Because all of humanity were present in the loins of Adam when he sinned, all men are born into this world soulishly and physically alive, but spiritually dead, without capacity to communicate with or have relationship with God. This is what is meant by being born with Original Sin.

This is also why man cannot save himself. He cannot save himself because anything he does originates out of the initiative of His soul, not by the Holy Spirit through his human spirit which he does not have. Only what is initiated by God through the Holy Spirit through our spirit is pleasing to Him and accepted by Him (Isaiah 30:1). This is why in order for us to be saved God Himself had to take the initiative to save us, and He did by sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.

When we believe on the Gospel and pray and ask Jesus to come into our hearts as Savior and Lord, Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:13-14 that as a result of our faith God automatically gives us His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then unites with our human spirit and brings our spirit back to life and back into communication and relationship with God. This is why Jesus told Nicodemus that in order to enter the kingdom of God he had to be born from-above. When we are born from below, from this earth we are born soulishly and physically alive, but spiritually dead. In order for our spirits to be brought back to life, Jesus said we must be born-again, born from above which means that when we receive Jesus into our hearts as Savior and Lord the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us and regenerates our spirits and brings them back to life and back into relationship with God. This means we are then able to receive again His will and plans for our lives by the Holy Spirit through our human spirits. We are then again able to be motivated and controlled by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit. Thus the damage done in the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve is reversed and God’s intended order for man is restored which is to be led, motivated and controlled by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit, not through the initiative of our soulish or fleshly desires.

Being motivated and controlled by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit, however, does not mean that we are now zombies anymore than it did for Adam and Eve. When we received Jesus into our hearts our spirits were brought back to life so we could receive from God His will and plan for our lives, but we can still with our soul chose not to obey Jesus’ revealed will to us. This then is what Paul means by a Fleshly-Christian: he is referring to a born again Christian who is choosing to act out of the initiative of his soul: his intellect and feelings and his flesh: his appetite and desires rather than to submit himself to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit through his human Spirit. Thus a spiritual-man is a Christian who is choosing to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit through His spirit where as a fleshly-man is a Christian who is choosing to follow his own soulish and fleshly desires.

LE: Often times, John, a Christian does not know how or when he is living by the Holy Spirit through his human spirit or just out of the initiative and control of his soul. This then is the plight of the fleshly-Christian.

The problem with the fleshly Christian is that he is trying to live the Christian life in the power of the Flesh which means that he is trying to overcome his problems through the strength of the flesh. The Apostle Paul Himself tried to live the Christian life in this way. 

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What was the end result? He wrote:

"For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish." (Rom 7:18-19)

Paul tells us that no matter how hard he tried to live the Christian life in his own strength, he failed; so much so that he screamed out in frustration: "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24). Paul found that trying to live the Christian life in the strength of the flesh was not possible.

The Bible Teaches us that the flesh is "sold into bondage to sin" (Rom 7:14).  When we try to overcome a problem in the strength of the flesh, we energize the flesh. Because the flesh is in bondage to sin, when we energize it we strengthen the flesh to sin. What does this mean? It means that even though temporarily you appear to be making progress in overcoming the problems of your flesh, in the end you will find yourself in deeper bondage to those problems.

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Why is this true? The Apostle Paul tells us why:

"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." (Rom 8:6-7)

Paul explains to us that to try and overcome our problems in the flesh will not work and will not please God. Why? Because God knows it will not lead to overcoming the problems of our flesh. It is a lost cause. God through Paul instructs us to give it up.

Another reason why we are not able to change ourselves or overcome our problems in the flesh is because the flesh has no life in itself to change itself. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who creates-life, the flesh profits nothing." (John 6:63)

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Not through our strength but through Jesus’ strength. The Apostle Paul wrote: "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might" (Eph 6:10). Jesus does not want us to try and overcome our problems in our strength but in His strength.

"If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).

"Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins." (Ecclesiastes 7:20)

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Jesus does not give us this truth in His word to encourage us to sin but so we will face ourselves realistically. No matter how long we know the Lord, whether we want to or not we are going to sin.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

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"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit." (Eph 5:18)