JESUS' DEATH AND RESURRECTION What They Can Mean for You

"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." -ACTS 16:31.  
Those memorable words were spoken by the apostle Paul and Silas to a jailer in the Macedonian city of Philippi. What do those words mean?  In order to understand how belief in Jesus is linked to salvation from death, we must first learn  why we die. Consider what the Bible teaches.  

Humans were not meant to die

"Jehovah took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to take care of it. Jehovah God also gave this command to the man:  "From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.' " -Genesis 2:15-18.

God place the first man Adam, in the garden of Eden, and earthly paradise filled with abundant wildlife and beautiful vegetation.  There were fruit-bearing trees from which Adam could freely eat. However, Jehovah God clearly told Adam not to eat from one specific tree, warning Adam that if he did, he would die.

Did Adam understand that prohibition? He knew what death was; he had seen animals die. If Adam were created to die eventually, God's warning would have had little meaning. Instead, Adam realized that if he obeyed God and did nto eat from that tree, he would live on endlessly-he would not die. 

Some believe that the tree symbolized sexual relations, but that could not be. After all, Jehovah wanted Adam and his wife, Eve, to  'be fruitful and become many" and to "fill the earth and subdue it." (Genesis 1:28) The prohibition applied to a real tree.  Jehovah called it "the tree of the knowledge of good and bad" because it represented his right to determine what was good or bad for humans.  By not eating the fruit of that tree, Adam would have shown not just his obedience but also his appreciation for the One who created him and who had blessed him so richly. 

Next time: JESUS' DEATH AND RESURRECTION What They Can Mean for You - Adam Died Because He Disobeyed God

From the Watchtower magazine, 2015