This declaration is filled with grace and mercy! God could easily have let this happen and He would have been perfectly just. In mercy, he saves mankind from committing a fatal mistake, one from which apparently there would have been no possible redemption, as indicated by His statement that he would live forever. Yes, man would have been immortal and eternal, but he would have been eternally dead. How kind and loving is our great God to protect us from ourselves! He did it then and He still does in the lives of His children as most of us could testify!