"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. For he that is dead is freed from sin." Romans 6 v 6-7
In verse 5 he has stated that we are closely linked with Christ in His death and resurrection. He goes on to expand on these and in verses 6-7 he expands on our union with His death; in verses 8-10 he expands on our union with His resurrection.
He begins with what we know, it is always good to remind ourselves of what we know. He continues the theme of our essential union with Christ: verse 3 " baptised into Christ Jesus " verse 4 " buried with Him by baptism into death " verse 5 " planted together " and now in verse 6 he says
" we were crucified with Him. " Paul is stating here that our old man was crucified with Christ; so we have to unravel these terms. Firstly, what do we understand by crucifixion? There is a danger in glossing over these terms and becoming too familiar with them, but if we do we lose the force. Paul now takes us to the cross; not just any cross, for there were many, but the cross upon which Jesus died. The overall context is the believer's attitude to sin. The cross of Jesus Christ was the worst manifestation of human sin. Not only was crucifixion the most BRUTAL death ever devised by godless man, but in the case of Christ it was UNLAWFUL (they apparently broke 22 procedures for capital punishment in the matter of Christ's death). Worst of all, it was TREASON of the highest order; whom did they crucify? Paul says " they crucified the Lord of glory ": Peter said " they killed the Prince of life." Some might say today, we were not there, we are not guilty of this awful crime, yet because you are part of Adam's unregenerate race, God will classify every sinner as being party to this heinous crime. In any case, the writer to the Hebrews says that to reject the advances of the Holy Spirit of grace in the world today, is to " crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh ."
They crucified the Son of God back then, and today they are still doing it. This is what sin led to, the greatest criminal act ever perpetrated on the face of God's earth, the brutal murder of the Son of God.
Now says Paul, not only was Christ on that cross, you were there, your old man, your old self. This expression means all that you were in Adam, all that you were as you were born, not just a little part of you, but all of you was on that cross. In this divine action God removed us from the dominating power of sin, but exposed us to the rejection and injustice and brutality of a sinful world. Why did God do this? ; he goes on to explain "that the body of sin might be destroyed. " Our human body became the instrument for sin, our eyes, our hands, our feet, our brains, our tongues etc. became the active instruments of sin, but on the cross God separated you from all that and made all your bodily faculties inactive to sin such that it became ineffective. This does not mean sin will not trouble us, it does mean it cannot control you as it did before. The purpose of this was that " we should henceforth not be the slaves of sin " and he finishes it all by the triumphant conclusion " for he that is dead is freed from sin."
The word for freed is "justified" and is the most common idea in the epistle. God at the cross made us right with Himself and therefore made us wrong with sin. Here is the culmination of a wonderful programme. Justified freely by His grace chapter 3v24, justified by faith chapter 5v1, justified by His blood chapter 5v9, justified in life chapter 5v18 and now justified from sin chapter 6v7. On the cross God freed us from the guilt and the penalty and the power of sin. In effect He made sin harmless to us; before we had no choice but to sin, now we don't need to sin because we have died to its controlling power. In the words of the hymn: "my chains are snapt the bonds of sin are broken and I am free, o let the triumph of His grace be spoken who died for me."
Tomorrow d.v. verses 8,9 & 10.
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