“And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).

The tension between God’s word 'You shall die’ and Satan’s counterfeit promise ‘You certainly will not die’ was not restricted to the garden of Eden. It has echoed throughout history.

Many people try to harmonize the words of Satan with the words of God. For them, the warning, ‘You shall die’ refers only to the perishable physical body while the promise ‘You certainly will not die' is an allusion to an immortal soul or spirit.

But this approach doesn’t work. For example, can contradictory words of God and Satan be harmonized? Is there an immaterial soul or spirit that consciously survive physical death? There are many philosophical and even scientific attempts to answer these questions. But as Bible-based Christians, we must recognize that only the Almighty God, the one who created us, knows us perfectly (Psalm 139). Thus, only in His words to us, can we find answers to these crucial questions.

The Genesis account declares that on the sixth day of Creation week the Lord God brought to life land and animals and the first human beings, a couple. We are told that He formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He also formed a man from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7)

Genesis 2:7 explains that the infusion of the breath of life into the physical body of Adam transformed him into a living being. It means that each of us does not have a soul that can exist apart from the body.

Human life in this sinful world is fragile and transitory. Nothing infected by sin can be eternal by nature. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned”.

Echoing this warning, the Lord reinforces the point in Ezekiel 18:4-20. “The soul who sin shall surely die”.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 tells us that the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

To the believer, death is but a small matter. Death is but a sleep, a moment of silence and darkness. The life is hidden with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (John 8:51-52).