knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin.
This verse tells believers something they are to know. At the cross the person we once were was put to death with Christ, and sin lost its grip as our master.
The phrase does not name a nature living inside us. It pictures a whole person: everything we were as children of Adam, gathered into one figure.
It is not always easy to grasp the thought behind "our old man." One way to explain it is this: the Apostle is personifying all that we are as the natural children of Adam. Imagine a person whose character held every ugly feature ever shown by anyone in Adam's race. That person could be described as "our old man."
The difference between a person and a nature decides where responsibility lies.
Between person and nature there is a real and important difference. If we take the inspired words as a perfect guide — and we should — then "the old man" is person, not nature. This matters, because responsibility belongs to the person and not to the nature. The person is the one who acts.
The verse opens with knowing. So the question is when this crucifixion happened, and whether it waits on our progress.
There is no thought here of this being a state that belongs to some Christians and not to others. It is the very truth of our Christian position. Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified. When? In our experience? That is not the thought here, but "has been crucified with him." Surely that was on the cross. Not only did He, in infinite love, bear our sins on the cross, but our old man was fully judged there too.
Feeling follows the fact; it does not create it.
This verse says nothing about our feeling it. But when faith learns the fact from God, it shapes our moral life, and we know its blessed power.
Crucifixion is a sentence, not a treatment. God did not repair the old man; He condemned and ended him.
To convince us of the hopeless character of this man, God has fully tested the "old man" under every possible test. He has been tried without law, under law, under priesthood, under royalty, and finally by the presence of Christ in grace. Under every test man has broken down. This proves that the old man is completely evil, and that all hope of improving or reforming the "old man" is useless... Sins can be forgiven. But there can be no forgiveness for an evil nature. It can only be condemned and ended.
The manner of the death carries its own verdict, and it was God who assigned it.
There are many forms of death. Crucifixion carries shame and disgrace, and under the law of Moses, a curse. The "old man," because of its evil tendencies, was worthy — in the language of the text — not only of death but of the death of the cross. Man's injustice and malice assigned the Son of Man to death by crucifixion. But it was the justice and grace of God that sentenced our "old man" to be crucified with Christ.
Older translations read "destroyed," but writers call that too strong. The sense is that a power is cancelled, as in "brought to nothing".
The "body of sin" is the whole of sin in its dominating energy. But "our old man is crucified with Him" (Christ) "that the body of sin" (that dominating energy) "might be annulled." "Destroyed" is a wholly incorrect translation. The end in view is "that we should not serve sin."
That cancelling covers sin as a whole, not just the one sin we most want relief from.
We tend to link sin with some particular failing we are prone to — the one where sin's rule over us is felt most. We might be quite content to be free from sin's rule in that one form. But God would have us free from sin's rule as a whole, not just in part... Sin, indeed, still exists, but can have no power over a corpse.
The closing clause shows what problem the chapter solves.
Sin is a master, a slave-owner, and we had fallen under its power. The point discussed in the chapter is not the presence of sin in us but the power of sin over us. We have got our discharge from sin.
- Who. "Our old man" is the whole person we were as children of Adam, personified as one man, not a nature.
- Sentence. God tested that man in every way and found him past mending. Death was the only remedy, and crucifixion was the verdict He assigned.
- Fact. It happened at the cross, not in our experience. Faith knows it because God says so, and feeling follows the fact instead of producing it.
- Effect. Sin's dominating energy is annulled. Sin is cancelled as a power, not removed as a presence, and it has no hold on a corpse.
- Aim. The verse ends in freedom of service. The issue is not sin's presence in us but sin's power over us, and that mastery is broken.
For he that has died is justified from sin.
Paul has just spoken of the old self crucified with Christ, so that sin would no longer be our master. Now he adds a short legal rule, and its force turns on one word: older translations read "justified from sin" here — but which sin does he mean?
Other translations word the end of the verse differently, and that wording carries the true sense of "freed".
So we have this rather abstract statement: "For he that has died is justified from sin" (New Translation). That is the real meaning of the word "freed".
The end of verse 6 sets the picture of sin that runs through the chapter.
Take note of the closing words of verse 6. They show us clearly how this chapter views sin. Sin is a master, a slave-owner, and we had fallen under its power. The point discussed in the chapter is not the presence of sin in us but the power of sin over us. We have got our discharge from sin. We are justified from it, as verse 7 states.
Earlier in Romans the subject was our sins and the blood of Jesus that answers for them. Here God settles a second thing.
We have seen how God justifies His people from their sins by the blood of Jesus. Now we see how He justifies them from sin, the root, or nature. "For he that is dead is justified from sin" (margin). Sins are forgiven, and now sin cannot be charged to him who is dead; he is justified from sin.
Salvation covers both, and each one has its own verse:
Indeed we have a full salvation not only from sins but from sin, justified from the bad fruit (Rom. 5:1), justified from the bad tree (Rom. 6:7).
The argument rests on a fact everyone knows. Death ends every claim an owner had.
God counts us as having died with Christ, and that death has won us complete freedom from slavery to sin. The picture of death settles the matter, and it should silence every doubt about our deliverance. All a person's obligations stop binding him at his death. A purchased slave dies, and his owner can demand no more service from him. Death frees the slave from bondage.
The word "justified" here surprises some readers. They expect the teaching from earlier in the letter. But watch the pronouns.
Up to now Paul has said "we" and "our", and in verse 8 he returns to "we". But verse 7 says "he". That shows he is making a general statement. A dead man's condition is a complete answer to any charge of sin brought against him after his death. So let Christians who have died to sin live and walk as freed from its bondage. The justification here comes from the person's state — he is dead. So do not confuse it with the justification of ungodly people, which has such a prominent place in the Gospel of God. His state as dead blocks every charge of sin after his death. Of course, it says nothing about how he lived before he died. This justification is true of everyone who has died. The justification of Romans 3 is true only of believers.
The obvious objection is that we are still alive, and sin is still in us. The answer points to whose death this is.
Anyone who has done with sin must be dead to it. When a man is dead you cannot charge him with anything; his life has ceased to exist, he is out of the scene. You may say, "How can I be free from sin when I still find it in me?" The thing sin was attached to is gone. We are not told to die, for we are dead... You may ask, "How can that be, when I find I am not dead?" The answer is that you died in Christ. Christ took your place... The freedom we have is holy freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.
That is why the following verses tell us to reckon rather than to feel.
How can I realise that I am dead to sin? All my own experience, my own feelings, my own inner sense of myself seem to contradict this truth flatly. I cannot realise that I am dead; but God tells me I am... If I were sinless, if I had no sin in me, I should never be told to reckon myself dead to sin.
- Discharge. "Set free" renders the word "justified" — a release from every charge, not a change we feel.
- Root. Earlier chapters justify us from sins, the bad fruit; this verse justifies us from sin, the bad tree.
- Death. A dead slave owes his owner nothing; death ends every claim the old master had.
- Distinct. This justification rests on a state — being dead. It differs from the justification of ungodly people in Romans 3, which belongs to believers only.
- Reckon. We died in Christ, not in our feelings. So we count ourselves dead because God says so — free from sin, never free to sin.