Genesis 2:16-17 16 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."
Notice that God DOES NOT tell Adam IF you eat from it you will surely die. God commands Adam not to eat of the fruit and tells him that in the day he eats of it he will surely die.
Notice that God does not tell Adam that he will “die on the day he eats of the fruit” but that in the day he eats of it he will die, or that death will be a certainty (מוּת מוּת or transliterated muth muth, die die). From the point of the command to Adam’s sin death was in the balance, hanging out just beyond the frame. Once Adam disobeys death will enter the world (at least the world of man).
Genesis 3:17-19 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."
Adam ate of the fruit.
What was the consequences of Adam’s disobedience? 1. The ground was cursed and Adam would have to work to eat of it. 2. Adam would return to the dust from which he was taken (Adam would die and his body would decay).
What change(s) happened to Adam?
Genesis 3:22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"—
Adam became like God knowing good and evil.
What did God do because of this change?
Genesis 3:23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
Adam was sent out of the Garden and back to the ground from which Adam was made (remember, Adam was not created in the Garden but outside of the Garden and then placed in it).