Like most of my readers, it was not long into my Christian life before I heard the old proverbial story of the black dog and the white dog, illustrating the conflict of Romans seven in the Believers life. The problem was, there was little explanation of it. I don't know about you, but I was left to believe they represented the "old man" and the "new man," making me, I thought, a dual personality.
But to a thinking individual this leaves no one responsible for sin. For the "new man" cannot sin," and the "old man" can do nothing but sin. Therefore, one is left with no one to blame for an unrighteous life, or commended for a righteous one. The answer lies in the fact that there are not two different people within a saint. There is but one responsible personality: ME, with two natures inside.
That being the old sinful Adamic nature all are born with, and the new Divine nature, received at the second birth. Whichever nature I yield to decides whether I, that is, the real me, will display the thoughts and actions of the "old man," the Adamic nature, or those of the "new man"; the one "which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
Only one man chooses if he is to be the "old man" or the "new man." You cannot be both at the same time.
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