When God put Adam in the Garden of Eden he "commanded the man" (Ge 2:16) "from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die" (:17). However, Adam violated the command. "Through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners" (Ro 5:19). The result was "through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin" (:12). Then "death spread to all men" (:12) because "in Adam all die" (1Co 15:22). Sin is the culprit because "the sting of death is sin" (1Co 15:56). "The wages of sin is death" (Ro 6:23). Therefore "sin reigned in death" (5:21) and "death reigned" (:17). "Death works in us" (2Co 4:12). "They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds" (Ps 14:1). "They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one" (:3). But even though "the wise man and the fool alike die" (Eccl 2:16), you should consider "him who had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb 2:14). There was a "certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us" (Col 2:14).
Jesus told them, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin'" (Jn 8:34). Being a slave means you are not free as Israel was in "the house of slavery" (Ex 13:13) in Egypt. It has a more serious meaning because the devil has "the power of death" (Heb 2:14). At the judgment "death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire" (Rev 20:14). But before that people were under "the power of Sheol" (Ps 49:15) which resulted in "going to the pit" (Job 33:28). Therefore, you have to be rescued in order to be free. But "No man can by any means redeem his brother or give God a ransom for him--for the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever" (Ps 49:7-8).