The only way it makes to me in terms of a forensic declaration of liberation from sin, in which we have "died" to sin in Christ. While the "old nature" remains as a part of our physical/temporal body in this physical/temporal existence, stained with sin, our standing before God is righteous because in Christ we have died to sin.

Elsewhere in Romans, the Apostle compares the death of a husband that frees his widow from the obligations of marriage with how our death to sin in Christ has freed us from the condemnation we faced before.

Thank God for the indwelling Holy Spirit Who empowers His own to live above the influence of that old nature, of the world, and of our adversary's deception!