The natural man does not receive the things of God because he is spiritually dead, not merely uninformed. Scripture calls his mind enmity against God, his understanding darkened, and the preaching of the cross foolishness to him. Only the new birth changes that condition.
What “Natural Man” Means in the Bible
Paul does not use “natural man” as an insult. It names a specific condition tied to how a person is built. Scripture describes a person as spirit, soul, and body — three parts, not one.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
“Natural” comes from that middle part, the soul. It means running on soul-life alone — mind, emotion, will — with no working link to God’s Spirit. A natural man is not automatically wicked by human standards; he is simply cut off from the one source that lets a person grasp spiritual things.
The Wisdom Paul Describes Before Verse Fourteen
Paul does not drop his claim about the natural man out of nowhere. These verses of 1 Corinthians 2:6-13 lead into it:
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: (6)
but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: (7)
which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (8)
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (9)
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (10)
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. (11)
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (12)
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (13)
God’s wisdom stayed hidden. It was hidden even from the rulers who crucified the Lord of glory, men with access to every kind of human learning. Only the Spirit could reveal it, because only the Spirit searches how Scripture actually gets understood — the deep things of God themselves.
The Claim of 1 Corinthians 2:14
Paul states the fact directly, with no cushioning. This verse names what every reason afterward explains.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
Three things stand out here. The natural man:
- Does not receive spiritual things
- There is a refusal built into his condition
- A simple knowledge gap is not the problem
He calls them foolishness, and he cannot know them, because the discernment required is spiritual, something the natural man does not have running his life or as a part of his life..
A Mind at War With God
Paul goes further in Romans. He names what is actually wrong inside the natural man — not just what he lacks, but what he’s set against in Romans 8:5-8.
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. (5)
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (6)
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (7)
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (8)
👉 The carnal mind is not neutral.
It stands in active enmity against God, refusing to submit to God’s law and unable to please him even if it tried. This is not about behavior — a natural man cannot manage his way into pleasing God, because the mind itself is the problem, not just the actions that come out of it.
Dead, Not Merely Confused
Romans names the mind’s condition. Ephesians names something more serious in Ephesians 2:1-3.
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; (1)
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: (2)
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. (3)
Dead men do not reach toward God on their own. A dead man does not improve, negotiate, or slowly work his way toward life — he stays dead until something outside him steps in.
Every natural man, before and after Christ, walks in step with a fallen world system, driven by desires he thought were simply his own nature.
A Darkened Understanding
Ephesians explains the mechanism behind the darkness, not just the fact of it.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. (Ephesians 4:17-18)
His understanding is darkened. He is alienated from the life of God, cut off at the root instead of merely mistaken at the edges. That alienation traces back to ignorance, and the ignorance traces back to a heart already closed — the blindness of heart comes first, and the darkened understanding follows it.
Blinded by the God of This World
The natural man is not simply on his own. Scripture names an outside force working against him too.
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
The god of this world is Paul’s name for Satan, the spiritual power ruling this present fallen order.
He works to blind minds specifically so they cannot see the gospel’s glory, the very glory that belongs to Christ.
A natural man’s blindness is not passive fog — it is actively maintained.
Why He Rejects the Cross Above All
The very thing the natural man cannot receive is the Message of the Cross itself.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
Everything above lands here. Everything!
A dead, darkened, actively blinded mind hears the cross and calls it foolishness, because it cannot see what it actually accomplishes — Christ, laying aside the independent use of his own divine power, living as a man under the same weight the natural man carries, dying in full obedience, and rising in victory over sin’s claim.
That is not foolishness to the one already made alive; it is the power of God, the only place a dead man’s condition changes.
What Changes a Natural Man
Scripture names exactly what changes a natural man’s condition, and it is not education or self-effort.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:3-6)
Being born again is not a metaphor for trying harder or even being a valued member of a local church.
It is a new beginning that starts with the Spirit, not the will, giving a person a capacity he did not have before.
The natural man does not evolve into a spiritual man by effort; he must be made new.
A natural man cannot argue his way into receiving God’s things. Information was never the real problem.
New life from God, taken by faith in what Christ already did at the cross, is what changes him — not more effort from an old, unchanged mind.
The natural man you used to be does not get the final word. Bring your mind under the cross today. Let the Spirit show you what it could never show you on its own.
