On another thread this became a topic of discussion.
God created man and then planted a garden towards the East, in Eden. God put man in this garden.
Genesis 2:16–17 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Adam disobeyed God, transgressing that command.
Scripture tells us what occurred to Adam because of this transgression:
Genesis 3:17–19 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.”
Scripture tells us what happened to Adam as well:
Genesis 3:22–23 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 where does the idea, since it is not in the Bible and contradicts passages about spiritual life, come from that Adam was created spiritually alive and died spiritually?
Two men in the Old testament times were spiritually alive if spiritually alive is defined by the Spirit of God indwelling the body, which is physical. It is defined in the New Testament in that exact way whether anyone but God and me agrees. No other men were spiritual in that sense besides these two men. So, logically speaking, these are the only two men who could die spiritually, and they are the only two men who has ever died spiritually, or who will ever die spiritually. This makes the concept of dying a physical thing except for Adam and Jesus. However the concept of being dead spiritually is entirely different. All of Adam's family are dead spiritually but they did not die to get that way, they were born that way. They were born in the likeness of Adam and after his fallen image. Another way of saying this is, They were born in the image of Adam after he died.
In spite of everyone of us having an eternal soul that will be conscious forever and will occupy a place somewhere forever, we did not get that soul from Adam. The soul, which is the spiritual part of every man and identifies us as a singular personality, came from God. It does not come from Adam. However, our bodies do come from Adam. We are all in Adam's generations. The life of our bodies is in the blood, we are told. The body must live for the soul to occupy it. The body, because of sin being introduced into the world, is not eternal and it can and will die and the soul will of necessity depart from it into a place determined by God. The body will decay and go back to it's basic elements over a short time.
Think of this as you read this verse.
Ro 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Can anyone here process that statement? What is dead because of sin? The body is dead because of sin. Where did the Spirit of God live in Adam? Your answer is correct if you said the Spirit of God indwelt the body of Adam when there was no sin in him. If you answer is something else, you have answered wrong.
The Spirit of God, who is defined in Rom 8 as "LIFE" does not make the mortal body eternal when he indwells it. The body is the tabernacle where both the Spirit of God and the spirit of man fellowship together and reconciled for all eternity. Each saved man has this experience but one must wait ( bible and Romans 8 word and idea) to receive the incorruptible body until the collective church receives it at the exact same time because the church is one body and is a trinity when complete. The body, composed of Jew and gentile, and indwelt by the Spirit. Three in one and one in three and in perfect accord. Jew & gentile and the Spirit.
Nobody believes that, at least the Baptists here do not believe. They believe hardly a word that God says. They cannot reason, and logic is lost on most of them.
Now, notice this after he says the body is dead because of sin:
Ro 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
What kind of bodies is the Spirit of God quickening? Dead bodies! Mortal bodies! If they are mortal they are not eternal but we did not need God to tell us this fact. We have all buried saved loved ones who have died. This indwelling of the body does not make our bodies immortal but it does give us a sure hope of a glorified body, and that is what Romans 8 says.
Compare these two verses;
Ro 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Ro 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Some logic:
If a body of a repentant believer in Jesus Christ that has been racked by sin can and does become the habitation of the Spirit of God and be quickened by his presence in it, isn't it logical that the Spirit of God could and did dwell in a perfect man who had no sin and was in the presence of the triune God daily? It is logical to conclude that. Adam was in the image of God. He was a trinitarian being.
The one deliberate and disobedient act of Adam brought sin into the world, and death by sin. What and who would anyone think was the first to die? If the Spirit in our bodies makes it alive, what would the Spirit in Adams body do? What would make the body of a perfect man alive? What will make our perfect body alive when we receive it? The Spirit. What makes it alive now? The blood. Corruptible blood.
It is logical to believe that God created Adam in a glorified state. One must ask himself how it is that the most intelligent man who ever lived outside of Jesus Christ himself and a man who fellowshipped with God daily in the Garden could be naked and not know it. The glorified body is a body that glows and shines. Adam and Eve were clothed with the glory of God until he sinned. He sinned in his body and the Spirit no longer dwelled in it. The body is dead because of sin.
Now, if Adam had not sinned when tested, he would have been sealed in righteousness of God and all his offspring would have been born in his trinitarian nature and history would have unfolded differently.
There is more to know about this but God has drawn the nature of man out in the dust when he formed the tabernacle in the wilderness, where he dwelt among his people Israel. One can learn about God dwelling in man by studying that similitude.
