’. 

But how can such a lie be perpetuated throughout history? Millions of people, through reading the Scriptures, have seen Satan’s lie for what it is (or, at least, believe they have), so how could he continue to repeat it? Surely nobody who had read the early chapters of Genesis could fall for the same trick. However, in John 8:37-47 there is evidence that Satan perpetuated this lie through the Jews. It had evolved into something much more subtle and yet the essence of the lie remained.  

Jesus was accusing His listeners of having the same motive as Satan: hiding behind lies in order to carry out a desire for murder. Satan lied about the consequences of eating the fruit so that Adam and Eve would die. The Jews hid behind the lie that, simply because they were Abraham’s physical descendants, they were ‘free’ (vv31-36), and this deception justified in their minds the desire to murder Jesus. 

There is a comment in verse thirty five that potentially expresses this lie in a different way: the Jews believed that they would ‘abide in the house forever’. Though they held to a hope of a better life beyond this life, it is unlikely that many of these Jews would see the benefit of it. Their response to Jesus showed how deceived they were. This could parallel the lie told in the Garden of Eden. Eve was fooled into thinking she would not physically die, just as the Jews were fooled into thinking all would be well in the resurrection for them. Both deceptions pertained to a false hope of life. 

This leads us to consider how this lie is still being perpetuated in the church today. By believing in the continued existence of our souls after death we are actually saying ‘I will not really die’. We recognise a curse for sin (death) but we deny what that death really means (because we say that a part of us lives on). 

Should the soul actually refer to the complete person (all originating in the dust) then this lie is unmasked, but once we adhere to a doctrine that teaches of immortality already existing within man, residing in an immaterial soul, then we are saying that we do not really die. How often have we used such terminology when speaking of a saint who has died? I have done this often, and meant it.

But viewing the manner in which the church has accepted this doctrine throughout history, despite its seeming lack of biblical support, I am compelled to view this as a satanic tactic. Such a tactic is more than useful in taking our focus away from the clearly biblical hope of bodily resurrection and all the doctrines that pertain to this. The return of Christ is made less appealing to our minds when we are taught about a supposed event that takes place at the day of our death – a day that should be impossible to look forward to.