Why Did Adam Not Die The Day He Sinned?

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Gen. 2: 17 kjv)

Many people struggle with the fact that on the day Adam and Eve sinned they did not physically die. Some therefore think that physical death is not a punishment for sin. Pelagians have said that Adam and Eve would have died had they never sinned. Some Christians deny that all are born in sin and die because they are accounted sinners. Babies, they say, die and yet they are not sinners. All this is wrong however. Physical death is indeed a penalty for the "original sin" of Adam. (Rom. chapter five) 

Some take the view that by the words "you shall surely die" means "dying you shall surely die," denoting that the death process had begun, understanding the Hebrew words to be an idiom. I think that is true.

People who are dying, but who are not yet dead (physically speaking), may be said to be already dead. We see this in the following words of the apostle Paul.

"And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Rom. 8: 10, 11)

Paul said that the bodies of the believers in Rome were already dead because of sin. Death is continuous throughout life. We are born to die. Paul did not say -- "your body will die in the future because of sin." So, Adam and Eve did die physically the day they sinned. Of the day they sinned it may be said "their bodies are dead because of sin." 

So Adam did die physically the day he sinned. Of him it may be said that he was dead even while he lived. (See I Tim. 5: 6) Of course, they also died in spirit and soul, or died spiritually and eternally.