The word "mortal," as used in that ancient question by Eliphaz, describes man's nature: "Shall mortal man be more just than God?" Job 4:17. In the creation, life was conditional upon the creature's relation to Christ the Creator, in whom all things consist: "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life." John 1:3,4. He was, and is, as the psalmist says, "the fountain of life." Cut off from vital connection with Him, there could be no continuance of life. The Lord warned Adam that his life was conditional upon obedience. "In the day that thou eatest thereof," He said of the forbidden tree, "thou shalt surely die." Gen. 2:17. It was a declaration that man was not immortal, but was dependent upon God for life. When by unbelief and sin man rejected God, the sentence--death eternal--must have been executed had not the plan of salvation intervened. But as the stroke of divine justice was falling upon the sinner, the Son of God interposed Himself and received the blow. "He was bruised for our iniquities." In the divine plan, the great sacrifice for man was as sure then as when, later, it was actually made on Calvary. Christ was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." And there Adam, the sinner, now with a fallen human nature, which would be perpetuated in his descendants in all subsequent time, was granted an extension of life, every moment of which, whether for him or for his posterity, was the purchase of Christ by His own death, in order that in this time of probation man might find forgiveness of sin and assurance of life to come. Adam was not created immortal, but was placed on probation, and had he continued faithful, the gift of immortality must have been given him at some later time, after he had passed the test. As the original plan is carried out through Christ, "the second Adam," the gift of immortality is bestowed finally upon all who pass the test of the judgment and are found in Christ, in whom alone is life. Having fallen, Adam, now possessed of a sinful nature, must die. "The wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23. It was impossible that sin or sinners should be immortalized in God's universe. So, inasmuch as the tree of life in Eden had been made the channel of continuance of life to man, the Lord said: "Now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden." Gen. 3:22, 23. This negatives the idea that there could ever be an immortal sinner, who should mar God's creation forever. Sin works out nothing but death. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15. Fallen himself, Adam could bequeath to his posterity only a fallen, mortal nature. So began the sad history summed up in the text: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5:12. Mortality Universal