In speaking of the conflict of the Christian, including that with the fallen, sinful flesh, the Bible uses the expressions “the man I am within,” “the man we are inside,” and similar phrases. (Ro 7:22; 2Co 4:16; Eph 3:16) These expressions are appropriate because Christians have been “made new in the force actuating [their] mind.” (Eph 4:23) The driving force or inclination of their mind is in a spiritual direction. They are making efforts to “strip off the old personality [literally, old man]” and clothe themselves with the “new personality [literally, new (one)].” (Col 3:9, 10; Ro 12:2)
In being baptized into Christ, anointed Christians have been “baptized into his death”; the old personality has been impaled, “that [the] sinful body might be made inactive.” But until their death in the flesh and their resurrection, the fleshly body is still there to fight the ‘spiritual man.’ It is a difficult contest, about which Paul says, “In this dwelling house we do indeed groan.” But the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ covers the sins of the old personality with fleshly desires working in its members, unless these Christians give in and deliberately go the way of the flesh.—Ro 6:3-7; 7:21-25; 8:23; 2Co 5:1-3.
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