Jesus at the helm

When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. (Romans 7:5-6)

When we were controlled by our old nature...

We cannot deny the fact that the 'old man' needed a change that wasn't forthcoming until Christ took over our lives.

...sinful desires were at work within us...

While we might have done some 'good things' while the old man was in control, we also made a habit of being just a little too self-focused, selfish on more than one occasion, and likely just a bit too prideful about doing 'good things'. We might even have bragged or called attention to ourselves for being 'good' people.

...and the Law aroused those evil desires that produced sinful deeds, resulting in death...

Deep within each of us lives the desire to please self and focus on things that we 'think' will bring us lasting happiness. When we discover those things are fleeting, we pursue others, all because of our sinful man that demands satisfaction. Evil desires exist within all of us - they can be 'aroused' or 'awakened' when we least expect them, but they can also be very hard to control because we don't fully understand their origin or their total effect in our lives.

But now...

All the old man could do was attempt to 'self-regulate' behavior based on some set of 'norms' or 'rules' that we would attempt to adhere to with that thing inside of us that we refer to as 'willpower' or the actions of 'denying' oneself. Self-regulation always proves problematic because the 'norms' can be 'tweaked' to help us feel 'better' about some very wrong behaviors. The only 'norms' we should adhere to are those outlined by God himself and that only works well when Jesus is at the helm! Just sayin!