On another thread @Eternally Grateful brought up (as a side comment) the wages of sin and (I take it) Adam's sin and the direct consequences.
I think this could be a good discussion. I do not hold that this death (in Genesis) is a spiritual death but a physical one. That said, there was also a spiritual death in that Adam was separated from God.
Genesis 3:17–24 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face you will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken; for you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
What is the curse Adam was under due to his sin?
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
I would argue the curse is twofold.
The ground is cursed because of Adam's sin
17 Then to Adam He said, “....
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
And because of Adam's sin physical death entered the World.
"Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
In addition to the curse because of Adam's sin there was a separation.
The reason is not because Adam sinned but so that, having his "eyes opened" and "becoming like [God] knowing good and evil", he would not partake of the Tree of Life and live forever.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
I view Man's relationship with God in the Garden as physical. When he was thrust out of the Garden that relationship ended, and man no longer had a direct relationship and communion with God (i.e., walking with God in the Garden).
"Spiritual death" is based on the thought that because God said "...in the day ye eat of it you will die" and because Adam did not die physically that day he must have died spiritually.
The first problem with that is this: if Adam had "spiritual life" which many think is recovered in the new birth, then we must equally say that this life is not eternal.
See the problem there? If Adam lost the life we gain in Christ—then eternal life isn't eternal. But that isn't the case, in my view. God is telling Adam that the day he eats of the fruit he will change his everlasting life to a life in which death will exist.
Secondly, the word day doesn't always refer to a singular day. Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day. Which day was that?
Third, Adam's ejection from the Garden deprived him of what kept him from dying—the Tree of Life. That in itself tells us what kind of everlasting life Adam had. And that is physical, not spiritual.
Men did not have Eternal Life until Christ came, and this includes Adam. He might have had an everlasting life if he had not sinned and been thrust out of the Garden, but we should not confuse that with the Eternal Life Christ came to, for the first time—bestow upon men.
Christ stated that the "fathers" in the wilderness were dead. Paul wrote we were dead in trespasses and sins. Eternal Life remained a promise in the Old Testament and was fulfilled in Christ. Hence I cannot see any basis for imputing a condition of eternal, or spiritual life to Adam that is the equivalent of the Eternal Life men receive when they are baptized into Christ.
God bless.