Wow, I go on vacation and you guys go hog wild. These are great. I am going to have to read them soon and see if I even need to give my answer I anticipated to write about From what I have read so far, my opinion on this issue is represented well!

Thanks.

Since Michael remains silent, maybe someone needs to define “death.” I get the feeling we’re not always talking on the same level or about the same thing.

For me, it means separation and not cessation. If this is the case, then Adam and Jesus could have physically died but not suffered any separation: the spirit and the body would have remained a unity and both (the spirit and the body) would have immediately entered into the presence of God.

The wages of sin are, indeed, death; death, however, is the separation of the spirit from God (spiritual death) and from the body (physical death). Since the Fall, if the latter occurs while the former exists, then eternal death – separation – obtains.

But, as has been mentioned, this is all speculative and perhaps of limited heuristic value.

What I suspect would have happened had the Jewish leaders received Christ as the nation’s Messiah is that someone (like me) would have said, “Hey, if He is the Messiah, why wait? Let’s kill Him now and bring in the Kingdom!”

And we wind up in the same situation today anyway.

Adam was not forbidden from eating from the tree of life. Prohibition (on eating from it) was not put in place until after the fall.

Spiritual and physical death was a direct result of sin. Doing a little speculating here but, Adam’s hiding from God may have been more than just shame for what he did but fear of physical death.

To restate my answer (from an earlier post) to the overall question is Christ would have died regardless of method or when because the scriptures foretold he would die. So had it not been then it would have been later.

I would also have to say that Jesus would have continued to live. If the wages of sin are death and all adam’s seed have fallen through adam, then it only makes sense that Christ had to be conceived by the work of Holy Spirit so that He would not be born fallen as according to the seed of adam, but rather He would have a fleshy nature in that He was human. Because His patriarchal lineage comes from God directly instead of adam, it is only reasonable to assume that He would not be under the curse of adam’s seed.

Samson:

You are assuming (perhaps correctly but perhaps not) that Adam would not have died had he remained obedient for an unknown period of time. But what of the tree of Life in the Garden? After the Fall, the angels were to keep him from eating of the tree and living forever in a fallen state. If Adam was created to never die, what was the purpose of the tree of Life? Was Adam to eat the fruit as a reward for obedience? Even if that were the case, then it still implies that Adam was not capable of eternal life apart from something being added to him subsequent to his perfect creation.

Is it not possible that, following his obedience, Adam would have eaten from the tree of Life and been translated into heaven (as were Enoch and Elijah)? Or, to put it in Catholic terminology, Adam would have been assumed into heaven.

Death as we know it is only unnatural in that it causes the separation of the spirit from the body, something God did not intend or desire. But translation or assumption avoids such a separation: the body and the spirit remain unified and enter heaven simultaneously.

Remember, too, that it is not death that Satan uses against us but the fear of death. There is a difference.

Samson – that’s what I was thinking…

Well, since nobody is taking the “no” approach, I guess I’ll give it a
shot.

No, Jesus would not have died. The affects of sin or sin itself is not
what qualifies someone for personhood within humanity. If we take
this view then Adam was not human and could not have represented
us until after the fall. Jesus was argueably more human from a purity
state than we are. Therefore we have no reason to believe that He
or Adam would ever die unless sin was cursed upon them. When we
willfully sinned with Adam our death was inevitable. When Christ
took our sin upon Himself; death was inevitable.

If we look at the courtroom analogy of salvation the fine that is imputed
to the innocent must be paid even as though he committed the crime
himself.

Therefore NO! If Jesus was not killed he would still be alive on the earth
today and you would still be dead in your sins with no hope of
reconciliation.

To respectfully disagree with a couple of the replies posted here Christ was not subject to the effects of sin like we are. In him was found no sin, He knew no sin or made of the flrsh but without sin these are descriptons that the scriptures give him so the logical conclusion is that since the wages of sin is death and he was nitunder the bondage of sin like us he would not be under it’s penalty.

Christ took on human form because ot was the plan for the one who knew no sin to be made sin for us. The reason for him to become fully human was redemption so he would have died a sacrificial death not a natural one. My answer then is if he lived to an old age he still would have died but not by natural causes.

Scripture pointed to it so there is no getting around it age is inconsequential.

Fun little blog question. It seems the simplest answer has been already stated and I would affirm that yes, He would have physically died from natural causes.

But I think some clarification is needed. Firstly, sin is imputed to us through Adam at our birth and we are therefore spiritually dead when we are born. This imputation of sin was and still is passed along through the seed of man (i.e. in procreation between a man and a woman) (Romans 5:12). Yet, Jesus was not procreated through the seed of fallen man, but by the Spirit of God (Matthew 1:20-25). Thus the virgin birth is a crucial doctrine to the perfection of Christ.

Secondly if Jesus could “pass through” the angry mobs and crowds that sought his life (John 7:30), I think it is more than reasonable to assume that His Father was able to keep Him from getting sick or dying until it was His time. This is evident when God sent an angel to instruct Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to flee from Herod. (Matthew 2:13)

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), yet Jesus (His physical body not His Personhood within the Godhead) was created and is subjected to futility, and since Jesus physical body was a part of that creation (once again I am not saying Jesus was a created Being, in regard to His Personhood, just His material body on earth) His physical body was subjected to that futility as a result of Adams sin just like the rest of creation. (Romans 8:19-22)

Hopefully I haven’t committed any blaspheme here lol, hope this helps the discussion.

Oops.

OK, Jesus couldn’t have presided at His own Sacrifice in the earthly temple: He wasn’t a Levite. But He could still offer Himself willingly to the knives of the priests.

Amazing.