When is the old sin nature crucified?
The old sin nature is crucified when a person believes the Gospel. At that moment, God accomplishes it in the realm of the Spirit, putting the old Adam to death, and Christ reckons it as crucified. This is not experiential but positional, so in God’s eyes old Adam is dead, enabling justification.
Les explains that when we become believers, the old sin nature—the old Adam we are born with—had to be crucified, literally put to death in the realm of the Spirit. This is accomplished by God when we believe the Gospel, and Christ reckons it as crucified. Immediately God places opposite that old Adamic nature a new divine nature, which cannot sin. So when believers sin, it is just the old Adam taking control for a moment. In God’s eyes, old Adam is dead, which is why He can declare us justified, just as if we had never sinned; but experientially, in our everyday life, old Adam is still present.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Why do believers still sin if they have a new nature?
Believers still sin because the old Adamic sin nature, though crucified in God's reckoning when they believed the Gospel, remains experientially active; the new divine nature cannot sin, but when a believer sins, the old nature has temporarily taken control.
Why does the old Adam have to die for us to be right with God?
The old Adam is the inherited sin nature that must be crucified and put to death in the realm of the Spirit. When a person believes the Gospel, God reckons that old nature crucified, enabling Him to declare the believer justified—just as if they had never sinned—and then gives a new divine nature.
More Questions
What does Paul say the old Adamic nature does in Galatians 5:17?
The old Adamic nature lusteth or desireth, which Les prefers to render with the clearer word "wareth," though that wording may not be connected to the Greek.