Step 4: Crucified With Christ
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin Romans 6:6,7
In becoming a Christian we move from one type or kind of humanity to another. We die and rise again in the Messiah. He represents His people so what is true of Him is true of them. That’s why Paul speaks of people coming ‘into Christ’ or being ‘in Christ’ or of things happening to them ‘with Christ.’
Living in accordance with a change of status requires first of all that we recognise our new standing, and then take steps to bring our lives into line with the person we have become. This is where Paul is headed in Romans 6, 7 and 8.
In chapter 6 he is unfolding a series of steps in helping his readers grasp their new standing in Christ:
Step 1: we died to sin (6:2)
Step 2: how we died to sin was through our being united with Christ in
His death as portrayed in our baptism (6:3)
Step 3: having shared in Christ’s death, we now also share in His
resurrection (6:4,5)
Step 4: our former self was crucified with Christ so that we might be
freed from sin’s slavery (6:6,7)
Step 5: both the death and resurrection of Christ were decisive events:
He died to sin once for all and lives continually before God (6:8-10)
Step 6: we are now what Christ is: ‘dead to sin but alive to God’ (6:11)
Step 7: being alive from death we must now offer our bodies to God as
instruments of righteousness (6:12,13)
Step 8: sin shall not be our master because our position has radically
changed from being ‘under law’ to being ‘under grace.’ Grace
does not encourage sin; it outlaws it (6:14)
In 6:3-5 Paul has established that believers participate in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Now he elaborates each of these, the ‘death’ side in 6:6,7 and the ‘life’ side in 6:8-10.
Having looked at the initial steps we come now to:
Step 4: our former self was crucified with Christ so that we might be freed from sin’s slavery (6:6,7)
‘For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin’ (6:6,7).Note Paul’s structure in 6:6: something happened (‘our old self was crucified’) so that something else might happen (‘the body [ruled by] sin might be done away with’) so that a third thing might happen (‘we should no longer be slaves to sin.’)
Working backwards, God’s end-purpose is that we be free from sin’s tyranny, ‘that we should no longer be slaves to sin.’ For this to happen ‘the body of sin might be done away with.’ The ‘body of sin’ almost certainly means our body dominated or ruled by sin. The NIV’s ‘done away with’ translates a verb that generally means ‘rendered powerless.’ The verb is used of the devil in Hebrews 2:14 (‘so that by death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil’). The devil is both alive and active so the word can’t mean ‘eradicate.’ The devil’s power over a Christian has been broken though, rendered powerless. To understand how this has happened we go to the first clause, that ‘our old self was crucified with him.’ The ‘old self’ is not our lower self but our former self, the person we once were, the person we used to be in Adam, the person we were before we were converted.
But how can the fact that our former self was crucified with Christ result in the disabling of our sinful self and so in our rescue from sin’s slavery? 6:7 gives the answer, ‘because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.’ ‘Freed from’ is the verb translated throughout Romans (15 times) by ’justified.’ Rendered freely the verse becomes ‘he who has died has been justified from his sin.’ So how are our death (6:6) and consequent justification (6:7) the basis for our liberation from sin (6:6)?
We deserved to die for our sins. In fact, we did die, but not in our own person, but in the person of Jesus Christ our substitute. He died in our place and we are united with Him by faith and baptism (being immersed in Him). By union with Christ we have risen again. So the old life of sin is finished, because we died to it, and our new life of a justified sinner has begun. Our death and resurrection with Christ mean it is inconceivable that we should go back. In this sense our sinful self has been deprived of power and we have been set free.