carnal nature removed

The Scriptorium posted a piece from R.A. Torrey's, The King's Business they entitled, Want Your Carnal Nature Removed? Too Bad. Some of the points were good, e.g., "The Holy Spirit, whom they received and to whom they surrendered control to their lives, 'the Spirit of life,' made them free in Christ Jesus 'from the law of sin and death' (Rom. 8:2)."

The dilemma is as I tried to note a couple of days ago regarding who is the wretched man from Rom 7.17. Torrey confronts the the notion that, "the carnal nature or inbred sin or the sin principle was taken out.” He is correct that this is a misperception but I think he fails to acknowledge is the reason is because this sin nature is dead. It has no power save from the affects of its rotting decay and our familiarity with it. This body of flesh is not who I am, it's who I was, but it is now dead. So while it is ever present, it is not me and it cannot control me.

My sense is that Torrey's approach leads to strained logic. That is, he imagines that some first accept Christ but do not fully surrender. I'm not sure what that means. Is Christ not Lord? He then adds that they "did not receive the Holy Spirit and enter into a life of daily victory over sin." I am of the understanding that the Holy Spirit indwells all believers - in fact it is He that enables us to call on Christ at all. Torrey has set up a scenario of "carnal Christians" verses "Spirit-filled Christians" for which I cannot find satisfactory support. Better to understand that while the body of flesh is still affecting us, it is dead and it does not define who we are. We are able to not sin because of who we are in Christ.