Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 6:7
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
7. For he that is dead, &c.] Better, with a slight paraphrase, for he who has once died to sin now stands free from its claim. The legal claim of sin is meant here, not its moral dominion, for the Gr. word rendered “freed” in E. V., is lit. (see margin of E. V.) justified. The argument is that, since death is the penalty of sin, then if death has been suffered and passed, the penalty is exhausted and the claim cancelled: now such is the position of the justified in Christ; His death was endured, and is now past, for them and as theirs; therefore they live as those who have exhausted penalty and are free from its claim in fact, “justified from sin.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For he that is dead – This is evidently an expression having a proverbial aspect, designed to illustrate the sentiment just expressed. The Rabbis had an expression similar to this, When one is dead he is free from commands. (Grotius.) So says Paul, when a man dies he is exempt from the power and dominion of his master, of him who reigned over him. The Christian had been subject to sin before his conversion. But he has now become dead to it. And as when a servant dies, he ceases to be subject to the control of his master, so the Christian being now dead to sin, on the same principle, is released from the control of his former master, sin. The idea is connected with Rom 6:6, where it is said that we should not be the slaves of sin any more. The reason of this is assigned here, where it is said that we are freed from it as a slave is freed when he dies. Of course, the apostle here is saying nothing of the future world. His whole argument has respect to the state of the Christian here; to his being freed from the bondage of sin. It is evident that he who is not freed from this bondage here, will not be in the future world. But the argument of the apostle has no bearing on that point.
Is freed – Greek, Is justified. The word here is used clearly in the sense of setting at liberty, or destroying the power or dominion. The word is often used in this sense; compare Act 13:38-39; compare a similar expression in 1Pe 4:1, He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. The design of the apostle is not to say that the Christian is perfect, but that sin has ceased to have dominion over him, as a master ceases to have power over a slave when he is dead. That dominion may be broken, so that the Christian may not be a slave to sin, and yet he may be conscious of many failings and of much imperfection; see Rom. 7.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. He that is dead is freed from sin.] , literally, is justified from sin; or, is freed or delivered from it. Does not this simply mean, that the man who has received Christ Jesus by faith, and has been, through believing, made a partaker of the Holy Spirit, has had his old man, all his evil propensities destroyed; so that he is not only justified freely from all sin, but wholly sanctified unto God? The context shows that this is the meaning. Every instance of violence is done to the whole scope and design of the apostle, by the opinion, that “this text is a proof that believers are not fully saved from sin in this life, because only he that is dead is freed from sin.” Then death is his justifier and deliverer! Base and abominable insinuation, highly derogatory to the glory of Christ! Dr. Dodd, in his note on the preceding verse, after some inefficient criticism on the word , destroyed, which, he thinks, should be rendered enervated, has the following most unevangelical sentiment: “The body of sin in believers is, indeed, an enfeebled, conquered, and deposed tyrant, and the stroke of death finishes its destruction.” So then, the death of Christ and the influences of the Holy Spirit were only sufficient to depose and enfeeble the tyrant sin; but OUR death must come in to effect his total destruction! Thus our death is, at least partially, our Saviour; and thus, that which was an effect of sin (for sin entered into the world, and death by sin) becomes the means of finally destroying it! That is, the effect of a cause can become so powerful, as to react upon that cause and produce its annihilation! The divinity and philosophy of this sentiment are equally absurd. It is the blood of Christ alone that cleanses from all unrighteousness; and the sanctification of a believer is no more dependent on death than his justification. If it he said, “that believers do not cease from sin till they die;” I have only to say, they are such believers as do not make a proper use of their faith; and what can be said more of the whole herd of transgressors and infidels? They cease to sin, when they cease to breathe. If the Christian religion bring no other privileges than this to its upright followers, well may we ask, wherein doth the wise man differ from the fool, for they have both one end? But the whole Gospel teaches a contrary doctrine.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He that is dead, i.e. to sin, is freed from it; not only in respect of the guilt thereof, which sense the marginal reading of the word seems to respect, but also in regard of the service of it. This agrees best with the context; look, as he that is dead is freed and discharged from the authority of, those who had dominion over him in his lifetime, so it is with those that are dead to sin. There is a parallel place, 1Pe 4:1.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. For he that is deadrather,”hath died.”
is freed“hathbeen set free.”
from sinliterally,”justified,” “acquitted,” “got his dischargefrom sin.” As death dissolves all claims, so the whole claim ofsin, not only to “reign unto death,” but to keep itsvictims in sinful bondage, has been discharged once for all, by thebeliever’s penal death in the death of Christ; so that he is nolonger a “debtor to the flesh to live after the flesh”(Ro 8:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For he that is dead, is freed from sin. This is not to be understood of a natural or a corporeal death; for this is the effect of sin, and is inflicted by way of punishment for it, on Christless persons; so far is it from being an atonement for sin, as the Jews t fancy; besides, there are many persons, who as they die in their sins, they will rise in them; though a natural death is alluded to, when persons are free from those laws and obligations to service and duty they are under whilst living: but here it is to be understood of a spiritual or mystical death, and of persons who are dead to the law, by the body of Christ; dead to sin by the sacrifice and grace of Christ; who are baptized into the death of Christ, and in imitation of him: such are “freed from sin”; not from the being of it; nor from the burden of it; nor from a continual war with it; nor from slips and falls into it; no, not even freed from it, in the most solemn services and acts of religion; but they are freed from the dominion of it, from servitude to it, and also from the guilt of it, and from obligation to punishment on account of it: they are, as it is in the Greek text, and as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions read, “justified from sin”.
t See Gill “Ro 5:11”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Is justified (). Perfect passive indicative of , stands justified, set free from, adding this great word to death and life of verses Rom 6:1; Rom 6:2.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Is freed [] . Lit., as Rev., is justified; i e., acquitted, absolved; just as the dead person sins no more, being released from sin as from a legal claim. “As a man that is dead is acquitted and released from bondage among men, so a man that has died to sin is acquitted from the guilt of sin and released from its bondage” (Alford).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For he that is dead,” (ho gar apothanon) “For the one having died;” died to obligations of the dominating sin nature of the old man: The saved have a greater power within than the old inner sin power that once dominated them. It is Christ in them and the Holy Spirit, 1Jn 4:15; Rom 5:5; 1Jn 4:4.
2) “Is freed from sin,” (dedikaiotai apo tes hamartias) “Has been justified or acquitted from the sin”; liberated, released, set free from the eternal penalty of sin. Joh 8:32; Joh 8:36; Gal 5:13. He should not therefore serve the carnal selfish sinful desires any more; let God’s children do no more slave-service to sin, for they are Christ’s, Mar 9:41; 1Co 6:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7. For he who has died, etc. This is an argument derived from what belongs to death or from its effect. For if death destroys all the actions of life, we who have died to sin ought to cease from those actions which it exercised during its life. Take justified for freed or reclaimed from bondage; for as he is freed from the bond of a charge, who is absolved by the sentence of a judge; so death, by freeing us from this life, sets us free from all its functions. (189)
But though among men there is found no such example, there is yet no reason why you should think, that what is said here is a vain speculation, or despond in your minds, because you find not yourselves to be of the number of those who have wholly crucified the flesh; for this work of God is not completed in the day in which it is begun in us; but it gradually goes on, and by daily advances is brought by degrees to its end. So then take this as the sum of the whole, — “If thou art a Christian, there must appear in thee an evidence of a fellowship as to the death of Christ; the fruit of which is, that thy flesh is crucified together with all its lusts; but this fellowship is not to be considered as not existing, because thou findest that the relics of the flesh still live in thee; but its increase ought to be diligently labored for, until thou arrivest at the goal.” It is indeed well with us, if our flesh is continually mortified; nor is it a small attainment, when the reigning power, being taken away from it, is wielded by the Holy Spirit. There is another fellowship as to the death of Christ, of which the Apostle often speaks, as he does in 2Co 4:0, that is, the bearing of the cross, which is followed by a joint-participation also of eternal life.
(189) This verse has occasioned various explanations. The most obvious meaning of the first clause is, that to “die” here means to die with or in a similar manner with Christ, for in the next verse, where the idea is resumed, “with” or like “Christ,” is expressly stated. The verb, δεδικαίωται, “is,” or has been “justified,” has been considered by the early and most of the later commentators in the sense of being freed or delivered. This is the view, among others, of [ Chrysostom ], [ Basil ], [ Œcumenius ], [ Beza ], [ Pareus ], [ Hammond ], [ Grotius ], [ Doddridge ] and [ Macknight ] But it must be added, that it is a meaning of which there is no other clear instance in the New Testament, though the verb occurs often. [ Scott ], aware of this, gives it its common meaning, “justified;” and though he does not take the view of [ Venema ], [ Chalmers ], and [ Haldane ], as to the general import of the former part of this chapter, he yet considers that to be “justified from sin” here, is to be justified from its guilt and penalty. Nor is it irrelevant to the subject in hand to refer to justification: for it is a very important truth to declare, that to die to sin is an evidence of being justified from its guilt. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) Is freed.Absolved, the same word that is used elsewhere for justified. The dead man is no longer liable to have the charge of sin brought against him. This is the general proposition, the major premise, adduced in proof of what had gone before, viz., the particular proposition that he who is ethically dead is no longer the slave of sin.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘For he who has died is justified from sin.’
And this is because, having positionally died with Christ (read in on the basis of the previous verses), we are ‘accounted as righteous’ from sin. Sin has lost its power over us. Its penalty has been fully paid by Christ. As those who have died with Christ we are accounted as righteous through the gift of His righteousness (Rom 5:16-18). In consequence sin has lost its hold on us. It has to recognise that we are dead, and therefore freed from the penalty of sin. We are counted as righteous as far as the tyrant sin is concerned and as far as God is concerned.
Some, however, see these words as referring to Jesus Christ Himself (note the change from ‘we’ to ‘he’) Who, having died, was vindicated (seen as in the right) by His resurrection. On the other hand the change to ‘he’ could just as well be indicating a kind of ‘off the cuff’ comment by the writer.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 6:7. He that is dead is freed from sin St. Peter seems to paraphrase this verse, 1Pe 4:1. He that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sin; as if he had said, “The Christian who is so resolute, by the power of the Spirit of God, as to resist all temptation to sin, and chooses rather to suffer any temporal calamities than commit sin, or neglect his duty, is the only man who has done with sin;who is effectually delivered from the power and condemnation of it.” The Greek word , frequently signifies in Scripture to be saved or delivered. See Isa 45:25. Jam 2:25 and on ch. Rom 5:16. Mr. Locke paraphrases this passage thus: “For he that is dead is set free from the vassalage of sin, as a slave is from the vassalage of his master.” St. Paul makes it his business, in this chapter, not to tell the Jews what they certainly are; but to exhort them to be what they ought and are engaged to be, by becoming Christians; namely, that they ought by the power of grace to emancipate themselves from the vassalage of sin; not that they were so emancipated without any danger of return: for then he could not have said what he does, Rom 6:1; Rom 6:12-13 which supposes it in their power to continue in their obedience to sin, or return to that vassalage if they would.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 6:7 . Establishment of the . . . . by the general proposition: whosoever is dead, is acquitted from sin .
.] is explained by many of ethical death. So Erasmus, Calovius, Homberg, Bengel and others, including Koppe, Flatt, Glckler, Olshausen, Tholuck (who regards sin as creditor ), de Wette (“whosoever has died to sin, he alone is acquitted from sin”), Rothe, Krehl, Philippi (whosoever is ethically dead, over him has sin lost its right to impeach and to control, just as Bengel explains it), also van Hengel, Jatho, and Mrcker. But neither the nature of the general proposition , which forms in fact the major premiss in the argument, and of which only the application is to be made (in the minor proposition) to ethical dying; nor the tautological relation, which would result between subject and predicate, can permit this explanation. The conception of ethical dying recurs only in the sequel , and hence is added to in Rom 6:8 , so that Paul in this development of his views draws a sharp distinction between the being dead in the spiritual (Rom 6:6 ; Rom 6:8 ) and in the ordinary sense. We must therefore explain Rom 6:7 as a general proposition regarding death in the ordinary sense, and consequently regarding physical death (so rightly Hofmann), but not specially of the death by execution , through which sin is expiated (Alethaeus, Wolf and others; with this view they compare ., the juristic expression: he is justified; see Michaelis’ note); for any such peculiar reference of the still wholly unrestricted is forbidden by the very generality of the proposition, although for passages might be cited like Plat. Legg. II. p. 934 B; Aristot. Eth. v. 9.
. . .] “ The dead person is made just from sin,” i.e. he is in point of fact justified and acquitted from sin, he is placed by death in the position of a , who is such thenceforth; not as if he were now absolved from and rid of the guilt of his sins committed in life, but in so far as the dead person sins no more , no longer , from whose power, as from a legal claim urged against him during his life in the body, he has been actually released by death as through a decree of acquittal. Comp Kstlin in the Jahrb. f. Deutsche Theol. 1856, p. 98 f.; Th. Schott, p. 260, and Hofmann; also Baur, neut. Theol. p. 161 f.; Delitzsch, Illustrations to his Hebrew version, p. 84. Just for this reason has Paul added (comp Act 13:38 ; Sir 26:29 ; Test. XII. patr. p. 541), which would have been quite superfluous, had he taken , justus constitutus est , in the dogmatic sense of his doctrine of justification. The proposition itself, moreover, is an axiom of the popular traditional mode of view , which Paul uses for his purpose as admitted . This axiom has also its relative truth, and that partly in so far as the dead person has put off the with which he committed his sins (Col 2:11 ), partly in so far as with death the dominion of law over the man ceases (Rom 7:1 ), and partly in so far as in death all the relations are dissolved which supplied in life the objects of sinning. [1419] For the discussion of the question as to the absolute truth of the proposition, in its connection with Biblical anthropology and eschatology, there was no occasion at all here, [1420] where it is only used as an auxiliary clause, and ex concesso. Comp 1Pe 4:1 . Usteri mistakenly explains it: by death man has suffered the punishment , and thus expiated his guilt. For that Paul does not here express the Jewish dogma: “death as the punishment for sin expiates the guilt of sin” (see Eisenmenger, entdeckt. Judenth . II. p. 283 f.) is proved partly by the irrelevancy of such a sense to the context ( ); and partly by its inconsistency with the doctrines of the Apostle as to justification by faith and as to the judgment, according to which death cannot set free from the guilt-obligation of sin. Ewald makes a new idea be brought in at Rom 6:7 : “Even in common life, in the case of one who is dead, the sins of his previous life cannot be further prosecuted and punished, he passes for justified and acquitted of sin.; if in addition sin as a power has been broken by Christ (Rom 6:9 f.), then we may assuredly believe,” etc., Rom 6:8 . But in Rom 6:7 indicates its connection with what goes before , so that it is only with the in Rom 6:8 that a new thought is introduced. Besides, we should expect, in the case of the assumed course of thought, an instead of the in Rom 6:8 . Finally, it is not clear how that rule of common law was to serve as a joint ground for the faith of becoming alive with Christ.
[1419] The Greek expositors who already give substantially our explanation have confined themselves to this point. Chrysostom: . Theodoret: , . . . Melancthon compares the proverb: , Beza the saying of Anacreon: , Grotius that of Aeschylus: . Comp. Soph. O. C. 955.
[1420] Compare Melancthon: “Ceterum hoc sciamus, diabolos et omnes damnatos in omni aeternitate horribilia peccata facere, quia sine fine irascuntur Deo,” etc.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Ver. 7. Is freed from sin ] Anacreon saith the like, ; death is the accomplishment of mortification. It doth at once what death doth by degrees. Herbs and flowers breed worms, which yet at last kill the herbs and flowers. So sin bred death, but at last death will kill sin. A mud wall, while it standeth, harboureth much vermin, which when it falleth fly away; so doth corruption, when once these cottages of clay fall to ruin.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
7. ] The difficulty of this verse arises from the Apostle having in a short and pregnant sentence expressed a whole similitude, joining, as he elsewhere does in such cases, the subject of the first limb of the comparison with the predicate of the second. Fully expressed, it would stand thus: ‘For, as a man that is dead is acquitted and released from guilt and bondage (among men : no reference to God’s judgment of him): so a man that has died to sin is acquitted from the guilt of sin and released from its bondage.’ I express . by this periphrasis in both cases, because I believe that all this is implied in it: ‘is acquitted,’ ‘has his quittance,’ from sin, so that Sin (personified) has no more claims on him, either as a creditor or as a master: cannot detain him for debt, nor sue him for service. A larger reference is thus given to . than the purposes of the present argument, which is treating of the power, not the guilt of sin, required: but that it is so, lies in the nature of , the service of which is guilt , and the deliverance from whose service necessarily brings with it acquittal .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 6:7 . . . . Here we have the general principle on which the foregoing argument rests: death annuls all obligations, breaks all ties, cancels all old scores. The difficulty is that by the words Paul introduces one particular application of the principle the one he is concerned with here as if it were identical with the principle itself. “Death clears men of all claims, especially (to come to the case before us) it clears us, who have died with Christ, of the claim of sin, our old master, to rule over us still.” Weiss would reject the introduction into this clause of the idea of dying with Christ , on the ground that the words bring it in as a new idea in the following verse. But it is no new idea; it is the idea of the whole passage; and unless we bring it in here, the quittance from sin (and not from any obligation in general) remains inexplicable. Weiss, in fact, gives it up.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
is dead = died (i.e. with Christ).
is freed = has been justified, cleared from the claims of sin. App-191.
from. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
7.] The difficulty of this verse arises from the Apostle having in a short and pregnant sentence expressed a whole similitude, joining, as he elsewhere does in such cases, the subject of the first limb of the comparison with the predicate of the second. Fully expressed, it would stand thus: For, as a man that is dead is acquitted and released from guilt and bondage (among men: no reference to Gods judgment of him): so a man that has died to sin is acquitted from the guilt of sin and released from its bondage. I express . by this periphrasis in both cases, because I believe that all this is implied in it: is acquitted, has his quittance, from sin, so that Sin (personified) has no more claims on him, either as a creditor or as a master: cannot detain him for debt, nor sue him for service. A larger reference is thus given to . than the purposes of the present argument, which is treating of the power, not the guilt of sin, required: but that it is so, lies in the nature of , the service of which is guilt, and the deliverance from whose service necessarily brings with it acquittal.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 6:7. , dead) to sin, Rom 6:2.-, [is freed from sin] is justified) Sin has now no longer any claim against him in law; with which comp. Rom 6:6; Rom 6:9, so that he is no longer a debtor, ch. Rom 8:12. In respect of the past, he is justified [just] from the guilt of sin; in respect of the future, from its dominion, Rom 6:14.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 6:7
Rom 6:7
for he that hath died is justified from sin.-As the slave when dead is set free from his master, so he that has died with Christ is freed from sin and can no longer live in sin.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
For he: Rom 6:2, Rom 6:8, Rom 7:2, Rom 7:4, Col 3:1-3, 1Pe 4:1
freed: or, justified, Rom 8:1
Reciprocal: 1Pe 2:24 – being
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
FREEDOM BY DEATH
He that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 6:7
Christ came to be a federal Head. As the natural members of our body gather up into the natural head, so spiritual believers gather up into Christ. The Head acts, the Head feels, the Head loves, the Head does, the Head suffers, the Head dies. What the Head does, in Gods calculation, it is as if the members had done it. What the Head suffers, it is, in Gods calculation, as if the members had suffered it.
I. Observe the consequence of this representative system.As soon as ever you are really united to the Lord Jesus Christwhich union is effected first by goings forth or drawings of love on His part, then by reciprocal acts of faith and gratitude on yoursas soon as that union takes place, you have diedyou have died in your covenant Head. There was a sentence of death against you which must be executed, but in Christ you have undergone it. All the punishment, all the penalty you had to paythe exile you had to endurethe execution you had to sufferare past. Gods extremest justice is satisfied, and more than satisfied. What is the result? You cannot be punished for your own sinsyou can never be required to pay the forfeit which has been paid, or to undergo the exile which has been endured, or to die the death which has been diedit is done in Christ, and you are deadand he that is dead is freed from sin.
II. This was the only conceivable way in which it was possible that any man should be freed from sin.Gods government of this world is a moral government, according to all our ideas of justice and truth. It is essential to moral government that every sin should have its retribution. Therefore, God laid it down at the first, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And bad and disordered as this world is, what would it have beenwhat a pandemonium!if there had been no fear of judgment to come in this world! Having once laid it down, it would not have been compatible with the faithfulness of God to depart from it by one iota. Every soul that sins must die.
III. Look at the condition of a man who is freed from sin.Had sin never entered into our worldor, having entered, had it been simply forgiven by a wordwe should have been, I suppose, just as Adam was. But what is all that compared to what you have? An eternity of Christsunned for ever in His smile, never separated from His side, a part of His mystical body, higher than the highest archangel, called to the noblest services, reflecting the very image of God. To what do we owe that? To the necessity that was laid on the heart of Jesus to come and die for us. And the title He has given us, and the merit with which He has invested us, the sanctity of which He has made us capable, and the unity to which He has called usoh! it is a good thing for us that Adam ever fell and that death did ever reign, since by death we are free from death, and being made free from death, we are the freemen of heaven.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
7-8
Rom 6:7-8. He that is dead to sin by repentance is freed from the bondage of sin, and becomes alive through Christ with whom he has been buried by baptism.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 6:7. For he that hath died. He that died is more literal, but hath died better expresses the relation to what follows.
Is acquitted (lit., justified) from sin. This is the permanent result. The word justified is to be taken here in its strictly legal sense, absolved, acquitted, freed. There are three views in regard to the meaning of hath died: (1.) Physical death; the whole verse being a proverb: he who has died is freed from sin. The application to spiritually dying to sin is afterwards made. Meyer modifies this view: in so far as the dead person sins no more. The reference to physical death is favored by the connection (for) with what precedes. (2.) Moral death. But death to sin is the result, not the ground of justification. (3.) Death with Christ (mystical or spiritual death) justifies the sinner, frees him from its guilt and punishment. This thought is true enough, but seems inappropriate here, where the Apostle is giving a reason for Rom 6:6. Besides, dying with Christ is plainly expressed in the next verse. We prefer (1.), regarding the verse as a proverbial maxim. As natural death cuts off all communication with life, so must sanctification in the soul cut off all communication with sin (Henry).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
He that is dead, that is, spiritually dead unto sin, in conformity to the death of Christ, is freed from sin: That is, not only from the guilt, but from the dominion and slavery of sin.
Learn hence, That freedom from the bondage and tyranny, from the dominion and slavery of sin is the privilege of all those that are crucified with Christ, and dead to sin.
Freedom from sin consists in two things:
1. In disposessing the soul of every evil habit and disposition.
2. In renouncing a sinful course of life and conversation.
If sin be weakened in the heart, the fruit of that will appear in the life: The strength of sin lies in the love of sin; if that be broken, the power of sin is shaken.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 7. For he that is dead is of right freed from sin.
Many commentators, from Erasmus to Thol., De Wette, Philip., Hodge, Gess, etc., take the participle , he that is dead, in the figurative sense (comp. the similar expressions in Rom 6:6; Rom 6:8). But these critics divide immediately as to the meaning of the term , literally, is justified; some applying it to deliverance from guilt and punishment (Hodge for example)as the ordinary meaning of the word justify by Paul seems to demandthe others to deliverance from the power of sin, in the sense that he who is dead is no longer subject to this master, no longer owes him anything. Yet neither of these meanings is satisfactory. The first would take us back to the subject of justification, which was concluded at the end of chap. 5. According to Gess, Paul means to express the idea that the believer’s absolution from sin (justification) takes place only on condition of his death to sin. That would result in making sanctification the principle of justification. The other meaning would be more suitable in some respects: He who is dead spiritually (in the sense of Rom 6:6), is thereby set free from the power of sin. Undoubtedly in a general way this is the apostle’s meaning in Rom 6:7; the context demands it. But we do not think that this interpretation accounts exactly for the expressions used. The word , even with the preposition , cannot signify: to free from the power of, or, at least if we reach this meaning, it must be shown in what legitimate way that is possible. Then the participle , he that is dead, not being accompanied by any qualification, is rather to be understood in the strict sense, and the more so as in the following verse, when the apostle returns to the spiritual meaning, he expressly indicates the change by adding the words , with Christ.It is therefore a maxim borrowed from common life which the apostle expresses here, leaving it to the reader to apply it immediately to the corresponding fact of the moral life, which is precisely that just described by him in Rom 6:6. It follows that the word justify, , must have a somewhat different meaning from its ordinary dogmatic sense in Paul’s writings; for the domain to which he here applies it is altogether different. One who is dead, he means to say, no longer having a body to put at the service of sin, is now legally exempted from carrying out the wishes of that master, who till then had freely disposed of him. Suppose a dead slave; it will be vain for his master to order him to steal, to lie, or to kill. He will be entitled to answer: my tongue and hands and feet no longer obey me. How, then, could he be taken to task for refusing to serve? Such is the believer’s position after the crucifixion of his own will (of his old man) has reduced his body of sin (Rom 6:6) to powerlessness. He can no longer serve sin in the doing of evil, any more than the slave deprived of his body by death can continue to execute the orders formerly given him by his wicked master. The verb , to be justified, signifies in this connection: to be free from blame in case of disobedience; to be legally entitled not to obey. The idea of legality is in the word , to justify, that of liberation in the preposition , from. Taking the term in the literal sense, as we have done, commentators have sometimes restricted its application to the malefactor, who, by submitting to the punishment he deserved, has effaced his guilt, and can no longer be apprehended for the same crime. But the words: he who is dead, are too general to bear so special an application, and the sentence thus understood would reopen the subject of justification, which is exhausted.
The case of the dead slave described in Rom 6:7, as we understand it, is the exact counterpart of the believer’s moral situation described in Rom 6:6. The apostle leaves the reader to make this application himself, and passes in the following verses from the negative side of sanctification, crucifixion with Christ, to the positive side of this great truth, resurrection with Him. This second side is the necessary complement of the first. For the sinful will being once crucified in Christ, and its organ the body reduced to inaction, the believer’s moral personality cannot remain inert. It must have a new activity; the body itself demands a new employment in the service of this activity. We have seen how this idea was contained in the in order that of Rom 6:4. The believer dies, not to remain dead, but in order to rise again; and this he knows well, for in the person of Him with whom he dies, the Risen One, he beholds beforehand the moral necessity of the event. This relation of thought, already indicated Rom 6:4-5, is now developed Rom 6:8-10; comp. Gal 2:20.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
for he that hath died is justified from sin.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
7. For the one having died has been made free from sin, i. e., the person who has died to sin, as above described, i. e., had the old man crucified, and the body of sin destroyed. Has been made free from sin, fully and literally translated, giving the force of the Greek perfect, would read, Has been made free from sin, and more so now than ever.
Whereas the English definition of the perfect tense is an action completed in past time, developing a state continuing down to the present; the Greek has the same definition, but always lays the emphasis on the present, the English putting it on the past, thus giving a wonderful force to the revealed truth on Christian experience; e. g., Heb 10:10, By whose will we have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ once, and have it yet better than ever. This Rom 6:7 we are now investigating has been appropriated by Universalists to refute the future punishment of the wicked, deducing from it the conclusion that physical death liberates all from sin. This construction is utterly untrue, since the apostle is not speaking of the physical man at all, but the spiritual, throughout the entire argument. This verse follows the sixth as a legitimate corollary from the death of the old man and the destruction of the body of sin. Of course in that case the person having experienced the actual death of sin has been made free from it. There is a rattlesnake on your premises, much to your annoyance and danger.
That venomous monster is not only killed, but taken away and buried deep in the earth, there to remain forever. Of course you are now free from the presence, alarm, and peril of the monster, and will so remain forever. This monster is inbred sin. Jesus wants to kill him and utterly put him away forever, thus making you free from sin.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 7
From sin; considered as a master; for death always sets the bondman free from his servitude.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
6:7 {5} For he that is dead is freed from sin.
(5) He proves it by the effects of death, comparing Christ the head with his members.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Death ends all claims. Paul illustrated his point in Rom 6:6 by referring to this general truth. Once a person has died he or she has no more earthly obligations. Because of our death with Christ we have no obligation to respond to the dictates of our sinful nature. We may choose to do so, but we do not have to do so, and we should not do so (cf. Eph 4:22-32).
This verse does not mean that the power of sinful habits or the effects of sinful influences will cease to bother a person when he or she becomes a Christian. It does mean that the Christian is no longer under the slavery of sin that he or she used to live under. Our senses create a problem for us here. The unsaved person may think he is not a slave to sin when he really is. Conversely the Christian may think he is a slave to sin though he is not. The fact remains: God has broken the chain that once bound us to sin, and, happily, we are free of its domination. Unfortunately we will not be free of its enticement until our glorification.
The translation "acquitted from sin" is legitimate but perhaps misleading. It implies a forensic relationship to sin, but Paul was speaking of our relationship to sin in daily living in this section (practical sanctification, not justification).