The Realm of Death Pt 1

These next 6 parts should be read again and again to get the depth of teaching from Greg Boyd

The Realm of Death

            God warned Adam and Eve that eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would bring death. The serpent denied this and claimed that the fruit of the forbidden tree would bring fullness of life. Believing the serpent rather than God, Adam and Eve violated the boundary between humans and their Creator and sought for more life. But in seeking to find life on their own, they lost it (cf. Matt. 10:39).

            Adam and Eve passed from the realm of life, which is relationship with God, into the realm of death, which is separation from God. They passed from the realm of innocence into the realm of judgment, where the knowledge of good and evil rather than love of God reigns supreme. In the words of Bonhoeffer,

            Man, knowing of good and evil, has . . . torn himself loose from life. . . . Man knows good and evil, against God, against his origin, godlessly and of his own choice, understanding himself according to his own contrary possibilities; and he is cut off from the unifying, reconciling life in God, and is delivered over to death. The secret which man has stolen from God is bringing about man’s downfall.

            The Genesis narrative describes what this realm of death looks like in the fate of Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve abandoned their innocent union with God and were severed from their source, they hid from each other and from God, they deflected their responsibility before God, and they were cursed (while given hope) by God. These are three manifestations of the realm of death Adam and Eve, and all of us, have entered. We shall discuss these three manifestations in this order. This shall set the stage for a discussion in part 4 of how the body of Christ is to overcome these manifestations of death by manifesting life in Christ.