Since we have already studied the “three parts” of man, let’s look at the impact of sin and death on each of these parts.

The first “part” of man to be touched by the devastating breath of death was the human spirit. Sin shut the windows of the spirit Godward and made it a death chamber.

Ephesians 4:18

having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart

The human spirit, which was created to be sovereign over the human personality, was dethroned by sin and was made a captive, or rather a slave.

Both the soul and body were saturated with sin and were now brought under sin’s control. They each claimed and desired an equal right to the rule of man. Immediately, the effect of sin was the complete reversal of the relationship between the spiritual and the physical in human nature. Man fell from the plane of the spiritual to the plane of the natural.

“In the fall the soul refused the rule of the spirit and became the slave of the body with its appetites. Man became flesh; the spirit lost its destined place of rule, and became little more than a dormant power; it was no longer the ruling principle but a struggling captive. And the spirit now stands in opposition to the flesh, the name for the life of soul and body together in their subjection to sin” (Andrew Murray, The Spirit of Christ, p. 34).

So, the natural man “who is born of the flesh” is flesh. He is of the earth, earthy, and dominated by the flesh rather than by the spirit. The human spirit is now deadened, darkened, and dethroned.

John 3:6

That which is born of the flesh is flesh

1 Corinthians 15:47a

The first man is of the earth, earthy

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Lord, open our eyes to see that we are not what You purposed and intended for us to be.

In Him,

Marion