What is the natural condition of the human race apart from salvation?
Apart from salvation, the human race lives in the flesh under the old sin nature that began with Adam. The spirit or place of fellowship is dormant, leaving no means of communication with God. Scripture describes the lost person as an enemy of God, whose only prayer God hears is the cry for salvation.
Les explains that ever since Adam acquired the original sin nature, the human race has been in conflict with God. The spirit, or place of fellowship, was completely put out of commission and made dormant. People now live in a body of flesh and blood and bone that operates through the five senses, and the old personality—the sin nature—is what operates there. Les says that is as much as we have apart from salvation, and we have no way of communicating with God. Even the GI in the foxhole crying out to be saved from all this is not heard unless he calls out for salvation; that is the only prayer of an unbeliever God hears. For the lost person and God, there is no means of communication. Romans 8 makes it plain that the unbeliever is an enemy of God, and as Les notes, you do not deal with your enemy. So the natural condition is a race living in the flesh with an old sin nature, a personality that is enmity against God, and nothing to keep us in communication with God.