Lamech goes on to say that if Cain would be avenged sevenfold, then he should be avenged seventy sevenfold (Gen 4:26)<\/a>.<\/p>\nAs all humans who engage in violence against others, Lamech feels completely justified in his own actions, and believes that any retaliation against him would be completely unjustified. But note how the sevenfold retaliation has already exponentially increased to seventy sevenfold.<\/p>\n
In Genesis 6 we see that this seventy sevenfold vengeance has overtaken the whole earth so that now, everyone is only evil all the time and violence has covered the whole earth (Genesis 6:5, 11). The one thing that God did not want to happen has happened. In Genesis 6 all humans are engaged in violence against all other humans. The earth is suffering from an all-consuming contagion of violence.<\/p>\n
So the overall truth about death in Genesis 2\u20137 is that there are two main types of death.<\/p>\n
One of the physical death which comes upon all people as a result of being blocked from the tree of life. This death is not a curse, but a blessing, as it is the necessary doorway to the resurrection and the glorified bodies that we have for eternity.<\/p>\n
The second form of death, however, is the main concern of God, not only in Genesis 2\u20137, but also in the rest of Scripture. This is the death that comes as a result of violence, and which is closely associated with sin.<\/p>\n
The death that plagues humanity and which Jesus can to rescue and deliver us from is not the primarily the death of humans dying from old age, but the death of humans killing other humans.<\/strong><\/p>\nSin has consequences both to ourselves and others. Yes, we die physically from old age because we have been separated from the tree of life, but we also die (as do others) as a result of the consequences of sinful violence.<\/p>\n
This brings us then to what Paul is teaching in Romans 5.<\/p>\n