The old man is gone

John 8:44

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: he was a murderer from the
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

JOHN 8:39-47

All of us were born in sin and were therefore 'by nature' the children of the devil. That's the reason
we sinned. Our sins don't corrupt our nature, but our corrupt nature makes us sin. That's why we
must be 'born again' and become new creatures (or a new creation) in Christ. The scriptures teach
that everyone was born with a sin nature or old man. For the Christian, the old man is dead. We do
not have a nature that is driving us to sin. If that is the case, then why do we seem so bound to sin
even after we experience the new birth? The reason is that our old man left behind what Romans
6:6 calls a body. Just as a person's spirit and soul leave behind a physical body at death, so our old
man left behind habits and strongholds in our thoughts and emotions. The reason a Christian tends
to sin is because of an unrenewed mind, not because of a sin nature.

Our old man ruled our thinking before we were born again. He taught us such things as selfishness,
hatred, and fear and he placed within us the desire for sin. The old man is now gone, but these
negative parts of his body remain. Until renewed, our minds continue to lead us on the course that
our old man charted. To experience the resurrection life of Jesus, we have to know that our old man
is dead. Then, through the renewing of our minds, we destroy the body that the old man left behind.
The end result is that we will not serve sin any longer.