"in the day he sinned." His body did not die in that day. (2.) It was not eternal death for the same reason. He certainly went to no endless hell "In the day" of his transgression. It was (3.) a moral, spiritual death, from which recovery is feasible, Paul describes it:
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. Eph. iv: 18. You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Eph. ii: 7.
Jesus describes it in the parable of the Prodigal son:
It was meet that we should merry and be glad; for this, thy brother, was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found. Luke xv: 32. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. Deut. xxx: 15—19.
Adam died this kind of death and no other "in the day" he sinned. The death God threatened was in this life. The devil denied this penalty. If it was any different from that threatened, then the devil told the truth. This penalty is described in the language used toward Adam after he had sinned:
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast harkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou
