After the man and woman sin in the Garden of Eden, God intensifies both their longings and their limits, but he does not curse them. Then God reminds them of the fact that some day they will die, not because they have sinned, but simply because death is a limit built into human existence. The serpent had promised them they would not die, but the serpent lied to them. The man and woman were always destined to die eventually, from the very beginning. Death is not God's curse upon us, nor is death God's way of punishing us for our sins.
Death is simply part of life itself.
T he trouble is that we keep forgetting that. We keep falling for the serpent's line that we will not die. As children we often assume that our parents and grandparents will never die. As teenagers we sometimes drive cars and experiment with alcohol and drugs as though we are immortal and therefore indestructible. As young adults we frequently court danger in the lifestyles and personal habits we pursue, because the reality of our own death has been shoved completely out of our consciousness.