What happened to Adam when he sinned?
When Adam sinned, his soul immediately became a sin nature, his spirit died, and he lost fellowship with his Creator because that spirit was dead. This condition left humanity spiritually dead, needing God's outside power to energize the spirit and make a person a new creation.
Les teaches that when Adam sinned, immediately his soul became a sin nature, the spirit part of him died, and he lost fellowship with his Creator because it was now dead. Les illustrates that dead spirit as a dead battery in a car: cleaning it up externally does not restore power; it is still dead. It needs an outside source of energy. Spiritually, people have been dead as a result of Adam's sin, and it takes the power of God to energize their spirit. When He energizes the spirit, He makes them a new person, or a new creation. You cannot just fix up the old.