There it is. Cause-and-effect. Sin is the cause of death. Just as surely as sin is an absolute, if one sins, death will be the absolute effect. Do you believe that? It is so important that God put it in the second chapter, and it is one of the first instructions that God gives to mankind.
Let us expand on this, just a little bit. Encompassed within an understanding of this principle here of Genesis 2 also shows why civilization is the way that it is today. We cannot blame the way civilization is on Adam and Eve, we cannot blame all the filth out there, we cannot blame war on them, we cannot blame disease on them, we cannot blame all the things that go wrong in relationships on them, and the reason is expressed to us in Romans 5.
Their fault was they introduced sin, but did we have to do what they did? Nowhere is it written that we had to do what they did, but like them, we did do as they did, we sinned.
Our sins were not exactly the same as Adam and Eve's, but because that principle is at work - cause-and-effect - when we sin, we reap the effect. Just as surely as the horse comes first that - is, in this case - in the typology, sin comes first, and it is absolute that death is going to follow right behind it, just the way a cart follows the horse. We are just as much to blame as Adam and Eve.
How can this be changed is man's challenge. That is what God has challenged us with. How can this be changed? Mankind, seeing the effect in civilization, may not blame it on sin, they may blame it on crime, they may blame it on other processes, but they do see that there is something wrong. They may even go so far as to see that there is something wrong with human nature, but they never put the blame in the right place and the reason is because they do not understand really where to put the blame.
Let me ask you something. Did being in the Garden of Eden, which must have been the most beautiful environment anybody ever in the history of the world ever lived in, stop Adam and Eve from sinning? It is not the environment's problem; the problem is in man's spirit. Change has to be produced from the inside out. If change is produced on the inside, you are getting the horse before the cart, which is the right way, then the environment will change in the right way, because the people who are changed on the inside will change it. The environment is merely a reflection of what is coming up from the inside of people.
There is a problem, because God has mercifully arranged His spiritual and moral laws in such a way that they proceed toward their effect at a much slower manner, which allows time for changes to take place within us as we learn to use them. If death resulted immediately from sin, God's whole purpose would have ended in the Garden of Eden. That is all she wrote. As soon as Eve touched the fruit and picked whatever it was off the tree, that was it. But that is not the way moral and spiritual law works.
The governor issues instructions and laws for the governed (in this case, mankind) to be edified and submitted to so that there will be order, and the governed will be prepared toward the completion of God's goal.
Do you see how everything is unfolding? Do you see how we are seeing the right and proper uses of government? Fathers and mothers, are you doing this in your home? We will continue, because here is the great Governor unfolding the purposes of government for all of mankind to see. We see here, clearly, that one of the functions of government is to educate its people. You see, to edify. He instructed them. Also to give laws, which would maintain order and aid in the completion of the goal (or purpose) that is being worked out. That is a major function of government!
Now, in this case, God is doing this so that mankind's conduct and goals will be in harmony with God's purpose. God is also showing us, in broad strokes, some of the major purposes of right government, and that is, to edify and to guide. Of course, He also warns of penalties (and in this case, a penalty) that may come.
We begin to see a fulfilling of the instruction that God undoubtedly gave them as a part of what we see there in Genesis 2:16-17 - which I am sure is just an encapsulation of all of the other instruction that He also gave them. What we see in chapter 3 is an unfolding of the result that takes place whenever lawbreaking occurs. And we see again the reaction of the supreme Governor of everything; and He shows us, then, another function of government in the way that He reacts.
In order to maintain that fellowship, God instructed the man and the woman regarding the trees in the Garden of Eden. They could eat of all of them except for one special one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they did eat of that tree, they would die. They did eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and thus sin was introduced into Eden, right into the environment in which the relationship was to take place. They brought it right home.
Sin was introduced, and it destroyed the relationship, and so God drove them out. God drove them out. Practically every picture or painting you see shows God kind of leading them out. No! He drove them out! It implies a punishing anger, that their relationship was broken. Right at the very beginning we have a huge major principle: Sin destroys relationships. That is the principle. Sin produces separation.
To understand this a little bit further, it is good to understand that at the heart of sin the central concept is a sense of failure. It is a specific kind of failure, or a failure that produces a specific result, a specific fruit. Genesis 2 and 3 teach us that sin is a failure to maintain a relationship - first with God, and secondarily with man. Sin produces separation - first with God, and secondarily with man. Eventually sin produces death - the first death, and the ultimate separation from which there can never be a relationship, the second death.
In addition to being separated from fellowship with God, they were also separated from the tree of life and access to the Holy Spirit.