Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 6:6
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him,] that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
6. knowing this ] Not precisely = “for we know this;” but more fully, “ as those who know this.” This knowledge is to be a working motive in the new life.
our old man ] Cp., for illustrative passages, Rom 7:22; 2Co 4:16; Eph 3:16; Eph 4:22; Eph 4:24; Col 3:9; 1Pe 3:4. In view of these, the word “ self ” in its popular use (“a man’s true self,” &c.) appears to be a fair equivalent for “ man ” here. Meyer here gives “ unser altes Ich,” (“our old Ego”). Here the Apostle views the Christian before his union to Christ as (figuratively, of course,) another person; so profoundly different was his position before God, as a person unconnected with Christ.
is crucified with him ] Better, was crucified. Here again the idea is the Representative Death of the Substitute, appropriated and made efficacious for justification, by faith. Not merely Death, but the Cross, is here named; the ideas of shame and pain being specially fit here, to emphasize both the requirements of the law and the claims of grace.
the body of sin ] i.e. the body regarded as the special seat and stronghold of sin. Cp. 1Co 9:27; and below, Rom 6:12-13. The body is “the external basis of human nature;” “the medium for the reception of life;” and thus “the sinfulness of human nature is manifested by means of it.” (Cremer.) In connexions like the present it nearly = “the flesh.”
destroyed ] Better, cancelled, as to its fatal power on the spirit. Same word as Rom 3:3; Rom 3:31; where see notes. Cp. especially 2Ti 1:10; where E. V. “abolished.” For a comment on the meaning here see Rom 8:3, and 1Co 9:27.
serve ] Lit., be slaves to; and so in the whole context. This clause explains the last: “The body of sin” is so “cancelled” as to its power that the “inner man” no longer is the slave, or obedient victim, of sin, but combats it, with final victory. Before our “death with Christ,” the will, although it was swayed by conscience away from single acts or courses of sin, had never decisively revolted from sin as such, under the one effective motive supreme love to the Holy God as the God of Peace. Hence, little as he might know it, the man’s will was, in the main respect of all, in harmony with sin, and the tool of sin; for sin in its essence is the not-loving the true God. And the impending doom of sin, (in other words, sin as unforgiven sin,) was the strength and secret of this bondage; for till the removal of the doom the man could not love God; God could not be to him the God of Peace. Hence St Paul speaks now immediately of deliverance from the doom of sin as implying deliverance from its bondage.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Knowing this – We all knowing this. All Christians are supposed to know this. This is a new illustration drawn from the fact that by his crucifixion our corrupt nature has been crucified also, or put to death; and that thus we should be free from the servitude of sin.
Our old man – This expression occurs also in Eph 4:22, That ye put off …the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Col 3:9, lie not to one another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. From these passages it is evident that Paul uses the expression to denote our sinful and corrupt nature; the passions and evil propensities that exist before the heart is renewed. It refers to the love of sin, the indulgence of sinful propensities, in opposition to the new disposition which exists after the soul is converted, and which is called the new man.
Is crucified – Is put to death, as if on a cross. In this expression there is a personification of the corrupt propensities of our nature represented as our old man, our native disposition, etc. The figure is here carried out, and this old man, this corrupt nature, is represented as having been put to death in an agonizing and torturing manner. The pains of crucifixion were perhaps the most torturing of any that the human frame could bear. Death in this manner was most lingering and distressing. And the apostle here by the expression is crucified doubtless refers to the painful and protracted struggle which everyone goes through when his evil propensities are subdued; when his corrupt nature is slain; and when, a converted sinner, he gives himself up to God. Sin dies within him, and he becomes dead to the world, and to sin; for as by the cross death is most lingering and severe, so that corrupt nature is not subdued but by anguish. (Grotius.) All who have been born again can enter into this description. They remember the wormwood and the gall. They remember the anguish of conviction; the struggle of corrupt passion for the ascendency; the dying convulsions of sin in the heart; the long and lingering conflict before it was subdued, and the soul became submissive to God. Nothing will better express this than the lingering agony of crucifixion: and the argument of the apostle is, that as sin has produced such an effect, and as the Christian is now free from its embrace and its power, he will live to God.
With him – The word with sun here is joined to the verb is crucified and means is crucified as he was.
That the body of sin – This expression doubtless means the same as that which he had just used, our old man, But why the term body is used, has been a subject in which interpreters have not been agreed. Some say that it is a Hebraism, denoting mere intensity or emphasis. Some that it means the same as flesh, that is, denoting our sinful propensities and lusts. Grotius thinks that the term body is elegantly attributed to sin, because the body of man is made up of many members joined together compactly, and sin also consists of numerous vices and evil propensities joined compactly, as it were, in one body. But the expression is evidently merely another form of conveying the idea contained in the phrase our old man – a personification of sin as if it had a living form, and as if it had been put to death on a cross. It refers to the moral destruction of the power of sin in the heart by the gospel, and not to any physical change in the nature or faculties of the soul; compare Col 2:11.
Might be destroyed – Might be put to death; might become inoperative and powerless. Sin becomes enervated, weakened, and finally annihilated, by the work of the Cross.
We should not serve – Should not be the slave of sin douleuein. That we should not be subject to its control. The sense is, that before this we were slaves of sin (compare Rom 6:17,) but that now we are made free from this bondage, because the moral death of sin has freed us from it.
Sin – Sin is here personified as a master that had dominion over us, but is now dead.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Our old man is crucified with him] This seems to be a farther extension of the same metaphor. When a seed is planted in the earth, it appears as if the whole body of it perished. All seeds, as they are commonly termed, are composed of two parts; the germ, which contains the rudiments of the future plant; and the lobes, or body of the seed, which by their decomposition in the ground, become the first nourishment to the extremely fine and delicate roots of the embryo plant, and support it till it is capable of deriving grosser nourishment from the common soil. The body dies that the germ may live. Parables cannot go on all fours; and in metaphors or figures, there is always some one (or more) remarkable property by which the doctrine intended is illustrated. To apply this to the purpose in hand: how is the principle of life which Jesus Christ has implanted in us to be brought into full effect, vigour, and usefulness? By the destruction of the body of sin, our old man, our wicked, corrupt, and fleshly self, is to be crucified; to be as truly slain as Christ was crucified; that our souls may as truly be raised from a death of sin to a life of righteousness, as the body of Christ was raised from the grave, and afterwards ascended to the right hand of God. But how does this part of the metaphor apply to Jesus Christ? Plainly and forcibly. Jesus Christ took on him a body; a body in the likeness of sinful flesh, Ro 8:3; and gave up that body to death; through which death alone an atonement was made for sin, and the way laid open for the vivifying Spirit, to have the fullest access to, and the most powerful operation in, the human heart. Here, the body of Christ dies that he may be a quickening Spirit to mankind. Our body of sin is destroyed by this quickening Spirit, that henceforth we should live unto Him who died and rose again. Thus the metaphor, in all its leading senses, is complete, and applies most forcibly to the subject in question. We find that , the old man, used here, and in Eph 4:22, and Col 3:9, is the same as the flesh with its affections and lusts, Ga 5:24; and the body of the sins of the flesh, Col 2:11; and the very same which the Jewish writers term , Adam hakkadmoni, the old Adam; and which they interpret by yetsar hara, “evil concupiscence,” the same which we mean by indwelling sin, or the infection of our nature, in consequence of the fall. From all which we may learn that the design of God is to counterwork and destroy the very spirit and soul of sin, that we shall no longer serve it, , no longer be its slaves. Nor shall it any more be capable of performing its essential functions than a dead body can perform the functions of natural life.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By the old man is meant, that corrupt and polluted nature which we derive from Adam, the first man: see Eph 4:22; Col 3:9,10. The old and new man are opposites; as then the new man is the image of God repaired in us; so the old man is a depravation of that image of God, and a universal pollution of the whole man.
Is crucified with him; by virtue of our union with him, and by means of his death and crucifixion: see Gal 2:20.
The body of sin is the very same that he called before the old man. The corrupt nature is sometimes called the body, Rom 8:13, sometimes a body of death, Rom 7:24, and here the body of sin. It is indeed a mere mass and lump of sin; it is not one sin, but all sin seminally. It is with respect to this body of sin, that particular lusts and corruptions are called members, Col 3:5.
Might be destroyed; weakened more and more, till at last it be destroyed.
That henceforth we should not serve sin; as we did before regeneration, and as they still do who voluntarily commit it, Joh 8:34. They do not only act sin, but are acted by it, having as many lords as lusts, Tit 3:3. See more of this, Rom 6:16.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6, 7. Knowing this, c.Theapostle now grows more definite and vivid in expressing thesin-destroying efficacy of our union with the crucified Saviour.
that our old man“ourold selves” that is, “all that we were in our oldunregenerate condition, before union with Christ” (compareCol 3:9; Col 3:10;Eph 4:22-24; Gal 2:20;Gal 5:24; Gal 6:14).
israther, “was.”
crucified with himinorder.
that the body of sinnota figure for “the mass of sin”; nor the “materialbody,” considered as the seat of sin, which it is not; but(as we judge) for “sin as it dwells in us in our presentembodied state, under the law of the fall.”
might be destroyed(inChrist’s death)to the end.
that henceforth we should notserve sin“be in bondage to sin.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,…. By the old man is meant the corruption of nature; called a man, because natural to men; it lives and dwells in them; it has spread itself over the whole man; it rules and governs in men; and consists of various parts and members, as a man does: it is called “old”, because it is the poison of the old serpent, with which man was infected by him from the beginning; it is derived from the first man that ever was; it is as old as the man is, in whom it is, and is likewise called so, with respect to its duration and continuance; and in opposition to, and contradistinction from, the new man, or principle of grace: it is called “ours”, because continual to us; it is in our nature, it cleaves to us, and abides in us. This name the apostle took from his countrymen the Jews, who were wont to call the vitiosity of nature hereby; so R. Aba on that passage, “the firstborn said to the younger, our father is old”, Ge 19:31, asks, what is the meaning of this, “our father is old?” this, answers he, is the evil imagination, or corruption of nature, which is called
, “old”, according to Ec 4:13; and is said to be old,
, “because it is born with the man” o; or as the reason is elsewhere given p, because it is joined to him from his birth, to his old age: this, they say q, is with a man as soon as he is born, from the hour of his birth, as soon as ever he comes into the world. Now this is said to be “crucified with him”; that is, with Christ, when he was crucified: the Jews r have a notion that the evil imagination, or corruption of nature, , will not be made to cease, or be abolished out of the world, till the King Messiah comes, and by him it is abolished: this is so crucified by the death, and at the cross of Christ, as that it cannot exert its damning power over believers; and is so crucified by the Spirit and grace of Christ in them, as that it cannot reign over them, or exercise its domineering power over them; wherefore they are dead unto it, and that to them, and therefore cannot live in it; which is done,
that the body of sin might be destroyed: by “the body of sin” is meant sin itself, which consists, as a body does, of various members; and also the power and strength of it, which the Jews s call , “the power of the evil imagination”; this is crucified with Christ, and nailed to his cross by his sacrifice and satisfaction, that its damning power might be destroyed, abolished, and done away: and it is crucified by the Spirit and grace of Christ, that its governing power might be took away, and that itself be subdued, weakened, and laid under restraints, and its members and deeds mortified:
that henceforth we should not serve sin; not that it should not be in us, for as yet, neither by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, nor by the power of his grace, is sin as to its being removed from the people of God: but that we should not serve it, make provision for it, indulge it and obey it, in the lusts thereof.
o Midrash Haneelam in Zohar in Gen. fol. 68. 1. Vid. Caphtor, fol. 20. 1. p Midrash Kohelet, fol. 70. 2. q Zohar in Gen. fol. 102. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 14. 4. r Zohar in Exod fol. 94. 4. s Ib.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Our old man ( ). Only in Paul (here, Col 3:9; Eph 4:22).
Was crucified with him (). See on Ga 2:19 for this boldly picturesque word. This took place not at baptism, but only pictured there. It took place when “we died to sin” (verse 1).
The body of sin ( ). “The body of which sin has taken possession” (Sanday and Headlam), the body marked by sin.
That so we should no longer be in bondage to sin ( ). Purpose clause with and the present active infinitive of , continue serving sin (as slaves). Adds “slavery” to living in sin (verse 2).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Old man [ ] ., Only in Paul, and only three times; here, Eph 4:22; Col 3:9. Compare Joh 3:3; Tit 3:5. The old, unrenewed self. Paul views the Christian before his union with Christ, as, figuratively, another person. Somewhat in the same way he regards himself in ch. 7.
The body of sin [ ] . Swma in earlier classical usage signifies a corpse. So always in Homer and often in later Greek. So in the New Testament, Mt 6:25; Mr 5:29; Mr 14:8; Mr 14:43. It is used of men as slaves, Rev 18:13. Also in classical Greek of the sum – total. So Plato : to tou kosmou swma the sum – total of the world (” Timaeus, ” 31). The meaning is tinged in some cases by the fact of the vital union of the body with the immaterial nature, as being animated by the yuxh soul, the principle of individual life. Thus Mt 6:25, where the two are conceived as forming one organism, so that the material ministries which are predicated of the one are predicated of the other, and the meanings of the two merge into one another.
In Paul it can scarcely be said to be used of a dead body, except in a figurative sense, as Rom 8:10, or by inference, 2Co 5:8. Commonly of a living body. It occurs with yuch soul, only 1Th 5:23, and there its distinction from yuch rather than its union with it is implied. So in Mt 10:28, though even there the distinction includes the two as one personality. It is used by Paul :
1. Of the living human body, Rom 4:19; 1Co 6:13; 1Co 9:27; 1Co 12:12 – 26.
2. Of the Church as the body of Christ, Rom 12:5; 1Co 12:27; Eph 1:23; Col 1:18, etc. Sarx flesh, never in this sense.
3. Of plants and heavenly bodies, 1Co 14:37, 40.
4. Of the glorified body of Christ, Phi 3:21.
5. Of the spiritual body of risen believers, 1Co 14:44. It is distinguished from sarx flesh, as not being limited to the organism of an earthly, living body, 1Co 14:37, 38. It is the material organism apart from any definite matter. It is however sometimes used as practically synonymous with sarx, 1Co 7:16, 17; Eph 5:28, 31; 2Co 4:10, 11. Compare 1Co 5:3 with Col 2:5. An ethical conception attaches to it. It is alternated with melh members, and the two are associated with sin (Rom 1:24; Rom 6:6; Rom 7:5, 24; Rom 8:13; Col 3:5), and with sanctification (Rom 12:1; 1Co 6:19 sq.; compare 1Th 4:4; 1Th 5:23). It is represented as mortal, Rom 8:11; 2Co 10:10; and as capable of life, 1Co 13:3; 2Co 4:10.
In common with melh members, it is the instrument of feeling and willing rather than sarx, because the object in such cases is to designate the body not definitely as earthly, but generally as organic, Rom 6:12, 13, 19; 2Co 5:10. Hence, wherever it is viewed with reference to sin or sanctification, it is the outward organ for the execution of the good or bad resolves of the will.
The phrase body of sin denotes the body belonging to, or ruled by, the power of sin, in which the members are instruments of unrighteousness (ver. 13). Not the body as containing the principle of evil in our humanity, since Paul does not regard sin as inherent in, and inseparable from, the body (see ver. 13; 2Co 4:10 – 12; 2Co 7:1. Compare Mt 14:19), nor as precisely identical with the old man, an organism or system of evil dispositions, which does not harmonize with vers. 12, 13, where Paul uses body in the strict sense. “Sin is conceived as the master, to whom the body as slave belongs and is obedient to execute its will. As the slave must perform his definite functions, not because he in himself can perform no others, but because of His actually subsistent relationship of service he may perform no others, while of himself he might belong as well to another master and render other services; so the earthly swma body belongs not of itself to the aJmartia sin, but may just as well belong to the Lord (1Co 6:13), and doubtless it is de facto enslaved to sin, so long as a redemption from this state has not set in by virtue of the divine Spirit” (Rom 7:24; Dickson).
Destroyed. See on 3 3.
He that is dead [ ] . Rev., literally, he that hath died. In a physical sense. Death and its consequences are used as the general illustration of the spiritual truth. It is a habit of Paul to throw in such general illustrations. See Rom 7:2.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Knowing this,” (touto gioskontes) “Knowing or recognizing this;” knowing this much –that baptism does not give new life, but does witness that a new pattern of life is to be seen in us hereafter, Mat 10:38-39.
2) “That our old man is crucified with him,” (hoti ho palaios hemon anthropos sunestaurothe) “That the old (man) or person of us was crucified with him,” and now is to exist as dead (barren, unfruitful, unproductive). We are to feed, exercise, cultivate the old desires and passions no more, but to keep them subdued, bridled, under subjection, 1Co 9:26-27; Rom 12:1-2; Col 1:1-3.
3) “That the body of sin might be destroyed,” (hina katargethe to soma tes hamartias) “in order that the body of sin might be destroyed,” brought to great loss or ruin, be bridled, kept under control by the Holy Spirit, by the new life of Christ in us, as Paul yearned to do, 1Co 9:26-27; Gal 5:25.
CARTHAGE DESTRUCTION
It is reported of Cato that he never spake in the senate upon public business, but he ended his speech by inculcating the necessity of destroying Carthage; his well-known maxim was: “Delenda est Carthage.” The believers’ motto is, “The old man must be crucified.”
–J. Lee
4) “That henceforth we should not serve sin,” (tou meketi douleuein hemas te hamartia) “To the end that we should no longer serve the body of sin,” the cravings of the old flesh-body and its desires, no longer be in bondage or slavery to the desires of the carnal nature, Eph 4:22-24; Col 3:5-9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
6. That our old man, etc. The old man, as the Old Testament is so called with reference to the New; for he begins to be old, when he is by degrees destroyed by a commencing regeneration. But what he means is the whole nature which we bring from the womb, and which is so incapable of the kingdom of God, that it must so far die as we are renewed to real life. This old man, he says, is fastened to the cross of Christ, for by its power he is slain: and he expressly referred to the cross, that he might more distinctly show, that we cannot be otherwise put to death than by partaking of his death. For I do not agree with those who think that he used the word crucified, rather than dead, because he still lives, and is in some respects vigorous. It is indeed a correct sentiment, but not suitable to this passage. The body of sin, which he afterwards mentions, does not mean flesh and bones, but the corrupted mass; for man, left to his own nature, is a mass made up of sin. (188)
He points out the end for which this destruction is effected, when he says, so that we may no longer serve sin. It hence follows, that as long as we are children of Adam, and nothing more than men, we are in bondage to sin, that we can do nothing else but sin; but that being grafted in Christ, we are delivered from this miserable thraldom; not that we immediately cease entirely to sin, but that we become at last victorious in the contest.
(188) It is thought by [ Pareus ] and others, that “body” is here assigned to “sin,” in allusion to the crucifixion that is mentioned, as a body in that case is fixed to the cross, and that it means the whole congeries, or, as Calvin calls it, the whole mass of sins, such as pride, passion, lust, etc. But the reason for using the word “body,” is more probably this, because he called innate sin, man — “the old man;” and what properly belongs to man is a body. The “body of sin” is a Hebraism, and signifies a sinful body. It has no special reference to the material body, as [ Origen ] thought. The “man” here is to be taken in a spiritual sense, as one who has a mind, reason, and affections: therefore the body which belongs to him must be of the same character: it is the whole of what appertains to “the old man,” as he is corrupt and sinful, the whole of what is earthly, wicked, and depraved in him. It is the sinful body of the old man. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) Our old man.Our old self (Vaughan), as in Eph. 4:22; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:9-10.
The old self, or that congeries of evil habits acquired in the state of heathenism, was, ideally if not actually, mortified and killed in our baptism. This change was wrought by a power brought to bear upon the will through the contemplation of the crucifixion of Christ. Hence, instead of saying simply mortified, the Apostle writes rather crucified, i.e. put to death, not in any way, but specially through the cross.
That the body of sin might be destroyed.The body of sin is the body subject to sin, or that supplies sin with the material on which it works. This substratum of carnal and fleshly desire, the Apostle tells us, is to be ascetically chastened and disciplined until it ceases to be a source of sin.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(6-11) Further description of this process. The Christians union with the crucified Christ binds him also to crucify or mortify (ascetically) the sinful desires of his body. Thus he is released from the dominion of those desires. But this is not all. Just as Christ passed from the cross to the resurrection, and overcame death once for all, exchanging for it a life wholly dependent upon God; so, too, His followers must consider themselves cut off irrevocablyas if by death itselffrom sin, and living with a new life dedicated and devoted to God, through their participation in the death and life of Jesus Christ their Lord.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Old man is crucified Our old man is our unregenerate nature renounced by faith in Christ. The cessation of this unregeneracy finds its image in the crucifixion.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin,’
He now reverts back to stress that we are no longer under bondage to sin. And this is because we know that our ‘old man’ was crucified with Him. Our ‘old man’ is ‘what we were in ourselves before we came to Christ’. This has died with Jesus on the cross. That is what our commitment to Christ as our Saviour has involved. And the purpose was that the old body (our old self) which was controlled by sin (our body which was then ‘the body of sin’) might be done away/rendered powerless, so that we might no longer be under bondage to the tyrant sin. For while we still live in the same body it is a renewed body, and is no longer a body of sin. Sin no longer controls it. Rather sin fights a rearguard action within it (Rom 7:14-25). Our body is now one which is submitted to Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 6:6. Our old man Our wicked and corrupt fleshly self, Gal 5:24. Eph 4:22. Col 2:11. 1Pe 4:1. The utter destruction of the body of sin in us, is certainly intended in the Gospel; but the particular import of the Greek word , is, to make void, debilitate, enervate, disannul, abolish, or depose. Compare chap. Rom 3:31 Rom 4:14. 1Co 2:6; 1Co 13:8; 1Co 15:24. Eph 2:15. 2Ti 1:10. It will conduce much to the understanding of St. Paul in this and the two following chapters, if it be observed that these phrases, to serve sin,to be servants of sin,sin reigning in our mortal bodies,to obey sin in the lusts of our bodies,to yield our members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, or servants of uncleanness,and of iniquity unto iniquity,to be free from righteousness,to walk, live, or be after the flesh,to be carnally-minded, all signify one and the same thing; namely, the giving ourselves up to the conduct of our carnal and sinful appetites; allowing any of them the command over us, and the conduct and prevalency in determining us. On the contrary, the walking after the spirit, or in newness of life,the crucifixion of the old man,the destruction of the body of sin, the deliverance from the body of death,to be freed from sin,to be dead to sin, and alive unto God,to yield ourselves unto God, as those who are alive from the dead,to yield our members servants of righteousness unto holiness, or instruments of righteousness unto God,to be servants of obedience unto righteousness, made free from sin,servants of righteousness,to be after the Spirit, to be spiritually-minded,to mortify the deeds of the body,do all signify a constant steady purpose and sincere endeavour to obey the law and will of God in every thing through grace; these several expressions being used in several places, as best serves the occasion, and illustrates the sense.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 6:6 . ] Definition to . , which objective relation is confirmed by the corresponding experimental conscious knowledge (comp in Rom 6:9 ): since we know this ; not a mere continuation of the construction instead of . (Philippi), as the participle is never so used, not even in ch. Rom 2:4 ; nor yet to be conceived as in the train of the (Hofmann), as if Paul had expressed himself by some such word as , or with the telic infinitive ( ). Respecting see on ch. Rom 2:3 .
. . .] i.e. our old ego our personality in its entire sinful condition before regeneration (Joh 3:3 ; Tit 3:5 ). Comp Eph 4:22 ; Col 3:9 . From the standpoint of the , constituting the Christian self-consciousness, the Christian sees his pre-Christian ethical personality as his old self no longer to be found in life, as the person which he had formerly been Comp on 2Co 5:17 ; Eph 2:10 .
] namely, when we were baptized and thereby transplanted into the fellowship of death. See on Rom 6:3-4 . This special expression of the being killed with Him is selected simply because Christ was slain on the cross ; not as Grotius and others, including Olshausen, hold: “quia sicut per crucem non sine gravi dolore ad exitum pervenitur, ita illa natura (the old man) sine dolore non extinguitur.” Compare Umbreit. The simple . is not at all in keeping with this far-fetched reference, which is not supported by Gal 2:19 f.; but just as little with the reference to the disgrace of crucifixion (Hofmann).
.] Design of the . . . .: in order that the body of sin might be destroyed , i.e. the body belonging to the power of sin , ruled by sin. [1413] Comp Rom 7:24 . The old man had such a body; and this was to be destroyed, put out of existence by the crucifixion with Christ; consequently not the body in itself , but in so far as it is the sin-body, becoming determined by sin in its expressions of life to sinful (Rom 8:13 ). The propriety of this interpretation appears from Rom 6:7 ; Rom 6:12-13 ; Rom 6:23 . Comp on Col 2:11 . If we explain it merely of “ the body as seat or organ of sin ,” the idea would not in itself be un-Pauline, as Reiche thinks; for the would in fact appear not as the soliciting agent of sin (not as the ), but as its vehicle, in itself morally indifferent, but serving sin as the organic instrument of its vital activity (see Stirm in the Tbing. Zeitschr. f. Theol. 1834, 3, p. 10 ff.); but is decisive against this view. For this could neither mean destroyed, annihilated , because in fact even the body of the regenerate is a . in the sense assumed (Rom 6:12 ); nor even evacuaretur (Tertullian, Augustine), rendered inactive, inoperative , partly because then the idea of would be assigned to , and partly because it is only the conception of the destruction of the body which corresponds to the conception of crucifixion. Others take the corpus peccati figuratively ; either so, that sin is conceived under the figure of a body with significant reference to its being crucified (so Fathers in Suicer, Thes. II. p. 1215, Piscator, Pareus, Castalio, Hammond, Homberg, Calovius, Koppe, Flatt, and Olshausen; also Reiche, conceiving sin as a monster); or, similarly to this mode of apprehending it, in such a way as to find the sense: “ the mass of sin ,” . , Chrysostom. So Ambrosiaster, Pseudo-Hieronymus, Theophylact, Erasmus, Cornelius Lapide, Grotius, Estius, Reithmayr and others; so also Calvin, who however takes the corpus peccati as a designation of the natural man itself, which is a massa, ex peccato conflata . Philippi also ultimately comes to the massa peccati , which is conceived as an organism having members, as ; so likewise Jatho and Julius Mller, v. d. Snde , I. p. 460, Exo 5 ; also Baur (” as it were the substance of sin ”). But all these interpretations are at variance partly with the Pauline usus loquendi in general, and partly with Rom 6:12 in particular, where . by its reference to our passage confirms “our view of the . The right view is held substantially by Theodoret, Theophylact 2, Bengel and others, including Tholuck, Kllner, de Wette, Rckert, Fritzsche, Maier, Nielsen, Hofmann and Weiss; whereas Baumgarten-Crusius, and also Ernesti, Urspr. d. Snde , I. p. 113, convert into the idea of state of life .
. . . [1416] ] “finem abolitionis notat,” Calvin. The sin, which is committed, is conceived as a ruler to whom service is rendered. See Joh 8:34 .
[1413] It is self-evident that Paul might have said also , as in Col 2:11 . But his whole theme (ver. 1) suggested his saying . He might even have-written merely , but was given in the immediate context ( .)
[1416] . . . .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him , that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Ver. 6. The body of sin ] For whole evil is in man, and whole man in evil.
Is crucified ] Which is a lingering but a sure death.
Should not serve sin ] As those do that commit it, Joh 8:34 ; not only act it, but are acted by it, having as many lords as lusts, victors as vices. Tit 3:3 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
6. ] Knowing (recollecting) this, that our old man (former self, personality before our new birth opposed to or ., , see Col 3:10 ; 2Co 5:17 ; Eph 4:22-24 , not merely the guilt of sin, nor the power of sin, but the man . The idea is not Jewish, as Tholuck has shewn: the passage quoted from the Sohar-chadasch not bearing the meaning commonly given to it, and if it did, that book itself being a production probably of the sixteenth century) was (at our baptism) crucified with Him (the great key to our text is ref. Gal. As the death of the Lord Jesus was by crucifixion , the Apostle uses the same expression of our death to our former sinful self, which is not only by virtue of, but also in the likeness of , Christ’s death, as signal, as entire, as much a death of cutting off and putting to shame and pain), in order that (the aim and end of the ) the body of sin might be annulled (“ . . belongs together, and . is not to be joined with . as being = . (Theodoret, Wahl); nor is . . ‘ the totality of sin ’ (Orig [36] 2, Theophyl. 1, Grot.); nor ‘ the substance or essence of sin ,’ after the Heb. (Rabbinical) usage of and (Schttg.): nor, ‘ the mass of sin ’ (Thol. 1); nor a mere figure to carry out the idea of being crucified with Christ (Calov., Wolf, Reiche, Olsh., Stuart 2, al.); nor = . ; but ‘ the body, which belongs to or serves sin ,’ in which sin rules or is manifested, = , Rom 6:13 , in which is , ch. Rom 7:23 , . , ch. Rom 7:24 , , ch. Rom 8:13 , , Col 2:11 .” De Wette: with whom agree Orig [37] 1, Theophyl. 2, Beza, Bengel, Meyer, Tholuck, Stuart 1, al. But as De W. further remarks, we must not understand that the body is the seat of sin , or at all events must no so understand those words as if the principle of sin lay in the body , which is not true, for it lies in the will ).
[36] Origen, b. 185, d. 254
[37] Origen, b. 185, d. 254
, might be rendered powerless (annulled as far as regards activity and energy. The word occurs twenty-five times in Paul’s Epistles (elsewhere, Luk 13:7 , Heb 2:14 only), and does not appear to signify absolute annihilation , but as above. Gregory of Nyssa has gone into the meaning in his discourse on 1Co 15:28 , vol. i. p. 1325), that we might no longer be in bondage (be slaves to) sin (i.e. that the body should no longer be under the dominion of sin, see below, Rom 6:12 ).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 6:6 . All this can be asserted, knowing as we do that “our old man” = our old self, what we were before we became Christians was crucified with Him. Paul says simply because Christ died on the cross , and we are baptised into that death, not because “our old man” is the basest of criminals for whom crucifixion is the proper penalty. The object of this crucifixion of the old man was “that the body of sin might be brought to nought”. is the body in which we live: apart from the crucifixion of the old self it can be characterised as “a body of sin”. It may be wrong to say that it is necessarily and essentially sinful the body, as such, can have no moral predicate attached to it; it would be as wrong to deny that it is invariably and persistently a seat and source of sin. The genitive is perhaps qualitative rather than possessive, though “the body of which sin has taken possession” (S. and H.) is a good paraphrase. See Winer, p. 235, 768. This body is to be reduced to impotence . . . “that we may no longer be slaves to sin”. The body is the instrument we use in the service of sin, and if it is disabled the service must cease. For the gen inf, see Burton, 397.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Knowing. App-132.
old man. The old Adam nature. Here, Eph 4:22. Col 3:9.
man. App-123.
crucified with. See Joh 19:32.
the body of sin = the old nature which is the slave of sin. Compare Col 2:11, Col 2:12.
destroyed = annulled. Greek. katargeo. See Rom 3:3 and Luk 13:7.
henceforth. Greek. meketi.
serve. App-190.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
6.] Knowing (recollecting) this, that our old man (former self, personality before our new birth-opposed to or ., ,-see Col 3:10; 2Co 5:17; Eph 4:22-24,-not merely the guilt of sin, nor the power of sin, but the man. The idea is not Jewish, as Tholuck has shewn: the passage quoted from the Sohar-chadasch not bearing the meaning commonly given to it,-and if it did, that book itself being a production probably of the sixteenth century) was (at our baptism) crucified with Him (the great key to our text is ref. Gal. As the death of the Lord Jesus was by crucifixion, the Apostle uses the same expression of our death to our former sinful self, which is not only by virtue of, but also in the likeness of, Christs death,-as signal, as entire, as much a death of cutting off and putting to shame and pain), in order that (the aim and end of the ) the body of sin might be annulled ( . . belongs together, and . is not to be joined with . as being = . (Theodoret, Wahl);-nor is . . the totality of sin (Orig[36] 2, Theophyl. 1, Grot.); nor the substance or essence of sin, after the Heb. (Rabbinical) usage of and (Schttg.): nor, the mass of sin (Thol. 1);-nor a mere figure to carry out the idea of being crucified with Christ (Calov., Wolf, Reiche, Olsh., Stuart 2, al.);-nor = . ; but the body, which belongs to or serves sin, in which sin rules or is manifested, = , Rom 6:13, in which is , ch. Rom 7:23,- . , ch. Rom 7:24,- , ch. Rom 8:13,- , Col 2:11. De Wette: with whom agree Orig[37] 1, Theophyl. 2, Beza, Bengel, Meyer, Tholuck, Stuart 1, al. But as De W. further remarks, we must not understand that the body is the seat of sin, or at all events must no so understand those words as if the principle of sin lay in the body, which is not true, for it lies in the will).
[36] Origen, b. 185, d. 254
[37] Origen, b. 185, d. 254
, might be rendered powerless (annulled as far as regards activity and energy. The word occurs twenty-five times in Pauls Epistles (elsewhere, Luk 13:7, Heb 2:14 only), and does not appear to signify absolute annihilation, but as above. Gregory of Nyssa has gone into the meaning in his discourse on 1Co 15:28, vol. i. p. 1325), that we might no longer be in bondage (be slaves to) sin (i.e. that the body should no longer be under the dominion of sin, see below, Rom 6:12).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 6:6. , man) The abstract for the concrete, as in ch. Rom 7:22, and in many other places.– ) The particles should be carefully noticed; as also the three synonymous nouns, and the verbs added to them.-, may be destroyed) may be stripped of its dominion [Rom 6:14].- , the body of sin) the mortal body, abounding in sin and lusts, etc., Rom 6:12, so the body of death, ch. Rom 7:24, note.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 6:6
Rom 6:6
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him,- The old man that followed sin was crucified through faith in Jesus and repentance toward God, with a burial to sin. [The old man is our former self-the self that sinned before we died to sin. In contrasting his former with his present state, Paul says: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me. (Gal 2:20). He feels like another being, and has undergone a change as complete as that of death. His former self has passed away; he lives as a new man in Christ and Christ in him. The old man is thus seen to be our former self in the old corrupt and sinful condition.]
that the body of sin might be done away,-[The body of sin is to be rendered as thoroughly inert, motionless, and dead in relation to sin as it is by actual crucifixion in relation to an earthly master. This is done by keeping the body under and stubbornly resisting temptation, by the Spirit within helping our infirmities, and by the help of God, who is present in every time of need.]
that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;-That by this means we should no longer be in bondage to serve sin.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
old self
The expression occurs elsewhere, in Eph 4:22; Col 3:9 and always means the man of old, corrupt human nature, the inborn tendency to evil in all men. In Rom 6:6 it is the natural man himself; in; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9 his ways. Positionally, in the reckoning of God, the old man is crucified, and the believer is exhorted to make this good in experience, reckoning it to be so by definitely “putting off” the old man and “putting on” the new; Col 3:8-14; Col 3:4; Col 3:24, (See Scofield “Eph 4:24”), note 3.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
that our: Gal 2:20, Gal 5:24, Gal 6:14, Eph 4:22, Col 3:5, Col 3:9, Col 3:10
that the: Rom 7:24, Rom 8:3, Rom 8:13, Col 2:11, Col 2:12
that henceforth: Rom 6:12, Rom 6:22, Rom 7:25, Rom 8:4, 2Ki 5:17, Isa 26:13, Joh 8:34-36
Reciprocal: Lev 3:3 – the fat Num 29:7 – afflict Mat 5:29 – pluck Mar 8:34 – take 1Co 15:46 – that which is natural 2Co 5:15 – henceforth Eph 2:16 – having 2Ti 1:10 – abolished 1Pe 3:4 – the hidden 2Pe 1:20 – Knowing
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6:6
Rom 6:6. Old man is a figurative name for our life of sin. To crucify figuratively means to have the life of sin put to death as regards general practice.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 6:6. Knowing this, or, since we know this. This refers to what follows, the whole defining the last clause of Rom 6:5.
That our old man. Our sinful nature is here personified (comp. Eph 4:22; Col 3:9); almost equivalent to flesh, in the ethical sense, as used in chaps. 7, 8, and elsewhere.
Was crucified with him. Not necessarily at baptism, but when Christ died, in virtue of our union with Him (comp. Gal 2:20).
That the body of sin. Of this phrase there are three leading explanations: (1.) The body as the seat of sin; this is contrary to the view of the body which Paul especially presents. (2.) The body, so far as it remains under the power of the old man. This is less objectionable, but seems a confusing of the literal and figurative senses. (3.) Sin is conceived as an organism, with many members; the whole is but another form of the expression our old man. This is, on the whole, preferable, since even (2.) leads to ascetic inferences which are quite unpauline.
Henceforth we should not serve, or, be the slaves of, sin. Another form of expressing the destruction of the organism of sin, which is represented as a master who holds us in bondage.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
By the old man we are to understand our corrupt and derived nature, so called, because it is as old as Adam, and divided from Adam; born and bred with us. This old man, or our corrupt and vicious nature, must be crucified, to shew our conformity and likeness to Christ in his crucifixion. The cross bringeth pain, shame, and death; the like must sin undergo in the work of mortification. By the body of sin, we are to understand the whole stock and mass of corruption, compacted as it were into one monstrous body, prepared with all its members to commit actual sins. Called a body, because composed of many sinful passions and lusts, as the body is of many members, and also because they are executed by the body.
And farther, because sin has a real a substance in us, as if it were a body; not that sin is a substance, but the pravity of a substance. Now this body of sin must be destroyed, not as to actions only, but as to affections and inclinations also; ’tis not enough that we scratch this old man’s face, but we must stab his heart in desire, in purpose, in endeavours: We must seek the death and destruction of all sin, That henceforth we may not serve sin; that is, that henceforward we should renounce the service of, and all relation to sin.
Where note, 1. That before regeneration, we are all servants of, yea, slaves to sin; so many lusts, so many lords reigning in us, and tyrannizing over us.
Note, 2. That it is one thing to sin, and another thing to serve sin: To serve sin, is to yield willing obedience, to indulge ourselves in any presumptuous act or course of sin. ‘Tis not the presence, but prevalency of sin, that destroys and damns the sinner; ’tis not the flesh being in us, but our being in the flesh, that displeaseth God.
Oh! happy for us, if sin’s dominion be taken away, though its life be prolonged for a season.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 6. Understanding this, that our old man has been crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Why introduce abruptly the notion of subjective knowledge into a relation which Rom 6:5 seemed to have laid down as objectively necessary? This phenomenon is the more remarkable because it is reproduced in Rom 6:9 in the , knowing that, and even in the , reckon that (Rom 6:11). Meyer thinks that the believer’s subjective experience is cited here to confirm the moral bond indicated in Rom 6:5 as necessary in itself: We shall certainly be partakers…, a fact besides which we cannot doubt, for we know that…This appendix so understood has all the effect of an excrescence. Philippi, on the contrary, finds a consequence to be drawn indicated by this participle: And thus (in proportion as the we shall be of 5b is realized in us) we shall know experimentally that…But the present participle does not naturally express a relation of consequence. There would rather have been needed , and thus we shall know. Hofmann paraphrases: And we shall make the experience that that has really happened to us, and happened in order that…We do not see much difference between this meaning and that of Philippi whom this author criticises. The relation between the participle understanding, and the verb we shall be (Rom 6:5 b), is rather that of a moral condition, a means. As Gess puts it: Our participation in Christ’s resurrection does not take place in the way of a physical and natural process. That such a result may take place, there is needed a moral co-operation on the part of the believer. And this co-operation of course supposes a knowledge, knowledge of the way (Rom 6:6) and of the end (Rom 6:8). The believer understands that the final object which God has in view in crucifying his old man (Rom 6:6) is to realize in him the life of the Risen One (Rom 6:8-9), and he enters actively into the divine thought. Thereby only can this be realized. This notion of subjective knowledge, expressed by the words: understanding this, was contained in the previous , in order that, of Rom 6:4 : We were buried with Him with the aim of rising with Him, understanding that…The whole piece, beginning with the or know ye not that of Rom 6:3, transports us into the inmost consciousness of the believer, as it has been formed in the school and through the personal assimilation of the death of Christ. The believer knows certainly that he is called to die, but to die in order to live again.
The expression: our old man, denotes human nature such as it has been made by the sin of him in whom originally it was wholly concentrated, fallen Adam reappearing in every human ego that comes into the world under the sway of the preponderance of self-love, which was determined by the primitive transgression. This corrupted nature bears the name of old only from the viewpoint of the believer who already possesses a renewed nature.
This old man has been crucified so far as the believer is concerned in the very person of Christ crucified. The apostle does not say that He has been killed. He may exist still, but like one crucified, whose activity is paralyzed. Up to the solemn hour of believing, sin puts on the behavior of triumphant independence, or presents itself to us as an excusable weakness. The instant we contemplate it in Christ crucified, we see it as a malefactor condemned and capitally punished by the justice of God; and its sentence of death pronounced in our conscience is the same to it within us as the cross was to Christnot an immediate death certainly, but the reduction of it to powerlessness.
The purpose of this moral execution, included in the very fact of faith, is the destruction of the body of sin. There ought to be a complete difference between this second fact indicated as the aim and the foregoing one. What the apostle calls the body of sin, cannot therefore be identical with what he calls our old man. Must we, with several, understand the body in the strict sense of the word, the apostle seeing in it the principle of evil in our human nature? But the sequel proves that he does not at all regard sin as inherent in the body and inseparable from it; for in Rom 6:13 he claims the body and its members for the service of God, and represents them as under obligation to become instruments of righteousness. It is the same in 2Co 4:10-12, where the life of Jesus is spoken of as displaying itself in the body, the mortal flesh of believers, which has become the organ of this heavenly life. So far is the apostle from regarding our bodily nature as the cause of sin, that in 2Co 7:1 he contrasts the defilements of the spirit with those of the flesh. And herein he is perfectly at one with the Lord, who, Mat 15:19, declares that from the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. The very fact of the real incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as taught by Paul, Rom 8:3 (see on the passage), suffices to refute the opinion which would hold the body to be the principle of sin. These considerations have led several commentators (Calv., Olsh., J. Mller, Philippi, Baur, Hodge) to understand the word body here in a figurative sense. According to them, it denotes sin itself as a heavy mass, or even as an organism, a system of evil dispositions, which keeps the soul under its yoke. The complement of sin they take as a genitive of apposition. One can easily understand in this sense how Paul should demand the destruction of this body of sin, that is to say, of sin itself. But it is impossible to harmonize this meaning with Rom 6:12-13, in which Paul, applying our passage, evidently speaks of the holy consecration of the body, taking the term in its strict sense. Besides, it would be difficult to escape from a tautology between this and the preceding proposition. There remains a third explanation found with varying shades in Meyer, Hofm., etc. It regards the genitive of sin as a complement of property or quality: the body so far as it serves as an instrument of sin in human life. This meaning is certainly the one which corresponds best with the thought of the apostle. Only, to understand the genitive of sin, we must add the idea: that from our birth there exists between our body and our sinful will that intimate relation whereby the two elements are placed in mutual dependence. This relation is not a simple accident; it belongs to the fallen state into which our soul itself has come.
The verb , which we translate by destroy, strictly signifies: to deprive of the power of action; and hence to make needless or useless, as in Luk 13:7, Rom 3:3; or to annul bring to an end, destroy, as in 1Co 13:8; 1Co 13:10; 1Co 6:13; Eph 2:15, etc. Neither the meaning: to render inactive, nor to destroy, could be applied to the body, if we had to understand thereby the physical organism in itself. But the apostle has no thought here of recommending bodily asceticism to believers. It is not of the body as such that he is speaking; it is of the body so far as it is an instrument in the service of sin. Of the body in this special relation, he declares that it should be reduced to inaction, or even destroyed. It is obvious that in this application the two meanings of the word amount nearly to the same. But the translation destroyed probably renders the thought best. A body, that of sin, is destroyed that another may take its place, the body which is an instrument of righteousness (Rom 6:13).
In the third proposition, which expresses the final aim of this inward labor, the apostle introduces a third subject: we, , a term which denotes the entire moral personality independently of the question whether it is or is not under the dominion of sin. This third subject differs wholly from that of the first proposition: the old man, as well as from that of the second: the body of sin. The old man is crucified by faith in Christ’s crucifixion; the body of sin is destroyed, because in consequence of the crucifixion of the old man the corrupt will which formerly used the body for its own satisfaction is paralyzed, and so can dispose of it no more. And the ego, the true I, the moral personality in its essence, is thus set free at once, both from the power of the old nature and of the body its instrument, and can consequently consecrate this last to a wholly new use. The apostle illustrates the truth of this moral situation by an example taken from common life.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
6. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified, in order that the body of sin may be destroyed, that we may no longer serve sin. Here we have the golden key which unlocks all the mystery involved in this profoundly interesting, though much controverted, paragraph. Paul is grand in the utilization of illustrative metaphors, using the term man in quite a diversity of significations; e. g., new man, indicating the new creation wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost in regeneration, also synonymous with inner man (2Co 4:15), and the hidden man of the heart (1Pe 3:4), the outer man, meaning simply the physical body, and destitute of spiritual signification; while he actually, in a diversity of phraseology, rings changes on the old man of sin throughout all of his writings, everywhere thus symbolically alluding to the old Adam, i. e., the fallen nature, the corrupt tendency transmitted to us and hereditary from the Fall. This old man does not mean our personal sins, which are not as old as we are, but original sin, which is as old as Adams transgression; and therefore so pertinently denominated the old man. You see here that this old man is crucified, i. e., killed dead. The burial here described is the legitimate counterpart of the crucifixion, consistently carrying out the metaphor pursuant to the legitimate logical sequence that the dead are to be buried. Then, if you want to know what is buried in this transaction, you have only to ascertain what is dead. You see it is that old crucified man, now a loathsome dead corpse, and must be buried out of sight, there to remain forever. There is only one place to bury this body in case that the soul is saved, and that is the death of Christ, the vicarious atonement, the
Fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuels veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.
In case of the wicked, this old man of sin is buried in hell-fire; while in the experience of the saved he receives interment into the death of Christ, there to abide forever actually exterminated. Is this crucifixion gradual or instantaneous? When the poor victim is nailed to the cross, he gradually suffers and bleeds his life away, finally dying suddenly in a moment. One moment there is life in him, and not yet dead. The next moment life has actually ebbed away, and he is dead as the bones in Ezekiels vision. The instantaneity and completeness of the crucifixion is here settled beyond the possibility of cavil, revealed by the Holy Ghost in the aorist tense peculiar to the Greek language alone, and made by the Holy Ghost to reveal His own mighty work. Sanctification throughout the New Testament is constantly revealed by this tense. While a gradual work precedes and another follows sanctification, yet the work itself is instantaneous. While regeneration is birth, sanctification is the death of the old man. Do you not know that death is always sudden? I was well acquainted for forty years with a man who was a hopeless consumptive, been given up by all physicians to die at the beginning of that period. Yet he lived on the forty years, through all the time the same hopeless consumptive, and finally died as suddenly as the tick of the clock. The burial which follows the death, putting away the corpse out of sight permanently to abide in its final resting place (for there is no resurrection in this case, unless you let the devil raise him and ruin everything), indicates the settlement of the sanctified in the permanent and growing experience of holiness. That the body of sin may be destroyed. This statement of the Holy Spirit is an additional confirmation of the grand and glorious work of God in sins utter extermination. How honest Bible readers can pass superficially over this and still believe in the necessary survival of the old man in the heart till corporeal death, I can not see. I defy the scholarship of the world to formulate a statement more clearly conclusive of extermination than this, which we have from Pauls infallible pen. The word destroyed here is also in the aorist tense, indicating a complete work, and precluding the possibility of survival. Oh, how hard it is to get people to believe the mighty works of God! We so naturally look upon His work from a human standpoint, forgetting that it is as easy for Omnipotence to create a world as to precipitate a snowflake from a passing cloud. How pertinent that we pray, Lord, increase our faith.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 6
Our old man; the unholy propensities of the natural heart.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
6:6 Knowing this, that our {h} old man is crucified with {i} [him], that the {k} body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not {l} serve sin.
(h) Our entire nature, as we are conceived and born into this world with sin, is called “old”, partly by comparing that old Adam with Christ, and partly also in respect of the deformed state of our corrupt nature, which we change with a new.
(i) Our corrupt nature is regarded as belonging to Christ, not because of what he has done, but by imputation.
(k) That wickedness which remains in us.
(l) The end of sanctification which we aim at, and will at length come to, that is, when God will be all in all.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
As we sinned in Adam, so we died with Christ (cf. Gal 2:20). Paul said it is important that we "know" this because it is crucial to understanding our relationship to sin as believers.
"Christian living depends on Christian learning; duty is always founded on doctrine. If Satan can keep a Christian ignorant, he can keep him impotent." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:530.]
"Satan’s great device is to drive earnest souls back to beseeching God for what God says has already been done!" [Note: Newell, p. 213.]
Our old "man" or "self" refers to the person we were before we experienced justification. That person was crucified with Christ (cf. Col 3:9). That person is now dead; he no longer exists as he once was. Nevertheless we can adopt his or her old characteristics if we choose to do so (cf. Eph 4:22). The believer is not the same person he or she used to be before justification (cf. 2Co 5:17).
The old man (old self) is not the same as the old nature. [Note: See John R. W. Stott, Men Made New: An Exposition of Romans 5-8, p. 45.] The old nature refers to our sinful human nature that every human being possesses as long as he or she lives. The old nature is the same as the flesh (cf. Rom 7:5).
"’The flesh,’ which is sin entrenched in the body, is unchangeably evil, and will war against us till Christ comes. Only the Holy Spirit has power over ’the flesh’ (Chapter 8.1)." [Note: Newell, p. 212. See I. Howard Marshall, "Living in the ’Flesh’," Bibliotheca Sacra 159:636 (October-December 2002):387-403, for an excellent word study of "flesh."]
Even though the old man has died, the old nature lives on. I am not the same person I was before justification because sin no longer can dominate me, but I still have a sinful human nature.
I prefer not to use the term "new nature." It does not appear in Scripture. The New Testament presents the Christian not as a person with two natures warring within him or her. It presents the Christian as a person with one sinful nature (the flesh) that is in conflict with the indwelling Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:16-23). It also speaks of the Christian as struggling with the decision to live as the new man that he or she now is. Our alternative is to live as the old man who we were but are no longer (cf. Rom 7:13-24).
"What we were ’in Adam’ is no more; but, until heaven, the temptation to live in Adam always remains." [Note: Moo, p. 375.]
Our "body of sin" is not the same as a sinful body since the body itself is not sinful (cf. Mar 7:21-23). Probably the body in this expression represents the whole person (cf. Rom 6:12-13). We express our sinfulness through our bodies. The result of our crucifixion with Christ was that the body no longer needs to be an instrument that we use to sin since we are no longer slaves of sin.