What examples in Scripture show first the natural then the spiritual?
Scripture consistently shows the natural before the spiritual: Cain then Abel, Ishmael then Isaac, Esau then Jacob, King Saul then King David, and finally the Antichrist, the man of sin, then the true Christ. Paul also contrasts the first man Adam, earthy and natural, with the last Adam, Jesus Christ, a life-giving Spirit.
Les explains that this pattern is one of the rules or laws of God in His manifestation with the human race and one of the laws of Scripture: first the natural, then the spiritual. He says it runs all the way through Scripture, even in the genealogies: first Cain, the natural, then Abel, the spiritual; first Ishmael, then Isaac; first Esau, then Jacob; first King Saul, then King David. At the very end of the Book, the Antichrist, the man of sin, appears as the natural, and then the true Christ comes as the spiritual. Paul mentions this, and verse 47 describes the first man as of the earth, earthy—Adam, who was made of the earth and went back to the earth—while the last Adam, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, was made a quickening, or life-giving, Spirit.