I’ve seen this question come up a lot in the discussion groups I’m in: “Why does God have to destroy someone for just one sin? When Adam and Eve ate a fruit they weren’t supposed to eat, they got the death penalty; isn’t that harsh? Shouldn’t they have only gotten a lesser sentence instead, done jail time or whatever the penalty was for the small wrong, and then be reinstated with God? Why was death the penalty given; it seems too extreme for the small crime of eating a forbidden fruit?”
After studying the subject, I think the answer is that if someone sins even once, they break the covenant with God, their whole nature becomes corrupt (this is not to say at this point they are pure evil with no good desires – otherwise they would be irredeemable as Satan is – but their character becomes corrupted), and they come out from under His authority completely.
The Bible tells us “man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) This is the terms of the covenant that the angels and Adam had before the fall. Life can’t happen if we keep all the other commandments but break one. If we do not lie or steal or kill, but we commit adultery for instance, this is not the path of life, but the path of death, and this is why death came to Adam for breaking only one command. He failed to live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, come out from God’s authority, and became his own god, broke faith with God, and broke the covenant He had with God.
Keeping every word was the terms of the covenant, and these were not arbitrary terms that God could change, but terms based on truth and eternal for that reason. Truth, having Christ as its basis, never changes.
The law of God says “the person who obeys them will live by them.” (Leviticus 18:5). Before sin the path to life was in obedience to God’s commands. No Savior was then needed because Adam hadn’t sinned.
Before sin the law of God was inherently life-producing, and had Adam and Eve never sinned they never would have fallen under the power of death and would have lived forever.
“For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.”
Romans 10:5
But after sin the law that normally brings life, brought death, because Adam and Eve were guilty offenders under the death penalty.
“So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.”
Romans 7:10
James explains how the breaking of even one law makes someone corrupt.
“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”
James 2:10-11
If you think about it, it makes sense. You wouldn’t call someone good who is a habitual thief. You wouldn’t say well he’s not as bad as a serial killer so he’s good. His character is obviously very corrupt if he regularly steals as a way of life. Of course there’s no question that the murderer is much more corrupt than the thief, but both the thief and the murderer are corrupt. And if you think about it, both commit acts that violates human rights. One does it to a greater extent and the other to a lesser extent, but they both do it.
People have a right to life because they are made in God’s image and hold a sacred dignity. To kill a being made in God’s image is a violation of a person’s rights and is stealing from God, because that person was created by God and belongs to God. To steal is to go against a person’s right to reap what they sow. The Bible tells us “the worker is worthy of his wages.” (1 Timothy 5:18) And that only those who work have a right to eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
Everywhere in the scriptures God supports this concept that the one who works is to be paid, the one who seeks finds, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. The lazy person who does not work will not eat, the one who does not seek will not find, the one who faints and gets discouraged and gives up, will not reap in due time. All through the scriptures this concept of personal responsibility exists. And for someone to steal something they did not work for is a violation of that person’s rights who worked hard to purchase and own that item.
So neither of these criminals have Christ’s nature of love and goodness. The habitual thief or habitual liar are not Christ-like. They aren’t good just because they haven’t done evil at the level of the evil a murderer has done. It takes more righteousness than that to be said to be good. One must be like God in order to be good. And if you think about it, it really doesn’t make sense to hate murder but not hate stealing. Since both are a violation of human rights and both are principles of hate towards God and man, then if a person hates one they ought to also hate the other.
Thus we can see a congruent moral symmetry in the law of God. Indeed the law is the principles of love found in Christ’s own nature. Christ is the Standard of goodness and love. The law is those same principles that actuate Him. To keep the law is to have Christ’s nature; to break it is to have Satan’s nature.
“He who said do not murder said also do not commit adultery” if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”
James 2:11
The same God that “do not murder” is based on, is the same God that “do not commit adultery” is based on and stems from. To kill is un-Christlike; to commit adultery is un-Christlike. One is not like Christ if they do either or both of these things.
If you think about it perfect obedience is God’s right, as God, and those who violate perfect obedience have no right to live and must be destroyed. If God is truly Sovereign and divine (and He is), and if He is perfect love and absolute moral goodness and perfection, (which He is), then it’s never ok to disobey Him, even on one point. Indeed it’s impossible to imagine a perfect world and a perfect existence where the angels for instance obeyed God 99% of the time and sometimes said no to Him. Glorified Him with their lives 99% of the time, and then told lies and stole from each other 1% of the time. That wouldn’t be heaven at all. That wouldn’t be perfection at all. There’s no way that could be allowed.
Anyone who sins against God cannot live and must die immediately. His Word is law. He is Sovereign. It’s actually really strange that we live in a world where people disobey God and that that could exist. The only reason it exists is because of the war and how Satan needed to be defeated before he could be destroyed. But all sin has always been illegal in God’s universe and it has always carried the death penalty with it. Christ’s blood is the reason we can even be alive to take a breath or have another minute of existence. He pledged to die on our behalf and His death gave the human race a chance to choose God and a life in this world in which to do it.
The high standard shows God’s love for men and angels. He is not willing that any of them should live any other existence other than 100% purity, 100% peace with God. This is needed for our happiness. Even the sins we commit here in this world that we are forgiven by Christ for, cause pain and misery to us. We lament them, and repent of them, and cooperate with God for Him to change us so we commit less of them. We do not enjoy sinning and there is misery in sinning. We of course do experience the peace of God when Christ forgives us, but then we get up the next day and sin some more, bringing more misery. So there’s pain even for the saved Christian in this life. But imagine living eternally in sin without a Savior! Imagine if God allowed some sins and there were angels and humans who God permitted to sin sometimes. All the sins you’d commit over the first few hundred years, would weigh you down and cause so much misery you would probably beg God for death.
The Bible is clear that the wicked, those in their sins without a Savior, are miserable.
“There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.”
Isaiah 48:22
“…thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
Revelation 3:17
“…destruction and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they do not know.”
Romans 3:16,17
We need purity and righteousness in order to be happy. Anything less than 100% purity and 100% righteousness, brings pain and suffering so great such people would beg for death after a certain amount of time.
Thus it is loving for God to make the standard perfection.
Jesus appropriately called the people of His day evil (“If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” Matthew 7:11) Clearly these people did some good acts, like feeding their children, yet Jesus doesn’t call them good; He calls them evil.
The Apostle Paul tells us:
“As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Romans 3:10-12
James explains how strange our condition in this world is, even among the converted:
“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.
My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?
My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”
James 3:10-12
Notice how he says “these things should not be” and explains that really it’s impossible for this to happen. It really doesn’t make sense to bless God and curse your fellow man. If we love God’s law and we hate the principles of evil and love the principles of love, then we ought to hate both forms of wrong, and we ought not to do either. Jesus’ character is congruent. He only does what is good. Ours isn’t and we do both good and evil. Thus our whole character is corrupt (before conversion) and we are thus evil.
We’re really an anomaly in the universe because we do both good and evil. But the Bible is clear that there will come a time when “he who is filthy remain filthy still and he who is holy be holy still.” Revelation 22:11 Earth is in a transitory state, but eventually all people will either be evil like the demons, or holy like the angels, as this is the only state that really makes any sense and which we’re all heading to. Indeed the fig tree will bear only figs and the grapevine will bear only grapes; indeed fresh water only will flow from the spring and not both fresh water and salt water.
The breaking of any commandment is to go against Jesus’ character of love and do something un-Christlike. When Adam did something un-Christlike it wasn’t just an action; He became unlike Christ when He did wrong. His whole nature became corrupt. Adam’s character became fallen and evil because he did something evil and un-Christlike, and he fell from the covenant he had with God.
Someone who is evil can’t live forever – that wouldn’t be right and would immortalize sin and Christ defeated all the works of the devil at the cross – and by doing even one evil act a person loses their Christlikeness and becomes unlike Christ in their nature. Thus God has to destroy them.
But, we know we have a Savior who interposed and stepped in to pay the debt for us, and to live a perfect life on our behalf, in order to offer His righteousness in our place. Since our debt has been paid we can be justified, and since Christ destroyed sin in the flesh and enabled us to have power in our flesh through Him, we can overcome sin in our character, and every day we can become more and more like Him.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Romans 6:14
“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Romans 8:3-4
Praise the Lord for the hope found in Christ!
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
At the heart of this question in many atheists hearts is the desire to sin and not be destroyed for it. To go on in sin without repentance, and without being called into account and face the day of reckoning. It’s a hatred for justice (and also a hatred for true mercy; they want sin to be allowed; they aren’t looking for mercy). And anyone who hates justice (and true mercy) is not speaking from an innocent motive. I don’t think they really understand what they are asking when they desire God to allow Adam and Eve to live after eating the fruit, and for small sins to go under the radar. No one – themselves included – would desire to live forever in sin. While they love sin and hate justice and goodness, the misery it would yield over time would, I believe, cause them to desire death, and to see the goodness in God that He makes the standard what it is and refuses to lower it. His plan is through Christ to forgive us and lift us up out of sin, not to lower the standard.