In Romans 7 and 8, Paul illustrates the tension between the old man and the new man...we could replace those terms with "false self" and "true self." Much of who we have become is who we are not. We are haunted by fear of failure and exposure. Yet, the self-protective men we have become are not the truest us. It is only in the process of putting to death our false self that we can become the men we were made to be.