God wanted man to love and obey Him, but to make it a meaningful love God gave man the free will to either accept or reject Him.

Before the fall (Genesis 3), man had a close fellowship and communion with God. When sin was introduced into the world through Adam's disobedience, a wedge was driven between them. Sinful man could no longer commune with his sinless God. Sin made man as an enemy of God, and God demands that a penalty be paid for sin:  Romans 6:23a The wages of sin is death;

The death spoken of in Ezekiel is an eternal separation from God in hell. Hell as a place of torment, a place of punishment that never ends. The Bible shows it is a real place, not just a figurative concept (Luke 16:19-31). The reality of hell should be taken as a warning, a sobering thought which should move a person to seriously consider his fate. It is a tragic mistake to rationalize away the existence of hell.

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