The difference between life and death Gen. 3:14-24

2 Corinthians 5:8-9English Standard Version (ESV)

^"8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.⁹ So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him."

We have arrived at the end of the beginning.
Adam and Eve set us to wondering many things...feeling many things...
but above all,
I leave this study feeling simultaneous grief and awe.
God offered the richness of His love and the fulness of His life; but Adam and Eve were under-awed, under-whelmed
and way over-inflated.
They would not maintain marital unity and intimacy without God.
They would not find lasting purpose in life apart from God.
They could not continue on in their isolated condition, eternally the walking dead.
No
No
No
Death was never intended to be a part of life.
Man and woman chose death when they turned inward, closing themselves off from the life-giver,
like a flower that won't drink the rain
or a tree that won't look to the sun.

But the love God made man to share in is
Indefatigable
He will never say
"You've tried my last nerve!"
He pursues relentlessly
for He walked in the garden
Father, Son, Holy Spirit
offering inclusion
to man.
The plans God made man to share in are
Inalterable
He will never be overcome.
The Father said -

"Serpent, eat dust

Satan, be crushed

Woman, life through pain 

Man, pain through life...

Son, win them back."

and His death redeemed our life.

1 Cor. 15:21-22, 54c "For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive...'Death is swallowed up in victory."

Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden.
Riveted to the gate that closed behind them, The Father drew their eyes to gate that opened ahead.

For this earth and these bodies and all that they are bound to are done away with at death and we are freed...
in Christ.

What kind of a God takes on the form of His own creation to be with them?
What kind of a God subjects His own life to suffering for the sake of ones by whom He's been rejected?
What kind of a God uproots the natural order to upturn the spiritual...and bring us back to Him?

Our God.
He makes the difference between life and death.

^"6-8 That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.10

...Sooner or later we’ll all have to face God. "

2 Corinthians 5:8-10The Message (MSG)