Romans 6:6

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

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.

By the old man is meant, that corrupt and polluted nature which we derive from Adam, the first man: see ,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 . The body of sin is the very same that he called before the old man. The corrupt nature is sometimes called the body, , sometimes a body of death, , 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, . 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, . They do not only act sin, but are acted by it, having as many lords as lusts, . See more of this, .

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, John 8:34; not only act it, but are acted by it, having as many lords as lusts, victors as vices. Titus 3:3.

(6-11) Further description of this process. The Christian’s 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 irrevocably—as if by death itself—from 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.

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, Romans 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 παλαιοςανθρωπος, the old man, used here, and in Ephesians 4:22, and Colossians 3:9, is the same as the flesh with its affections and lusts, Galatians 5:24; and the body of the sins of the flesh, Colossians 2:11; and the very same which the Jewish writers term אדם הקדמוני, Adam hakkadmoni, the old Adam; and which they interpret by יצר הרע 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, δουλευειν, no longer be its slaves.

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, Romans 7:22; 2 Corinthians 4:16; Ephesians 3:16; Ephesians 4:22; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:9; 1 Peter 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. 1 Corinthians 9:27; and below, Romans 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 Romans 3:3; Romans 3:31; where see notes. Cp. especially 2 Timothy 1:10; where E. V. “abolished.” For a comment on the meaning here see Romans 8:3, and 1 Corinthians 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.

Knowing this - We all knowing this. All Christians are supposed to know this.

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.