Born Again (7) Serious Consequences

Being expelled from the presence of God and sent into a world controlled by the powers of evil without any spiritual protection was a disaster for the first humans. The powers of evil hated God and wanted to destroy his earth.

Humans had been given authority on earth, but they had surrendered it to the powers of evil by obeying them. If the powers of evil could keep humans hostile to God, they could retain their stolen authority forever. They were not able to destroy humans, because this would destroy the basis of their authority on earth. If there were no humans, God would be free to take back his earth again, because it would release him from his covenant that gave authority on earth to humans without recourse.

To cement their authority on earth, the powers of evil set about doing their best to modify the brains (flesh) of the people created in God’s image, so that they would never escape their clutches and turn back to him. They achieved this by making subtle changes to human flesh, and particularly the brain, which is made of flesh. They could not change them too much, or modify them to be sub-human, because they would cease to be human, and they would lose their authority on earth that came through God’s covenant with humans.

The corrupted flesh that has been inherited by all human descendants affects us in a variety of ways. See more at What is a Person.

• Mind – the human mind still operates in the same way, but is vulnerable to deception and can sometimes miss the truth (2 Cor 11:3; 2 Tim 3:8).

• Emotions – emotions still operate in the same way, but good feelings now have a distorted form: rage, dread, melancholy, horror.

• Imagination – human imaginations remains powerful, but they are drawn to evil.

  The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth (Gen 8:21).

• Will – the human will has been distorted, so that it is difficult to please God and hard to make decisions that align with his will. (Rom 5:8).

• Desires – these have been biased away from God and towards evil.

  The flesh lusts against the Spirit (Gal 5:17).

  Corrupted by its deceitful desires (Eph 4:22).

• Memory – still operates in the same way, but the spiritual powers of evil make sure that it is filled with bad/evil experiences that corrupt our mind and imagination.

• Spirit – this is the faculty that seems to have sustained the most damage. Humans still have the ability to perceive spiritual things, but it has been significantly weakened. They are not aware of the presence of the powers of evil, even when they are attacking. They also find it really difficult to hear God.

Every human inherits the flesh that manifests these problems.