What is the old Adam in the Christian life?
The old Adam in the Christian life is that part of us which never quits working and produces sinful thoughts and actions. It is the source of greed, envy, and covetousness, not merely the individual sins themselves. Paul warns that believers no longer live on that plain.
Les teaches that old Adam is never going to quit working on us, and we never get to that place of perfection. Old Adam is the part of us that gets greedy, envious, and covetous. For example, when a neighbor has something, old Adam says, “I’ve got to have that because my neighbor’s got it.” Paul warns against that, because we don’t live on that plain anymore. In chapter 7, verse 20, Paul says it is no more I that do it, but old Adam. Les explains that converting the word SIN to old Adam opens up this portion of Scripture: the problem is not merely sins or sinful things we do, but the production center of those thoughts and sins, which is old Adam. Verse 21 then speaks of a law, a fact of life we have to reckon with.