Good question: We are birthed into a New operation of Living, by way of our dormant spirit being enlivened (John 3:6; 4:24; 2 Timothy 4:22; Matthew 28:20), and by way of that newly acquired reestablishing of what God originally had set-up to be natural, which, in our sinful nature, is unnatural, we are availed the New Creations births opportunity in liberty to serve and live godly. all of which starts thru the Cross and resurrection of Christ...
This after accepting our problem of sin, and judgement of God, and Sin's death sentence, and the fact we cannot be right enough in and of our own efforts to earn Eternal life, and as we Believe and receive what Chrit has done on the Cross and being rose to be seated at the right hand of God now interceding for us, as we are also seated with Him as we remain in Christ, believing this and confessing our sins we have Eternal life, with no judgement and have crossed over from death to life. (Romans 3:23; Hebrews 9:27; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; John 1:12; Romans 10:9-10; John 5:24).
But as the set-up is in place in our new found innocence and liberty we must also make that New Creation the life of God thru Jesus Christ only and always as we remain hidden in Christ empowering us. Of course there needs to be maturing and growing in this life.
We forget in the original condition of Adam before the fall, even though he was so perfect, so pure, so clean, and so good, with nothing changed, nothing damaged, nothing corrupted, or nothing ruined, he still needed the life of God.
For us now, we need the Cross and we must remain in the Cross to have the life in Christ and with God bear fruit. Jesus, on a cross, as well as we on that cross with Him then, gives us back that innocence and liberty thru Jesus Christ. But we still need God's life to come into us. When God's life get's in, we are regenerated, we are then in Christ. And we live by faith in our obligation of love to righteousness (a properly aligned / right relationship to Our loving Father: God thru Our Lord and Savior who loved us even to death on a Cross: Christ Jesus).
This re-birth then affects our soul-life (which is not the same as the flesh when we are in Christ); our physical life; and now with our dormant spirit now awakened to be able to live in Christ - our divine life.
Hence, our spirit has been born of God coming into our spirit as life. (John 3:6b), Now the Divine life is in our spirit (Spirit leading spirit, as we willfully operate by it). Our spirit was born because God's life (via the Cross of Christ) got into it, and this birth has nothing to do with our fall.
Even if Adam had never fallen, he still would have needed to be born in this way. He still needed to have God come into him as life, otherwise he could not express God. We have to be born-again by having the life of God get into us. This life gets into our spirit, and our spirit is born. Now in our spirit there is life; and this life is just God Himself (the person via Christ Jesus the person). We are then gripped by God who will never let us go, as we are and must remain in Christ living in accordance to the Holy Spirit, and allowing Jesus to finish His work in us, which Paul describes as "I am not yet, nor have I become perfect; BUT I am charging on to gain anything and everything Jesus has in store for me - and nothing will stand in my way because He has grabbed me and won't let go!....There is one thing I am doing: I am leaving my old life behind, putting everything on the line for this mission. I am sprinting toward the only goal that counts: to cross the line, to win the prize, and to hear God's call to resurrection life found exclusively in Jesus Christ." (Philippians 3:12-15). I am then in Christ as I live by way of righteousness, which is in God thru Christ and the Holy Spirit..Literally, and miraculously becoming Christ-like in my new person serving his intentions and purposes in love and power.
