HUMANS' TWO NATURES: A SPIRIT MAN MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD AND A MAN OF FLESH MADE FROM THE DUST

1. WHAT THE SCRIPTURES REVEAL ABOUT OUR DOUBLE NATURE :
• JESUS :
  • At Gethsemane: Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41 NKJV
  • He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. Mark 7:6, Isaiah 29:13
• PAUL :
  • The inner man and the struggle with the man of flesh — Romans 7:21-26
  • The Spirit and the flesh — Romans 8:9-10
  • Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 2 Cor. 4:16 NKJV


2. THE CREATION OF THE HUMAN RACE DIFFERENT THAN THE ANIMALS: Genesis 1-2
• GOD THE CREATOR: Then God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” [1:20-21 KJV]
• GOD THE CREATOR: And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind and it was so. [1:24-25 KJV]
• GOD THE CREATOR: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female. [1:26-27 KJV]
• GOD THE CREATOR: And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. [2: 7-8 KJV]


3. HUMAN'S DOUBLE NATURE :



4. HUMANS PLACED IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN :
• The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. [Genesis 2]
• And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. [2:8-9 NKJV]
• ONE JOB FOR ADAM : Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
• ONE IMPORTANT COMMANDMENT FOR ADAM : And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. [Genesis 2:15-16 NKJV]


5. REBELLION AGAINST GOD’S ONLY COMMANDMENT WOULD BRING DEATH :
• PROVISIONS FOR ADAM, THE MAN OF FLESH: Adam and Eve could eat of every tree for their natural needs.
• The tree of life could have been for their natural body to live for a long time, even though it is not stated in the passage or in any other place in the Bible. But the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil could not be eaten; it would bring immediate death.
• PROVISIONS FOR ADAM THE SPIRIT MAN: Adam and Eve, as spirit creations of God needed to be in God for their spirits to have eternal life because God is the source of eternal life. Jesus said, “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.” John 5:26 NKJV


6. ADAM AND EVE TAKE THE SEED OF SIN FROM SATAN AND DEATH COMES :
• Lucifer/Satan was one of God’s archangels and he led a rebellion in heaven against God. One third of the angels followed Lucifer in his rebellion and all were thrown out of heaven and cast down to earth. [Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:13-17]
• Satan appeared in the Garden in the form of a serpent and he was able to pass his seed of sin and rebellion to Adam and Eve and they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree.
• At the moment that sin entered their flesh and rebellion occurred, it separated them from God, their source of spiritual life, and they died spiritually.


7. THE RESULTS OF ADAM’S REBELLION :
• Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned — [Romans 5:12 NKJV]
• For if by the one man’s offense many died…For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation…For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one…Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation…For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners. [Romans 5:19, 18, 17, 16, 15 NKJV]

* All scriptures are from New King James Version