Our conversation today is on the topic – The Reign of Spiritual Death.

Recall that when God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, He warned him:
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17

This was the first reference to death in the Bible.

Talking about death, we need to understand the three kinds of death. There is spiritual death; Physical death and the final death. Spiritual death is the separation of man’s spirit from relationship with God. It is a state in which man cannot relate with God. Physical death is the separation of man’s spirit and soul from his body. In this case physical ceases to exist. The second or final death is eternal separation from God where the spirit of man can never access God again. It is called the second or final death because it comes after the physical death. It is meant for those who reject Christ on earth.

Spiritual death is a state of existing in a condition separated from God, and in union with the devil. Those who do not recognise the different kinds of death wonder why Adam and Eve did not drop dead when they disobeyed God. I used to wonder too. But the moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they died spiritually. Their spirits underwent a complete change. They became partakers of the satanic nature.

Adam and Eve could no longer approach God or respond to His call. They lost fellowship with the Father.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.'” Genesis 3:8-10.

Though created to live in fellowship with God and have dominion over the earth, he lost dominion over creation. He became weak. He had to struggle to survive. The same person who had access to all but one tree in the Garden of Eden now had to eat his food by the sweat of his brow!

He could now respond only to his new master, the devil. He was controlled by the flesh. He became debased and an outlaw. Adam’s first son murdered his second son. And from then evil reigned over the world.

The spirit of man became so completely alienated from God that spiritual death, the nature of Satan became the nature of every man born into the world:

“Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.” Romans 5:14

The sin of Adam and Eve affected the whole of nature. So that from the time of Adam till today, every man comes into the world with the sin nature.

But thank God for His mercy and Grace! Through Jesus Christ, we have been given the opportunity to be born again and restored to fellowship with God. As Romans 5:17 declares: “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!”

The reign of spiritual death that began with Adam has been broken by the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. Through faith in Him, we can be delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son (Colossians 1:13). What Adam lost through disobedience, Christ has restored through His perfect obedience. Hallelujah!