Most of the church tries to improve the old man (sinful nature, or flesh) through discipline, technique, and accountability. Scripture says he is not improved. He dies, and a new creation takes his place. These articles press that distinction from several directions: the origin of the sinful nature, the meaning of dying to self, the impossibility of the Sermon on the Mount, and why so many sincere believers live in the gap between what they were told they received and what they actually experience.