Part 8 of 14

The Essential Spirit - The Sin-Spirit of the Devil

Paul describes the state of the unregenerate man who then has not received Christ, as follows.

Eph. 2:2-3 Wherein 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: ³Among 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. By this we see that every man is possessed of a Sin-spirit and also a Sin nature.

Paul says “the spirit that doth work in the unregenerate children of disobedience” is “the prince of the power of the air,” Satan, the Devil himself. The Devil is the original sinner, the one who “sinneth from the beginning” (1John 3:8). Satan’s Sin-spirit is at work in the flesh body members of all mankind since Adam.

Where exactly is this Sin-spirit located, relative to the believer’s essential spirit of life? Here below Paul reveals that Sin-spirit is located not in man’s spirit, but rather in man’s body members, in his flesh body.

Romans 7:17-23 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. ¹⁸For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. ¹⁹For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. ²⁰Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. ²¹I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. ²²For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: ²³But I see another law (principle of operation) in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law (principle of operation) of sin which is in my (body) members.

Rom 8:3 God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh

Since Adam, every man possesses the God-breathed human spirit received at his physical birth, and we also possess the Sin-spirit in our flesh. Adam, by believing and trusting the words of the Serpent, rebelled against God’s injunction to not eat of that forbidden “tree of the knowledge of good & evil.”  Thereby, Sin and death entered the world. Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin…

Being born of Adam’s seed, conceived in Sin (Psalm 51:5), we all are born separated from God Himself. We have the Adamic Sin nature, and to it we have added our own acts of that Sin nature in our flesh, called sins. We all, as Adam, have misused our human spirit-life that God gave us. “But God, who is rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4a) made a way for us to be reconciled to Him. God touches and prompts our soul’s conscience to open our heart to receive Christ’s spirit-life into our spirit. By our human spirit, we each have the free-will capacity to say yes or no to receiving Christ’s spirit of life. Upon receiving reconciliation in Christ, God imparts to us the spirit-life of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ; that we might come to have union with God, via Christ in us. 1 John 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him (Christ), and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

During our time on earth, every man possesses a human spirit, into which we may receive the eternal “spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”  The spirit of a man who believes and trust in Christ shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection (Rom 6:6-4) is then a justified spirit, since Jesus was pure, vindicated, and “justified in the Spirit” (1Tim 3:16). Being made just, a believer immediately and automatically then receives Christ’s Spirit. The deposit of the justifying eternal Christ-Spirit abides in that man forever. The believer who has received Christ is reconciled to God; thereby also receiving Christ’s eternal resurrection life-Spirit element into his human spirit. Romans 5:10 … we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved (sozo, completed) by his life. That element completing a man’s human spirit is God’s spirit-life, which is in Christ Jesus, now as “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Thus, a man’s spirit-core becomes reconciled, justified, regenerated, and eternal, with the Triune God abiding within.

Romans 8:9-10 But ye are … in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. ¹⁰And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life (Zoë, with God’s life) because of righteousness.