God has passed judgment, showing His justice, and He has clothed Adam and Eve, showing His mercy, but now He follows through with His sentencing, banishing them from the garden. Because of man's disobedience, he cannot remain in paradise, enjoying a perfect relationship with God and eternal life. He is sent out of the garden to cultivate the ground, and the garden is placed under an armed guard so that man no longer has access to the tree of life.
God is consistent in what He says. He told the man in the beginning that he was free to eat form any tree in the garden but the one in the middle. If he disobeyed and ate from that tree, he would die. Man ate the fruit and death came. God passed judgment, and though He showed mercy, He did not allow sin to go unpunished. Because God is just, God has to be consistent; if He is inconsistent He is not just. Man sinned and as a result man was driven from the garden. They had been given eternal life, it was theirs to accept or reject, that was their choice, and they chose to reject it. When that happened, they were cut off from the source of eternal life.
God does what He says He will do. He punishes sin and blesses righteousness; He honors obedience and reproaches disobedience. God gives grace and He holds us accountable for our actions. God is consistent in all that He does, and everything He does lines up with His character.
Fight the lion, 1 Peter 5.1-11
TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!
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