What should believers do with their old Adamic nature?
Believers should not give in to old Adam but keep him under control, reckoning the old sin nature as dead and defeated because God reckons him as dead. Although old Adam will still attack in experience, believers must keep the body under control and not follow its contrary impulses.
Les explains that believers are not to give in to old Adam but are to keep him under control, just as Paul said he would not beat the air but would keep his body under control. Old Adam is the old sin nature, the source of all our problems. God reckons him as dead, and believers are to understand that he has been defeated and reckon him as such. Yet in experience, before the day is over, old Adam will be at our throat, trying to make us do something contrary to the will of God. Paul therefore says that when he does wrong, it is not the true I he has become in Christ but old Adam dwelling in him. Les also notes that Paul says that in his flesh, that is, his old Adamic nature, dwells no good thing. This contradicts present-day sociology and positive thinkers who tell people they are basically good and can do whatever they want. Believers must therefore keep the old nature under control rather than follow its impulses.