One of those questions that I ask is this: why doesn't God say to our two Eden residents, "As soon as you bite into that fruit, you will die?" Why say, "The day that you eat of the fruit of that tree, you shall surely die?" The first is more to the point, if the sin is eating the fruit.
But the problem is that the eating of the fruit only seals the deal. You have to rebel before you tear the fruit from the tree. The eating of it it is like baptism in reverse. Remember the thing that Satan tells the woman: "He knows that the day that you eat of the fruit of that tree, you shall become gods, knowing good from evil." You have to decide to do something before you do it and in this case the decision is to make oneself god in God's place, is, essentially, to commit treason.
Just as we tell the gospel, "believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved," and then "be baptized," the commitment followed by the act of commitment, so the commitment to the fall came first, followed by the act of commitment. Things had already gone wrong before the first bite. And, just as the act of commitment in baptism concerns going from death to life, the act of commitment in eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil concerns the passing from life to death. So there is death in treason against God, the act only exposes the treason, not only to God but to the treasoners. Good was to remain in relationship to God, rather than betraying Him . And now they knew it full well and that the consequences to them must be severe.
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