What does “you shall surely die” mean in Genesis 2:17?

One thing common to every man, woman, and child in the past, present, or future is the reality that “you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17, ESV). No matter how many anti-aging products we use, how beneficial our physical fitness program, or how carefully we follow safety protocols, the reality of pending death will not change. God pronounced the curse of physical death on humanity, and that curse has not yet been lifted.

Life began in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve, humanity’s first parents, walked with God (Genesis 3:8). God was generous enough to provide humanity a place void of harm, hurts, hiccups, or havoc. Adam and Eve experienced God’s glory: His presence, His fame, His wholeness. Humans are created for glory, and only in the glory of God’s presence are we truly free (2 Corinthians 3:17).

In the beginning, humans possessed real freedom—the ability to do what we ought—the glory of innocence and perpetual life, having access to the tree of life in the midst of the garden. Life in the garden had but one restriction: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,” God said, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gensis 2:16–17, ESV).

But Adam and Eve neglected to do what they ought and thought it better to do what they wanted. The result was bondage instead of freedom. They disobeyed God, and, as a result, their mind, will, heart, and strength were thrown into bondage and death (Ephesians 2:1–4). They could no longer be free because they lost the ability to choose the one thing for which they were made: glory (Romans 3:23).

When God warned that the punishment for disobedience was that “you shall surely die,” He had in mind two types of death. One type of death is spiritual death, a separation from God caused by sin. We see this death occurred immediately in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve “hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (verse 8).

Along with spiritual death, Adam and Eve experienced another type of death—physical death. Adam’s rebellion is why our bodies wear out to this day (1 Corinthians 15:53–55).

Every harm, hurt, hiccup, or act of havoc in our lives is ultimately caused by sin. Sin is why we experience physical death. The Bible says the whole creation “groans and labors with birth pangs” due to the effects of sin’s curse (Romans 8:22). We are the criminals, and we deserve death (Romans 1:32), hell (Matthew 25:46), Satan’s evil (Isaiah 3:11), and the wrath of God (Ephesians 2:3) as the punishment for our crimes against His holiness.

God had said, “You shall surely die,” but even in judgment there is mercy. In Genesis 3:21 “the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Here is the first example of a substitutionary atonement. To atone is to “make right,” and Adam and Eve needed a substitute to die in their place so they could be made right with God (see Ephesians 2:5). Some type of animal was killed so clothing could cover their shame (Psalm 132:18; Isaiah 61:10–11).

Every atoning sacrifice in the Old Testament was a foreshadowing of Jesus dying in our place. He became the only man to defeat spiritual and physical death and to rise again. By believing in Him as Savior we can experience eternity without the effects of sin. God promises His children the absence of pain and tears (Revelation 21:4), brand-new, incorruptible bodies (2 Corinthians 5:8–10), and an unhindered connection to Himself (1 Corinthians 13:12). We can live free through Christ from the power of sin (Romans 6:1–23) and the penalty of sin (Romans 3:24–26). One day we will be free from the presence of sin in the kingdom to come (Romans 8:18–39).

In Adam, the judgment is “you shall surely die.” In Jesus, the blessing is “you shall surely live” (see John 14:19).