Chapter 6

Anthropology:
The Creation, Constitution
& Fall of Man

Moses, in Genesis 2:7 gives the following account of the creation of man:

"Then Yehovah Elohim formed Adam of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the spirit of lives; and Adam became a living soul."³⁷⁸

In this verse Moses tells us how God created Man: First, He formed man’s body from the dust of the earth. Second, God breathed into man not just life but the spirit of lives. The noun is plural lives³⁷⁵ not life.³⁷⁴ When man’s living spirit combined with the body, the body came to life and a self-conscious living soul was created. Thus, man has three kinds of life: a living spirit, a living soul and a living physical body. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Jesse Penn-Lewis, in her book Soul & Spirit, says the following about the constitution of man:

"Tertullian, one of the Church Fathers who wrote in the early centuries of the Christian era, calls the ‘flesh’—or physical being—‘the body of the soul’, and the soul ‘the vessel of the spirit.’ The soul stands between the spirit and the body, for ‘direct communication between spirit and flesh is impossible; their intercourse can be carried on only by means of a medium’—the soul being that medium."^52/138

Man’s Soul is the medium between the spiritual and the physical world. Man receives information in his soul from both the spiritual and the physical world, but it is the soul that decides how it is going to use that information. Neither the spiritual realm nor the physical realm can make man do anything. It is man’s soul which chooses his destiny.

This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 16:24-25 when he said:

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his soul shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul for My sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Jesus tells us in this passage that if we insist on hanging onto our soul-life: our purpose, vocation and destiny in life, we will lose our souls. This means that we will never know the purpose, vocation and destiny in life Jesus created us to have. The person who rejects Jesus as Lord of his life and destiny, when he dies, will go into eternity never knowing who he really was. He will lose the soul-life Jesus intended for him to have and will forever lose any means of expressing and carrying out the soul-life he wanted to have. This is because Jesus is our source of life, existence and this world and all we enjoy in this world.

Jesus gives us 70 years to decide whether we want to have relationship with Him or not. Because He gives us the freedom of choice as to whether to have relationship with Him or not, if we reject Him until we die, He then honors our choice of rejection of Him and separates Himself and all He would have given to us if we chose relationship with Him. The problem, though, is that He is our source of life and all that is. Therefore to be separated from Him is to be separated from everything that is. All that is left is our self-conscious awareness of existence in a fiery black darkness forever with no possible means of ever being able to develop, express or fulfill our soul desires again because without Jesus there is no means because He is the means.

Jesus created man dependent on three kinds of life that are recorded in the First Epistle of John 3:14-17.

"We know that we have passed out of spiritual-death into spiritual-life³⁵³, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in spiritual-death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal spiritual-life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His soul³⁷⁰ for us; and we ought to lay down our souls for the brethren. But whoever has the biological-means-of-life,³⁷¹ and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?"

These three kinds of life are the following:

"Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal spiritual-life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him God the Father has set His seal." (John 6:27)

Moses gives us further insight into the creation of man in Genesis 1:26-27

"Then Elohim said, Let Us make man in Our image³⁸³, according to Our likeness³³⁶; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And Elohim created man in His own image, in the image of Elohim He created him; male³⁸⁴ and female³⁸⁵ He created them."

In this passage, Moses tells us many things about man:

1. First, man was created in God’s image and according to His likeness.

2. Second, God created man to rule over the created creatures of the earth and to subdue the earth.

3. Third, God created Man male and female.

4. Fourth, God created man to have children and fill the earth.

First, in this passage, Moses tells us that not only did God create man a spirit, soul and body, but that He created man in His own image and according to His likeness. This means many things. First, the Bible teaches us that God is Spirit. Jesus said in John 4:24, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." God created us a spirit, soul and body, we have a living spirit like God.

Second the Bible teaches us that God’s spirit is invisible to us. The Apostle John wrote in John 1:18, "No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, that one has revealed Him." God’s true self is invisible to us. What we know about God we know through the incarnation of His Son Jesus Christ and through His Word the Bible. Our true self, our spirit, is also invisible to us. Only in the spiritual realm can we see our true self. In this physical life our true self is hidden from us and from others.

Finally, Paul teaches us in 1 Timothy 1:17 that God is immortal: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen." Our spirit and soul are also immortal. In this sense we are created in God’s image with one difference: While we had a beginning, God had no beginning but is eternal as well as immortal. When God created us, He created us to live forever.

Second, being created in God’s image means that man’s inner constitution operates the same way God’s does with two differences: God’s is infinite and man’s is finite, and God’s is independent but man is dependent on God. This is why we are able to communicate with and have a relationship with God because our inward workings are the same as His. Just as God has intellect, emotion and will, so we have intellect, emotion and will.

Third, being created in God’s image also means that like God man is a trinity. There is only one true God from eternity past of one essence manifested in three Persons: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Is 43:10-11, Matt 28:19). A created human being is a trinity of spirit and soul and body. God’s nature is infinite, but man’s is finite and dependent on God. There is only one God. Man is a created creature of God and will never be God as Isaiah 43:10-11 clearly brings out,

"‘You are My witnesses,’ declares Yehovah, ‘And My servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no El formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am Yehovah; and there is no Savior besides Me.’"

Fourth, being created in God’s image means man was created with the moral righteousness of God ruling over him through his spirit. Watchman Nee in His book The Latent Power of the Soul explains what this means:

"The words ‘image’ and ‘likeness’ may seem to be alike in meaning and may therefore appear repetitious. But in Hebrew the word ‘image’ does not point to physical likeness, rather it denotes moral or spiritual similarity. Someone has put it as: ‘change into likeness’; that is, ‘to be conformed to a likeness’ The purpose in God creating man is for man to be transformed according to His image, God wanted Adam to be like Him." ^74/18

The Apostle Paul confirms this in Ephesians 4:24 when talking about what takes place in the born again experience of a Christian. He writes, "and put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." To be created in God’s Image means to be created in the image of His moral righteousness. The reason why Adam and Eve were able to have perfect unhindered fellowship with God was because they were ruled by the moral righteousness of God through their spirits; but it also means that God created man with a free will which meant if he so chose he could rebel against God and sever his relationship with God.

To be ruled by the moral righteousness of God means to be motivated and controlled by the Holy Spirit through one’s human spirit³⁶⁷ rather than by one’s soul,³⁵⁹ through one’s intellect and feelings; or flesh,³⁸⁶ through one’s physical lusts and desires. The Apostle Paul describes this clearly in 1 Corinthians 2:9-15 and 3:1-3,

"But just as it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a man who is motivated-and-controlled-through-his-soul³⁵⁹ does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are discerned³⁸⁷ through the spirit. But he who is motivated-and-controlled-through-his-spirit³⁶⁷ discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no man."

"And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to men motivated-and-controlled-through-his-spirit, but as to men motivated-and- controlled-through-his-flesh,³⁸⁶ as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still motivated-and-controlled-through-the-flesh. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not motivated-and-controlled-through-the-flesh, and are you not walking like mere men?"

Jude also talks about this in Jude 1:19, "These are the ones who cause divisions, motivated-and-controlled-through-their-soul, devoid of Spirit." When a congregation of believers is allowing themselves to be motivated and controlled by the Holy Spirit through their human spirits there is unity. This is because Jesus does not work against Himself. "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Cor. 3:17).

This is why the secular humanistic Freudian approach to psychology is dangerous and in error; it only focuses on man’s soul and body and completely ignores the spiritual aspect of man. It is in error because it focuses on Man period. All of man’s problems center in what he allows to be the motivating factor in His life: God through his human spirit, or man’s soul or his flesh. God never intended for man to be motivated and con-trolled through his soul or flesh but by the Holy Spirit through his human spirit. He also intended for his ministers to only lead and teach by His counsel by the Holy Spirit through their Human spirit.

"‘Woe to the rebellious children,’ declares Yehovah,²⁹⁸ ‘Who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin.’" (Isaiah 30:1)

"But if they had stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people, and would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds." (Jer 23:22)

"‘Has a nation changed els [gods], when they were not els? But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate,’ declares Yehovah. ‘For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. . . . Your own wickedness will correct you, and your apostasies will reprove you; know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake Yehovah-your-Elohim, and the dread of Me is not in you,’ declares Adonai [Lord]-Yehovah-of-hosts.³⁸⁸" (Jer 2:11-13, 19)

Second, God created man to rule over the created creatures of the earth and to subdue the earth. The Bible plainly tells us that man is superior and in authority over all other creatures on the earth. The Bible also states that God has given man rule over the elements of the earth. But note what God’s intention is in this rule in Genesis 2:15, "Then Yehovah Elohim²⁹⁷ took the man and put him into the garden of Eden³⁹⁰ to cultivate⁴⁷⁹ it and keep it." God’s intended rule for man over the earth was not to abuse and pollute it, but to cultivate and keep it.

Third, God created man male³⁹² and female.³⁸⁵ Note that the term Man³⁷⁸ in the Bible is a neutral term. The term Man is neither male nor female but both. The term Man in the Bible is the name given to the human race of males and females. So when a Christian talks about man in the Biblical sense, he means both male and female, the whole human race.

Fourth, God created man to have children and fill the earth. God so created us that we are able to take part in his creating us: the conceiving and bearing of children. But did God create sex for the bearing of children? What does the Bible say? We read in Genesis 2:18, 21-25,

"And Yehovah Elohim said, ‘It is not good, Adam being alone; I will make a helper corresponding to him.’ . . . And Yehovah Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs³⁹² and closed up the flesh underneath. And Yehovah Elohim constructed the rib which He had taken from Adam into a woman, and brought her into Adam. And Adam said, ‘This now at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh! For this shall be called woman³⁹³, because this has been taken out of man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed."

God first created man and woman for their enjoyment together. God is not against sex, He created it, but only between a man and a woman and then only as husband and wife in marriage. Children, the result of sex, are a secondary intention in the act of sex. Sex is God giving husband and wife a means of oneness in the greatest physical way for a man and woman to meet, "... and they shall become one flesh." The Bible teaches us that the act of sexual intercourse makes the man and the woman one flesh, no longer two. This is why the Apostle Paul admonishes us in 1 Corinthians 6:15-16,

"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, ‘The two will become one flesh.’"

Sex in any other context except between a husband and wife, meaning between a man and a woman in marriage, is clearly condemned in the Bible.³⁹⁴

"If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. If there is a man who lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death, their bloodguiltiness is upon them. If there is a man who lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed incest, their bloodguiltiness is upon them." (Lev 20:10-12)

"If there is a man who lies with his uncle’s wife he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin. They shall die childless. If there is a man who takes his brother’s wife, it is abhorrent; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless." (Lev 20:20-21)

"If there is a man who lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death; you shall also kill the animal. If there is a woman who approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them." (Lev 20:15-16)

"You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." (Lev 18:22)

"If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them." (Lev 20:13)

"If there is a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is immorality; both he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no immorality in your midst." (Lev 20:14)

"If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he bears his guilt." (Lev 20:17)

"You shall also not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for such a one has made naked his blood relative; they shall bear their guilt." (Lev 20:19)

"But this is Old Testament stuff!"

Is it? What does the New Testament say on the subject? Jesus said the following:

"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man." (Matt 15:18-20).

In Evangelism on the field I have had people say to me that there is nothing in the Old Testament which teaches you cannot live and have sex with someone outside the bounds of marriage. What does the Old Testament teach on the subject? Exodus 22:16 states the following: "And if a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged, and lies with her, he must pay a dowry for her to be his wife." The Bible is clear, if you lie with a virgin, you must marry her, take her as your wife. Others will say that what Moses means here is only if they are not engaged. This is not what Moses is saying. In Hebrew Culture to be engaged was the same as marriage except for the consummation of the marriage: sexual intercourse. If a woman was engaged, she was to be treated the same as a married woman having sex with someone other than her spouse. The penalty for both consenting parties was death by stoning (Lev 20:10). Exodus 20:14, number 5 of the 10 commandments, states the following, "You shall not commit adultery."⁴⁸⁰

Matthew records in the book of Matthew that when Joseph found that Mary was pregnant with child that he sought to put her away. He sought to put her away because he had not had sexual relations with Mary and therefore knew the child was not his. As he was contemplating this Matthew tells us that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife because she was not pregnant because she had committed fornication with another man, but that her conception was through the Holy Spirit. As a result not only did Joseph take Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin, did not have sexual intercourse with her, consummate the marriage, until after Jesus was born (Matt 1:24-25).

What is the point of all this? Moses in Exodus 22:16 tells us plainly that if you have intercourse with a woman you are to marry her. She is now your wife. Joseph did not have relations with Mary until after they were married and he did not have sexual intercourse with her before they were married. That was why he was going to put her away because he knew he had not had sex with her so the child had to be someone else’s.

"Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor 6:9-10)

"For this you know with certainty, that no fornicator or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." (Eph 5:5-6, see also Galatians 5:19-21)

"Let marriage be held in honor among all; and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge." (Hebrews 13:4).

"For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you." (1 Thess 4:2-6)

"For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries." (Hebrews 10:26)

The Bible clearly condemns any kind of sexual intercourse other than that which is between a married man and woman; but, Inside of Marriage the playground is free. Enjoy.

God’s intent for man was that his soul was to be motivated and controlled by the Holy Spirit through his human spirit, not through his soul, his intellect and feelings, or through his body, his appetites and desires. When we are ruled by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit, we are motivated and controlled and walking in the moral righteousness of God.

It was because Adam and Eve were created in God’s image, ruled by the Holy Spirit through their human spirit, that they were able to walk with God in the garden and have fellowship with Him. There was no moral unrighteousness in them, no disobedience or rebellion to prevent this pure holy relationship with God.

What does this all mean? It means that there was a time in History when there was no evil in man. There was a time in history when man was not divided in his soul: good and evil promptings. More importantly, this means that what man is today is not normal. Death is not normal. Before Adam and Eve sinned, there was no death in the world, in man or in the animal kingdom. Death is the result of Adam and Eve’s sin. This means also that because there was no death in the world that there were no fossils before the Fall of man. Fossils are the result of man’s sin and God’s judgment of man through the universal cataclysmic Flood taught in Genesis. We are not what God originally created us to be. The evil and death we see in the world is not what God originally intended.

If God created man in His image, which meant that man was perfectly holy as God is, what happened to man that destroyed his relationship with God and produced the evil side of his soul? Being created in God’s image involved a second factor: It involved man having a free will to choose whether he wanted to have relationship with God or not. Having relationship with God means allowing God to rule over us which means choosing to walk in obedience to God. When God created man He created man as a free will agent who had the ability to choose to have relationship with God by choosing to obey Him or by choosing not to have relationship with God by choosing to disobey Him. This was the significance of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:16-17 states,

"And Yehovah Elohim commanded the man, saying, you may eat from any tree of the garden for eating; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it dying, you shall die."

The expression "dying you shall die" meant that if they ate of this tree they would instantly experience spiritual death—separation from God; and then secondly, as a result of this separation, death of the body through slow corruption as well. While food prolongs our physical life in our state of corruption, only the life of Jesus can sustain our physical life forever. Physical death would then automatically lead to the death of the soul since it is only through our physical body that we are able to give our soul’s expression which is why the promise of the resurrection.

Was there something different about this tree from the other trees in the Garden of Eden? We do not know. What do we know? We know that God did not want man to be ruled by his soul or by his body. God wanted man to choose through his soul to be ruled over by Him through the promptings of the Holy Spirit through his human spirit. We know that God wanted man to have the freedom to choose as to whether he wanted Him to rule over him through his spirit or not. How could God give man this choice? By commanding him to not do something that appealed to his soul: his intellect and feelings and his flesh: his appetites and desires. This is what this tree was all about: a test to see if they would chose to walk in obedience to God through the prompting of the Holy Spirit through their human spirit or whether they would choose to walk in obedience to the promptings of their soul and flesh.

Man at this point had no unrighteousness, sin, in him. His soul and flesh where in perfect submission to his spirit. There was nothing in man’s soul or flesh to prompt him to do otherwise. Therefore an outside factor was needed to appeal to man’s intellect and feelings and his appetites and desires rather than his spirit. This outside factor was Satan.

The first thing Satan did was appeal to man’s intellect through Eve. Moses records in Genesis 3:1-5 the following:

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Yehovah Elohim had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has Elohim said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden.’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, Elohim has said, "You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die."’ And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die! For Elohim knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.’"

First Satan called God a liar and questioned his goodness. Next, he suggested that God was withholding from her and Adam intellectually, He was withholding information from them. Satan appealed to their intellect, their soul. Moses tells us that Eve had the following response:

"When the woman saw that the tree was good for food [appetite & desires], and that it was a delight to the eyes [feelings], and that the tree was desirable to make one wise [intellect], she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband [focus of affections] with her, and he ate." (Gen 3:6)

What happened? Our spirit, through the Holy Spirit, prompts us about what is right or wrong. Satan told Eve to listen to the promptings of her intellect, prompted by Satan’s lies. Eve took the bait and started rationalizing why she should not listen to her spirit and instead listened to her intellect and the appetites and desires of her flesh. The end result was she decided to allow herself to be ruled by her soul and flesh instead of her spirit and she ate of the fruit of the tree God told her not to eat from.

What was the significance of this action? At that moment Eve rejected God’s rule over her and submitted to her rule over her instead. She made her soul, her intellect and feelings, and her body, her appetites and desires god instead. God could have no part in this unholy arrangement and so He severed His Spirit from their spirit, thus disconnecting both His ongoing presence & communication with them and His sustaining life force from them resulting in immediate spiritual death and eventual physical and then soulish death.

The Bible teaches us that Eve was deceived by the serpent, but not Adam. Adam was not deceived. He knew it was wrong to eat of the forbidden fruit. Therefore Adam’s temptation was not about what was right or wrong. His temptation was where his affections were centered. When Eve sinned, because Adam’s affection for Eve was stronger than his effection for God he ate the fruit. As soon as he did, God severed His Holy Spirit from him and his spirit died also. Adam decided to make Eve his god instead of Yehovah God. Genesis 3:7 then says the following:

"Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings."

When I went to Sunday School that morning in the college class, as I would talk and share with other college friends, every time I opened my mouth life did not come out but confusion and disorder and everyone knew something was wrong with Dale. So did I. I had not spent time with the Lord to acknowledge Him over my life and day.

Jesus operates by faith just like we do. When I did not spend time with Him, He assumed I did not want Him to rule over me that day and so He withdrew Himself from me. I was left with my own thoughts and reasonings out of my soul. I found myself confused and perplexed and ashamed in front of my Christian associates.

When I got home that afternoon, the first thing I did was have a quiet time with the Lord. After this, when I talked and shared with my associates, life came out of my mouth instead of perplexity and confusion. I knew what to say and do the rest of the day.

Adam and Eve from creation were in perfect harmony and communion with God. They had not experienced separation. After they ate the fruit, initially, they probably were not even aware what had taken place in their spirits, they just knew now they were naked, confused and perplexed. The word naked here, more than just their physical appearance, was probably referring more to the fact that the Lord had withdrawn from them, leaving them empty and without the taken for granted moment by moment counsel of the Lord in their spirits which left them confused and perplexed and with feelings of being naked and ashamed. They had not had this experience or feelings before and so not understanding its cause at first sought to remedy it by putting on fig leaves and then attempting to hide from the Lord who had already withdrawn Himself from them spiritually.

This was the reason for the conversation God had with them following. He knew what they had done and what had happened to them, but they did not. Therefore His following conversation with them was for their benefit to give them understanding of what they had done and what had happened to them as a result. As a result of their sin they had been severed from their spiritual source of life and were left only with the reasoning of their own thoughts and feeling, desires and appetites to guide them.

Man has been living by his intellect and flesh ever since. Paul describes it this way in the Epistle of Ephesians 4:17-19

"This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness."

The Bible tells us in Proverbs 21:30, "There is no wisdom and no under-standing And no counsel against Yehovah." God in Genesis 6:3, makes the following statement about man’s condition: "My Spirit shall not always strive⁴⁰³ with man; in their erring he is flesh³⁸⁰." By Flesh God means that not only is man devoid of spirit, but even his soul has sunk into complete submission to the appetites and desires of his body so that he is really nothing more than flesh, completely motivated and controlled by his flesh.

Man’s condition in the world without Jesus is that he is dead spiritually, devoid of spirit, without God and completely in bondage to and motivated and controlled by his soul and flesh alone. Because this is true, everything that man is and does, all works whether good or bad, are motivated and controlled out of his soul and flesh, not by God’s Holy Spirit through his human spirit. Only what God initiates by the Holy Spirit is acceptable to God (Isaiah 30:1). Because Man is born into this world soulishly and physically alive but spiritually dead, anything now that he does is motivated out of His soul and flesh and completely unacceptable to God whether good or bad. Jesus said in John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who creates-life, the flesh profits nothing." This is why God tells us through Isaiah in Isaiah 64:6 that all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags in His sight. This is also why the Bible tells us we cannot be saved by works. Works are motivated and controlled and come out of the motivation of man’s soul and flesh, not by the Holy Spirit through his human spirit which connection he does not have. If left to himself, man is hopelessly lost and has no hope.