It has been well said that if there is anything good in any man it is because it was put there by God. And something good — a new life that bears a new nature — has been imparted by God to every true believer in Christ.

While there is still within us “that which is begotten of the flesh,” which is the Sin nature (Rom 8:3), there is also “that which is begotten of the Spirit (of Christ),” and just as the flesh “cannot please God,” so the other always pleases Him.

Adam was originally created in the “image and likeness” of God, but he fell into sin and later “begat a son in his own likeness, after his image” (Gen. 5:3). It could not be otherwise. Fallen Adam could generate and beget only fallen, sinful offspring, whom even the law could not change.

But “what the law could not do, in that it was weak [because of] the flesh, God, sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,” accomplished, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3,4).

As Adam was made in the likeness of God, but fell, so Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh — though without sin — to redeem us from the fall. Now by grace, through faith in the operation of the Spirit, a new creation might be brought into being, “the new man which after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:24).

Thus in addition to our fallen Adamic nature that indwells our flesh, true believers, through faith, have also become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4) by Christ’s Spirit indwelling their human spirit. Paul speaks in Eph. 3:16 of the “inner man” of the soul who then, in union with Christ in his spirit, delights to do God’s will (Rom. 7:22, Philippians 2:13).

The fallen Adamic nature, which Scripture calls “the flesh,” is that which was generated by a fallen begetter – the Serpent in the Garden. That nature is sinful in itself, even still in the believer. It cannot be improved or changed. But “that which is born [or begotten] of God” always pleases Him. The believer’s spirit has been begotten (birthed of) by the Spirit of God Himself. This is why our Lord said to Nicodemus:

“That which is born (humanly) of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit (of Christ) is (your human) spirit….Ye must be born again” (John 3:6-7).

Now Christ in us is our hope of glory.

“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” (Colossians 1:27)