Man was created by God in God's image. Man was a spiritual being. He was alive spiritually and had fellowship and communion with God his creator. Then spiritual death entered the life of man. When man rebelled against God's instructions he became a partaker of the satanic nature. That nature is spiritual death. For the reign of spiritual death began with Satan. Ephesians 2:1-5 reveals man's condition in spiritual death. Verse 2-3 says, "Where in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." We have been taught that man is a sinner by nature, but it is more than that. Man is now by nature a child of wrath and his life was ordered by Satan. Satan has become the prince of the powers of the air and ruler over the domain in which man lives. Ephesians tells us some things about mans condition. Man is dead in his trespasses and sin. Man walks according to the course of this world and not according to God's course. Satan's spirit is working in man instead of the Holy Spirit. Man is a son of disobedience who lives in the lust of the flesh and indulges in the desires of the flesh. Man lives according to the desires of the unregenerated mind because he is a child of wrath and follows the desires of his spiritual father the devil, even though he does not know it. It is just his nature. There is no logical reason for man's response to intelligently organized sin unless man's nature and will are in fellowship with it. The Father God, the creator, had made known His will to man. His will was for man to eat of the tree of life. To partake of God's nature.

There are three wills in the world: God's will, Satan's will, and man's will. Just as man is dependent upon God or Satan for his spiritual life, they are the two preeminent spiritual forces, his will must be in harmony with God or Satan. Matthew 6:24 says, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other." Jesus gives the New Testament explanation of this. Man in the garden sought his own will. He refused God's will in seeking his own will and became in bondage to Satan's will. The life of man began created in God's image, but now he finds himself spiritually dead and separate from God. The reign of Spiritual Death has began. What a horrible awakening it is to man; Satan's nature breathed into his spirit. Ephesians 2:3 says he is now, by nature, a child of wrath. Genesis 3:8, "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." Genesis 3:10' " And he said "I heard the sound of Thee in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself." Man no longer responds to the call of God. Fellowship has been broken. He responds to the call of his new master, Satan.

Genesis 3:22-24 tells us man is an outlaw. An outcast from the garden with no legal ground of approach to God. Verse 24, "So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life." We all know this, but have we realized the significance of this act on the part of God. It would have been unthinkable for the nature of God and the nature of Satan to be united in one individual. So Adam must not have access to the Tree of Life. It was not the tree of eternal life, just a tree which would make a man live forever, as some would say. The scripture says it was the "Tree of Life" which implies the "God kind of life." To partake from this tree would be to partake in some way of the very nature of God. I can not imagine the kind of individual or being which would have resulted from this union. It is enough to know; it would have made redemption of the human race, all those who would follow Adam, an impossibility.

Later in Genesis we see the result of this spiritual death. Genesis 4:8, "...... and it came about when the were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him." Spiritual death now becomes a hideous reality to Adam. His first son murders his second lying about it afterward. The two characteristics of Satan are manifested in the life of man. He is a murder and a liar. Adam has not only sinned against God, but also against the human race unborn. In Genesis 4:26 a grandchild is born into the family. Adam names him "Enosh" which means mortal, frail, death-doomed or maybe even Satan-ruled. He names the first grandchild in memories bitter regret of his sin. Adam himself grovels under the Iron will of Satan. He finds his nature is no longer in fellowship with God. He has lost his rest. His joy and peace are gone. Spiritual Death caused man to cease walking in the realm of the spirit.

Originally man walked in the spirit realm with his Creator. His spirit had dominated and ruled. It had been a faith realm. The realm of omnipotent power where faith spoke words into being and substance. In Genesis 1:26 man was to have dominion over all creatures and over all the earth with spiritual power. Not with physical power. Man was not to rule with sticks and clubs, but with the power of his word. It was the realm of "Him who called the things that were not, as though they were." One translation renders Romans 4:17, " ...calls into being that which does not exist." And in Hebrews 11:3, "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible." Adam walked before the fall as the under-ruler of God Himself. Genesis 2:20 tells that Adam named all the animals. He named them with names which were to mean something about the animal. He could do this because he was operating in the spirit realm of God. God knows all about every animal. This realm in which Adam walked was the Faith Realm.

When man's union with God was severed, man's ability was no longer God's ability and man's word was not God's word. Man has fallen from the realm of God's ability and into the realm of human ability. He is dependent on his own resources. The resources of man are limited to his mind and body. The mind can derive its knowledge only through the senses of man's physical body. The five senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell have become the doors and windows of his mind. He forms his opinion of the world and himself by means of these senses. He orders his life by what he sees, hears, feels, tastes, and smells. The senses bring the material to the mind and reason draws its own conclusions. Faith has died. The supernatural is lost. Reason is born. Romans 8:1-11 tell us of this. Verses 5-8, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." The mind of the flesh is composed of the deductions made from the material sensation which the mind receives from the five senses. Reason the product of man's mind. Reason the product of man's senses. Reason has always been hostile toward the knowledge of God and faith or anything not perceived by the five senses (KJV says it is enmity toward God). Civilization becomes a lifestyle which seeks only to please the senses. Regardless of how high man's aims may be, he can not rise above the level of his senses. The walk in the spirit is lost. The cry of the spirit remains unanswered. At the dawn of history, reason gains the supremacy over the realm of faith. In the realm of reason there is no faith, no healing, no miracles, nothing Godly. 1 John 5:9 says, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." A literal translation might be "lies in the embrace of the evil one." Spiritual Death, the nature of Satan, is the soil out of which has grown every sin, sickness, physical death, and every sorrow that has darkened the life of God's man. What man needs is eternal life, the nature of God. In Ephesians 4:17-18 paints a picture of mankind. Verse 18 says, "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 hearts." This is a picture of humanity as a result of the entrance of Spiritual Death. Man is excluded from the life of God. He is walking in the realm of reason. In the vanity of his mind and that mind is darkened and blinded by indwelling Spiritual Death. 2 Corinthians 4:4, "in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

No man could ever redeem humanity for every man would be under Satanic dominion. Someone greater than Satan must undertake redemption on man's behalf. God Himself must redeem humanity. This Redemption demands more than God forgiving the sin of Adam and the sins of man. The power and authority of sin over man must be broken. Israel had forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 10:11 tells us that every high priest stood daily ministering and offering sacrifice repeatedly for the sins of Israel. But the power of sin remained. Man did not have fellowship with God. God's home was not with man. Redemption must be more than forgiveness. Redemption must be the giving of a new nature. New life to man. Redemption meant a New Creation in the spirit of man. Spiritual Death must be destroyed. Man must be able to stand as free from Satanic authority as though he had never died spiritually. According to Romans 6:6 the body of sin must be done away with. According to Colossians 1:13 man must be delivered from the authority of Satan. We are told in Hebrews 2:14 that Satan, who reigns in the realm of death, must be dethroned from his position as lord of man. Just as Adam was in a manner born again or died into the realm of Satan, man must be born again. Born of the life of God. In John 3:7 Jesus said, "Marvel not that I say to you, you must be born again." John 1:12 says, "but as many as received Him he gave the power to become children of God." Man's birth in to the nature of God or the new creation in the spirit of man, make it possible for man to receive the spirit of God and for God to dwell in him as the Holy Spirit. II Corinthians 5:17 says, "therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." This brings man again in to the realm of god's ability. In to the realm where all thins are possible, the realm of faith. The old things which are gone, passed away, are spiritual death, the lordship of Satan, and living only in the realm of the five senses, the realm of reason. Romans 8:29 states Jesus was to be the "firstborn among many brethren." First born from spiritual death. Born into eternal life. Eternal life will meet the need of man and the heart cry of the Father for fellowship. Before eternal life can be given to man he must be declared righteous. God must have a legal right to take man from the family of Satan into His family. Man must be redeemed from Spiritual Death before he can enter the family of God. Man's only redemption is in Christ.