Adam and Eve had never partaken of the Tree of Life. After they rebelled against God, God sent two righteous angels to prevent Adam and Eve’s access to the Tree of Life to ensure that they and their offspring would not “live forever” physically (Genesis 3:22–24). The rest of the Bible, especially the New Testament, makes it clear that physical death is a crucial component of redemption. Obviously, the physical death of the Creator, the Son of God, is the most critical component. Humans’ physical death plays a role in that it limits the spread of evil among humans.

Evil is like cancer. It can become malignant. Once evil takes hold in a human, that person can infect others (Romans 1:32). God restrains the spread of evil by placing a time limit on how long humans can physically live on Earth. The early chapters of Genesis demonstrate what happens when the time limit is too long. Apparently, a maximum human life span of about 120 years (Genesis 6:3) is optimal for granting righteous humans adequate time for establishing their faith and righteousness before God and others while ensuring that evil is adequately restrained. Since angels do not experience physical death, there is no redemptive means available for the angels who chose to side with Satan’s rebellion.