Not long after his conversion, Augustine was walking down the streets of Milan when a prostitute with whom he once had intimate acquaintance beckoned him: "Augustine! It is I!" He slowed down and with the newfound assurance of Christ's Spirit living in his heart, turned to her and replied: "Yes, but it is no longer I!"

The Apostle Paul put it this way: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20). Christ gave himself not just to furnish the full payment for our sins but to live in us by the enabling power of the Spirit. This is our only hope for living righteously. This is part of the New Testament promise. "And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them." (Ezekiel 36:27).

Conversion implies a change of power source. Our old nature is often a pushover for temptation. It is conditioned to pursue whatever course of action that promises to maximize pleasure and minimize pain; no matter how twisted. The pleasures of sin, however, are short lived (Hebrews 11:25). Jesus warned that we deceive ourselves when we think that we avoid pain by sinning. (See Mark 9:43-48).

We need wisdom for handling temptation. Jesus taught us to pray: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." (Matthew 6:13). We are enticed to evil by the Tempter without and our old nature within (See James 1:13-15).

In some cases we are told to flee, by making conscious choices in our lifestyle. Flee sexual immorality. Flee idolatry. Flee materialistic living and the love of money (1Corinthians 6:18; 1Corinthians 10:14; 1Timothy 6:6-11). Flee youthful lusts. Lusts are any strong desires that lead you outside the will of God. They could include 'wanderlust', 'religious lust', 'intellectual lust' as well as 'sensual lust'. In other cases, we are specifically told to submit to God, and resist the Tempter (James 4:7). In every case appropriate Christ as your life. "Live by the Spirit (your new power source), and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature." (Galatians 5:16).

"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." (Romans 6:6-7 NIV).

The addict only stops craving when he is dead. We are to reckon that 'the sin addict' (our old Adamic nature) has been crucified with Christ. We are to reckon on this as a historical fact. God put us in Christ (1Corinthians 1:30) so that from Divine Viewpoint, when Christ died, we died.

"The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

When temptation calls us by name saying: "It is I!" We can respond with confidence: "It is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me. And He is not interested in serving sin. He is interested only in serving righteousness and bringing glory to God."