Romans 6:6-8
by:
Dan Hill, PhD
Pastor, Southwood Bible Church
7655 South Sheridan Avenue
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74113
E-Mail: hill918@aol.com
Romans 6:6
Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body
of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
The "old self" has already been explained in this epistle. It
is everything we were prior to salvation
1. Romans 3:9 Powerless
2. Romans 5:6 Ungodly
3. Romans 5:8 A Sinner
4. Romans 5:10 An Enemy of God
All that which we were is now past. The old man, the sin nature and its
power over us is broken at salvation.
IT POWER OVER US IS BROKEN for a purpose: That our body of sin might be
done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
The BODY OF SIN does not mean that our bodies are essential sinful. That
is a Gnostic concept that developed from the Greek paganism and then found
its way into the Catholic church and into the reformation and then into
Victorian England and then to US fundamentalism.
Godeau, French Bishop, stated: What greater pleasure is there than the distaste
for pleasure.
This contempt for the body and for pleasure arose out of neo-platonism and
found roots in Gnostic dualism and flourished under Roman Catholicism.
But it has also found its way to the American Church by way of legalism.
As someone once told me, if it feels good, it must be sin.
Fundamentalism has embraced the ascetic life that has its source in Roman
Catholicism, a system that fundamentalism supposedly refutes.
But that attitude is not what we find in the JOY of living the Christian
Way of Life.
The "body of sin" is the control of the sin nature over the body,
but that control has been broken so we no longer need to be slaves to sin
. . .
Even in the NASV I see a subtle legalism in their translation of this verse.
The word SLAVES is a noun but in the Greek it is the verb DOULEUW and is
a present tense of continual action.
And that is the point: Not that we no longer sin but that the continued
power of sin over us is broken. We now have an option we never had before,
we can now serve Christ.
Let me read to you two other verse that express this same concept:
Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer
I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself
up for me."
Galatians 5:24, "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires."
Why in our passage in Romans 6 did Paul change from the word DEATH to the
word CRUCIFIXION?
TWO REASONS: First, because he wanted us to see that bringing reality out
of our position is a process . . .
1. Death by crucifixion was a process that could last as long
as three days.
2. Once a person was nailed to a Roman cross, death was sure but that death
was a process.
3. No one ever really died by crucifixion but by suffocation that occurred
once the body was so weak it could no longer lift itself up to take in air.
4. In the analogy, the death of the OSN is assured but it is a process we
continue in as long as we are alive.
5. Positionally it is dead but experientially it still clings to us gasping
for ever breath.
6. II Corinthians 4:10 Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
7. You cannot concentrate on trying to kill off the OSN, its death and eradication
are sure in eternity. The analogy teaches us to do just what Jesus Christ
did on the Cross . . . depend more and more upon the provision of God.
Second: Paul wanted us to see that this was something we could not do ourselves.
Donald Grey Barnhouse in his commentary on Romans talks of a murder mystery
writer who said there were a 1000 ways to commit murder. A thousand ways,
yet Barnhouse says there are then only 999 ways to commit suicide because
while you could murder someone by crucifixion you can never crucify yourself.
Hence, the word is used here by Paul to shout loudly that this is not something
you can do, it must be and has been done for you.
COUNTERFEIT CRUCIFIXION OF THE FLESH:
1. Self Humiliation: This often takes the form of public confession
of sins and telling others how real sinful you are.
In the 1930 this became popular among high society. Great halls were rented
for Sunday evenings and after hymns were sung and prayers made people would
stand and confess some of the most sorid of sins. Usually the next day a
newspaper article would appear listing the confessors and their sins.
A columnist for the LA Times stated that the fault with these meeting was
that a pint always became a quart in the telling . . .
While this was mental catharsis, it has nothing to do with crucifying the
Old man.
2. A group that originated in Russia also taught crucifixion of the flesh
through humiliation; but their take on this was to practice nudity. They
humiliatee themselves by going out in public nude to show their disdain
for the flesh.
We do not do that but some people do try to show their disdain for the flesh,
crucifying the flesh by appearance, or lack of. Unkempt appearance, soiled
clothing, unclean bodies. Similar concept and also wrong.
3. Another counterfeit crucifixion of self is through Asceticism. Self denial.
The idea that if anything is pleasurable it is sin so deny all pleasure.
This is the attitude that drives people to monasteries in its extreme form.
But in a less extreme form but equally wrong is legalism and the denial
of natural desires and longings.
4. Self Abasement: Inflicting harm on the body, whipping the body into submission,
starving the body, cutting it, bleeding in the middle ages fell into this
category.
5. Attempts at sinless perfection: The attitude that one can discipline
himself to the point of eradicating the sin nature and then convincing himself
that he has.
6. Pretense: Living a false life that puts across the attitude that there
is no sin in the life and then denial that there is even a conflict of sin
in the life. Leads to arrogance and usually judging others.
7. Christian activity and service: Crucify self by doing lots of Christian
things, join a church, give, sing in the choir, on and on.
BUT ALL THESE ARE THINGS THE BELIEVER DOES.
He is putting a nail through one wrist and through one foot and from one
side he looks like he is crucified, but he is not. There is only the appearance
and that is the best that man can come up.
Only God can and has crucified the Old Sin Nature.
Topic: SIN NATURE
Romans 6:7
For he who has died is freed from sin.
The sin nature was crucified with Christ, a past reality, something that
God did. And it has a purpose: that the body of sin might be done away with.
Some translate this "destroyed", "made inactive", "neutralized".
But the problem with many of those translations is that they imply the absence
of sin or the departure of the sin nature or that while the sin nature remains,
it no longer effects us. And those ideas are contrary to what John stated
in I John chapter 1:
1:8, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves,
and the truth is not in us.
1:10, If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word
is not in us.
The fact is the sin nature was crucified with Christ, God did it and it
was and continues to be a process.
And the fact of the process is that it has a purpose:
That the body of sin, the Old Sin Nature (OSN), might be KATARGEW
Word Study on KATARGEW
The Greek word KATARGEW is used 27 times in the NT, 25 times
by Paul, once by the Lord in Luke 13:7, and once by the writer of the Hebrews.
It is a compound of KATA and ARGEW which means to be idle. The KATA prefix
makes it both intensive and intransitive.
It means idleness that is according to a set standard or condition.
In the passive voice, as here in Romans 6:6 it can mean that something is
caused to cease according to an outside condition. In this case it is the
crucifying of the OSN.
Paul used the word three times already in the book of Romans:
Romans 3:3, "What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will
not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? "
Romans 3:31, "Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never
be! On the contrary, we establish the Law."
Romans 4:14, "For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made
void and the promise is nullified;"
In each case, whether it is the faithfulness of God, the OT Law, or the
promise of the Saviour, the object is not destroyed, only made idle or ineffective.
5. So when Paul uses the word for the OSN the idea is not one of destroying
it, but making it idle, rendering it idle according to a the condition,
the standard of the Cross.
6. J.B. Phillipis in his expanded translation of this passage states: That
the tyranny of sin over us might be broken.
7. The condition for that to occur is a fact, the Old Self was crucified
when Christ was crucified, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the mechanics
of that identification, that uniting of us with Christ in His death.
The issue now is: Do you believe it?
Barnhouse says the weapon that Satan held against us has been knocked from
his hands, it lies on the ground, there for us to pick up, to claim, to
use, will we do it? And only then can we have the practical victory of sanctification.
Back to Romans 6:7, "For he who has died is freed from sin."
We have an aorist active participle for DIED which precedes the main verb,
FREED which is a perfect passive indicative.
We have died with Christ at the Cross: This is retroactive positional truth.
The tyranny of the OSN over us was broken when we, at salvation, were baptized
into Christ and His death.
The word DIED is APOQNJSKW, and looks more at dying off than death itself.
Also used for a natural death, in both cases a process.
This happened, this occurred, the OSN was crucified.
The result is that we are FREED FROM SIN and this is passive, not active,
it is not a matter of our self resolve or self discipline that frees us
from sin but what God did in Christ at the Cross . . .
The word FREED is from DIKAIOW
The word is from the same root as noun and adjective JUSTIFIED or JUSTIFICATION.
It means to be declared righteous as a judicial act.
Greek verbs that end in OW, which usually indicates the bringing out of
that which is already true.
Here the true fact is that we are justified by faith at salvation. Also
at salvation we have be baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ's death.
We have died to sin and thus we are now declared righteous by God.
This is the main verb and it is PASSIVE
IT IS NOT SOMETHING WE DO!!
This word includes the idea that we are absolved, acquitted, cleared from
any charges or imputation of guilt by the justice of God.
PRINCIPLE: When we start to struggle against sin we are trying to justify
ourselves, to free ourselves from something that does not have any authority
over us.
You are justified, absolved, acquitted in the divine estimation of God.
So why do we still struggle with sin?
Look ahead to the end of Romans 7
v 24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this
death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one
hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other,
with my flesh the law of sin.
Romans 8:1-2, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has
set you free from the law of sin and of death."
PRINCIPLE: If you are struggling with sin chances are you are focused on
the sin rather than the Saviour.
Romans 6:8-11. Paul includes at this point a few comments about the confidence
we can have regarding our eternity with Christ. Then at v 11 he rolls this
back to our present manner of life . . . remember that is the issue, letting
Grace reign in you life and walking in the newness of life.
Romans 6:8
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
Him,
The word "if" is a Greek first class conditional, so it should
be translated "since" or "because".
The objective is eternity, we shall also live with Him.
The link is FAITH . . . we believe.
NOW WHAT PAUL IS GOING TO PULL on us here is that while we at thinking of
the sweet bye and bye, eternity really begins for us at the moment we believe
in Christ.
You have eternal life right now!
John 11:21-27 and 39-41
11:21 Martha therefore said to Jesus, Lord, if You had been
here, my brother would not have died.
11:22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.
11:23 Jesus said to her, Your brother shall rise again.
11:24 Martha said to Him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection
on the last day.
11:25 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes
in Me shall live even if he dies,
11:26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you
believe this?
11:27 She said to Him, Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ,
the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.
Then to v 39
11:39 Jesus said, Remove the stone. Martha, the sister of the deceased,
said to Him, Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been
dead four days.
11:40 Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you, if you believe, you will
see the glory of God?
11:44 He who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings; and
his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, Unbind him,
and let him go.
Now the point that in made in the conversation between Jesus and Martha
and then with Mary is the same point Paul is making in Romans 6:8:11.
Eternal life begins right now in the very presence of Jesus Christ who was
crucified, died, was buried, and is now risen from the dead to be seated
at the right hand of God forever.
APPLICATION: Too often we think in terms of what we will have when we are
with the Lord. But believer, we are with Him right now.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit at set us into union with Him in His death
and in His resurrection.
Romans 6:8 (again), "Now if [since] we have died with Christ, we believe
that we shall also live with Him."
The issue is: Do you believe this? Do you trust is this fact that Paul is
stating?
Faith, belief, trust is always based upon knowledge of that which is trusted,
so in the next verse.
End of Lesson 23
Grace Notes
Warren Doud
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