Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
After the Lord placed Adam in the garden of Eden, He told him he could eat of all the trees of the garden. God was gracious and generous. But He gave him one command, just one: do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The human response to God’s gracious goodness was to be trust and obedience. The man was to respond to God with total dependence on the Lord for everything. The man was (and we are) meant to ”fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” If you do, everything will be well with you forever.
But Adam the man, and all men since, made the wrong choice. And we know the rest of the story, in the next chapter. The man decided, in pride and unbelief, to “be like God:” he would take matters into his own hands, run his life the way he wanted, love himself, trust himself, and decide for himself what is good and bad for him.
We still, by nature, respond to God’s Love the same way. We can’t believe God can be that good. We know better. Wills clash. Selfish rebellion surfaces. Sins erupt. And life is messed up. Our response kills us. Immediately (“in the day”), we surely die, are separated from God and Life.
But God’s response to our response is to send His Son. Jesus came to do the will of the Father, to perfectly trust and obey for us. The Second Adam did what the Old Adam in us failed to do.