Romans VerseQuest Commentary Essay 37: Crucified With Him Text: Romans 6:5–7
Introduction
Romans 6:5–7 says, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 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.” Paul is not playing religious word games here. He is not giving the Christian a motivational slogan to hang on the refrigerator beside a grocery list. He is opening the grave of the old man and telling the believer to stop sending flowers to a corpse God crucified. Romans 6 is not about improving Adam, polishing the flesh, encouraging the old nature, or teaching sin to behave itself in public. It is about union with Christ in death and resurrection. The believer’s deliverance from sin does not begin with self-help, emotional revivalism, twelve-step religious reform, or a vow made during a tearful altar call. It begins with knowing what God says happened at Calvary.
The average religious system tries to handle sin like a bad habit that needs supervision. It gives the sinner rules, rituals, pledges, confessions, accountability machinery, sacramental tune-ups, and a spiritual mop for the same mud puddle. Paul goes deeper. He says the old man was crucified with Christ. That is not therapy language. That is execution language. God did not send Jesus Christ to Calvary so the old man could receive a better personality and a cleaner vocabulary. God put the old man on the cross with Christ so the body of sin might be destroyed and the believer would no longer serve sin. The flesh does not need a religious manicure. It needs the cross. The old man is not sick in bed waiting for chicken soup from the church committee. He is judicially crucified with Christ.
This passage is the backbone of practical sanctification. The believer must know before he can reckon, and he must reckon before he can yield. Paul does not begin Romans 6 by telling saints to feel crucified, pretend they are stronger than temptation, or announce victory while secretly being dragged by the collar through the same old ditch. He begins with doctrine: “Knowing this.” Freedom from sin begins when the believer accepts God’s statement about his union with Christ. The cross did not merely happen for the believer; the believer is identified with Christ in it. His old man was crucified with Him. His future is tied to Christ’s resurrection. His slavery to sin has no legal right to continue. Sin may still shout commands like an old tyrant who has not read the emancipation papers, but the believer is not obligated to obey a dethroned master.
Chapter One: Planted Together in the Likeness of His Death
Paul begins verse 5 by saying, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death.” The picture is union, identification, and participation. The believer has been planted together with Christ in the likeness of His death. This is not mere admiration from a distance. It is not religious respect for a dead martyr. It is not a sinner standing at Calvary as a spectator, saying, “That was very moving,” and then walking home in Adam as though nothing changed. God identifies the believer with Christ’s death. The saved man is joined to the crucified Christ so that Christ’s death becomes the believer’s death in God’s reckoning. Grace puts the sinner into the history of Christ.
The word “planted” carries the idea of being grown together, united together, connected together in one living relationship. A branch grafted into a tree does not merely sit near the tree and admire bark. It shares in the life and identity of the stock into which it is placed. The believer has been joined to Christ in such a way that what is true of Christ’s death has legal and spiritual consequence for him. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Paul does not say, “I am inspired by Christ.” He says, “I am crucified with Christ.” The Christian life begins with an execution, not a renovation.
This destroys the shallow idea that Christianity is simply moral imitation. The sinner is not merely told, “Try to be more like Jesus.” That kind of preaching has filled churches with frustrated Adams wearing Jesus bracelets. The biblical order is death, burial, resurrection, and then walk. The believer must first be joined to Christ in death before he can walk in newness of life. God does not ask a man in Adam to imitate the risen Christ by natural strength. That is like asking a corpse to take dancing lessons. The gospel joins the believer to Christ, counts the old man crucified, and gives him life from the risen Lord. Imitation without identification is religion with better manners.
Chapter Two: We Shall Be Also in the Likeness of His Resurrection
Paul continues, “we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” The cross is not the end of the believer’s identification with Christ. The same union that connects the believer with Christ’s death also connects him with Christ’s resurrection. God does not leave the believer buried in doctrinal truth with no living power. The purpose of being planted together in the likeness of His death is that we should also share in the likeness of His resurrection. Death breaks the old relationship to sin; resurrection establishes the new life unto God. Grace does not merely end the old tyranny; it introduces a new walk.
The likeness of His resurrection has present and future dimensions. Presently, the believer is called to walk in newness of life, as Romans 6:4 already declared. Colossians 3:1 says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.” The believer is not waiting until the resurrection body to have a new direction. He is already raised with Christ positionally and called to live in the power of that truth. His affections, priorities, loyalties, and conduct should reflect the fact that he belongs to a risen Saviour. A man joined to resurrection has no business taking orders from a grave.
Future resurrection is also guaranteed because Christ’s resurrection is the firstfruits of the believer’s bodily redemption. First Corinthians 15:20 says, “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” The believer’s body may weaken, age, suffer, and die, but it is scheduled for resurrection or change at the coming of the Lord. The same Christ who broke the grave will not abandon those united to Him. Therefore Romans 6 grounds practical holiness in resurrection hope. The Christian is not fighting sin as a doomed man trying to decorate a sinking ship. He fights as a man joined to the risen Christ, knowing the grave is not his landlord and sin is not his destiny.
Chapter Three: Knowing This
Verse 6 begins, “Knowing this.” That phrase matters more than most saints realize. Paul does not begin with feeling this, guessing this, imagining this, hoping this, or waiting until a conference speaker shouts loudly enough to make this true. He says, “Knowing this.” The Christian life is built on revealed truth. Sanctification begins in the mind informed by Scripture. God expects the believer to know certain facts about his position in Christ and then live accordingly. Ignorance is not humility. Ignorance is expensive. A believer who does not know what God says about his union with Christ will keep signing contracts with sin as though he still belongs to the old master.
The devil understands the value of ignorance. He does not need to take away the believer’s salvation to make him miserable and ineffective. He just needs to keep him uninformed, confused, distracted, and emotionally governed. A saint who does not know he is dead to sin will try to negotiate with sin. He will make promises, bargain, hide, excuse, manage, and patch leaks in a ship God already sunk. That is why Paul says, “Knowing this.” Victory begins when the believer stops asking the flesh for information and starts believing the Book. The flesh has never told the truth about the cross. It keeps insisting it is alive and entitled to rule.
Doctrine is therefore not optional decoration for Christians who enjoy deep study. Doctrine is ammunition. Doctrine is armor. Doctrine is the map out of the swamp. The modern church often wants inspiration without instruction, emotion without exposition, and victory without verses. It wants a spiritual caffeine shot every Sunday and then wonders why Monday drags it back into bondage. Paul gives doctrine before duty. He tells believers what God has done before telling them how to walk. A Christian trying to live holy without knowing Romans 6 is like a soldier charging into battle with no rifle, no orders, no uniform, and no idea which side he is on.
Chapter Four: Our Old Man Is Crucified With Him
Paul says, “that our old man is crucified with him.” The “old man” is not merely a collection of bad habits. It is the believer’s old identity in Adam, the fallen self connected with sin’s dominion, corruption, and condemnation. Ephesians 4:22 speaks of “the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” Colossians 3:9 says, “ye have put off the old man with his deeds.” The old man is not improved by grace; he is crucified with Christ. God did not invite Adam to self-discovery. He nailed him to the cross in union with the Saviour.
“Is crucified” points to a completed reality with continuing consequence. The believer does not crucify the old man by trying harder. God says the old man is crucified with Christ. The believer is told to know it, reckon it, and live in light of it. This is where many sincere Christians stumble. They try to accomplish by effort what God says was accomplished at Calvary. They attempt to crucify themselves emotionally, punish themselves physically, deprive themselves religiously, or make vows fierce enough to scare the flesh into holiness. The flesh laughs at vows. It has broken more promises than a politician in campaign season. The answer is not self-crucifixion as a human achievement. The answer is faith in co-crucifixion as a divine fact.
This truth also cuts against sinless perfection on one side and careless carnality on the other. The old man being crucified does not mean the believer no longer experiences the flesh or cannot sin. Romans 7 will prove the conflict remains real. But it does mean the old man has been judged at the cross and no longer has rightful dominion. The careless man says, “I still feel sin, so I may as well serve it.” The perfectionist says, “I should not feel sin, so I will pretend I do not.” Paul says, “Know what God says: your old man is crucified with Him.” Faith neither excuses sin nor pretends the battle vanished. Faith fights from the ground of Calvary.
Chapter Five: That the Body of Sin Might Be Destroyed
Paul gives the purpose: “that the body of sin might be destroyed.” The “body of sin” speaks of the body as used by sin as an instrument, the organized machinery through which sin expresses itself in the believer’s members. Romans 6:12 will say, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Sin wants the body—eyes, tongue, hands, feet, mind, appetites, and members—as weapons of unrighteousness. Before salvation, sin had a comfortable working arrangement with the body. After union with Christ, that arrangement has been judged and its authority broken.
“Destroyed” does not mean annihilated out of existence in present experience. The believer still has a mortal body and must still mortify the deeds of the body through the Spirit, according to Romans 8:13. The word points to being rendered ineffective, put out of business, deprived of ruling power. The body of sin is not yet removed, but its legal dominion has been broken. Sin can still try to use the body, but it has no rightful title to it. The Christian’s body now belongs to the Lord. First Corinthians 6:19–20 says, “ye are not your own… For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
This doctrine has practical teeth. The believer cannot excuse sin by saying, “That is just who I am.” No, that is who you were in Adam, and God says the old man is crucified. The believer cannot hand his eyes to lust, his tongue to bitterness, his hands to uncleanness, his feet to compromise, his mind to filth, and then claim grace has no claim on the body. Grace purchased the whole man. The body is no longer sin’s workshop; it is to become an instrument of righteousness unto God. Sin may still knock on the factory door, but the ownership sign has changed.
Chapter Six: Henceforth We Should Not Serve Sin
Paul says the purpose of the old man being crucified and the body of sin being destroyed is “that henceforth we should not serve sin.” The word “serve” means bondage, slavery, and obedience under a master. Sin is not a harmless hobby. It is a slaveholder. It promises freedom and pays in chains. It advertises pleasure and delivers habit, guilt, corruption, fear, shame, and death. The sinner thinks he is choosing sin; in truth, sin is training him to obey. Every lust becomes a leash. Every compromise becomes a collar. Every secret sin becomes a private prison with wallpaper.
The believer should not serve sin because he no longer belongs to sin. Before salvation, sin had dominion. The man in Adam might polish his behavior, hide his worst actions, and compare himself favorably with worse sinners, but he remained under sin’s reign. In Christ, that reign has been broken. Romans 6:14 will say, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Notice the answer is not law but grace. Legalism cannot break sin’s dominion. It can only expose, provoke, and condemn. Grace changes ownership and supplies life from Christ.
This does not mean the believer will never obey sin in practice. It means he should not and does not have to. There is a difference between a slave serving his rightful master and a freed man foolishly answering the voice of a former tyrant. Many Christians live as though sin still possesses legal authority because they have not believed what God says about Calvary. They answer when sin calls because the voice is familiar. They return to old chains because bondage feels normal. But Romans 6 says the believer’s old master was dealt with at the cross. The Christian who serves sin is not living naturally according to his new identity; he is living inconsistently with his own emancipation.
Chapter Seven: He That Is Dead Is Freed From Sin
Verse 7 says, “For he that is dead is freed from sin.” That statement is the legal principle underneath the argument. Death ends the old claim. A dead man is beyond the jurisdiction of former masters. You can send him a bill, but he will not pay. You can issue a command, but he will not answer. You can threaten him with consequences, but he has passed beyond your reach. In Christ, the believer died to sin’s condemning dominion. Sin has no lawful claim to command him as before. The believer’s freedom begins with death, not self-improvement.
“Freed from sin” does not mean the believer is incapable of temptation or failure. It means he has been judicially released from sin’s lordship. The word “freed” is connected to justification language—set free, declared free, released from the charge and claim. Sin cannot successfully accuse the believer before God because Christ died for his sins. Sin cannot rightfully rule the believer because the old man was crucified with Christ. Sin cannot determine the believer’s final destiny because the believer is joined to the risen Lord. The cross breaks condemnation; the resurrection opens the walk of life.
This is why reckoning matters. The believer must count God’s declaration true when experience screams otherwise. Sin says, “You are mine.” The cross says, “You died.” Temptation says, “You must obey.” Grace says, “You are freed.” The flesh says, “This is who you are.” Scripture says, “Your old man is crucified with Him.” The Christian life is lived by believing God against every counterfeit witness. Feelings are loud, habits are stubborn, memories are persuasive, and the devil is a master ventriloquist, but none of them has authority to rewrite Romans 6. The believer’s freedom begins when he stops arguing with God’s verdict and starts standing on it.
Conclusion
Romans 6:5–7 teaches the believer’s union with Christ in death and resurrection. We have been planted together in the likeness of His death, and we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. The Christian life is not built on human reform but on divine identification. God places the believer into Christ, joins him to Christ’s death, identifies him with Christ’s burial, and raises him to walk in newness of life. The old relationship to sin has been broken at Calvary. The believer is not trying to escape Adam by decorating Adam. He has been placed into Christ.
The old man is crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be destroyed and henceforth we should not serve sin. That is not weak grace. That is reigning grace. Grace does not wink at sin, excuse sin, protect sin, or hire sin as a consultant. Grace takes the believer to the cross and says, “This is where the old man was judged.” Then grace points to the empty tomb and says, “Now walk in resurrection life.” Legalism can threaten the flesh, but it cannot crucify it. Religion can polish the old man, but it cannot bury him. Only union with Christ deals with sin at the root.
Therefore freedom from sin begins with believing what God says happened at Calvary. “He that is dead is freed from sin.” The believer must know it before he can reckon it and reckon it before he can yield properly. Sin will still make noise. The flesh will still argue. The devil will still accuse. The world will still entice. But none of them can undo the cross. The believer’s old man is not on probation, waiting to see whether he behaves. He is crucified with Christ. Do not take orders from a dead tyrant. Do not report for duty at a slavery camp Christ already burned down. Stand where God placed you, reckon what God declared, and walk like a man whose old master lost his claim at Calvary.
Romans 6:5–7 Commentary – Crucified With Him
Crucified With Him
Key Passage: Romans 6:5–7
Romans VerseQuest Commentary
Essay 37: Crucified With Him
Text: Romans 6:5–7
Introduction
Romans 6:5–7 says, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 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.” Paul is not playing religious word games here. He is not giving the Christian a motivational slogan to hang on the refrigerator beside a grocery list. He is opening the grave of the old man and telling the believer to stop sending flowers to a corpse God crucified. Romans 6 is not about improving Adam, polishing the flesh, encouraging the old nature, or teaching sin to behave itself in public. It is about union with Christ in death and resurrection. The believer’s deliverance from sin does not begin with self-help, emotional revivalism, twelve-step religious reform, or a vow made during a tearful altar call. It begins with knowing what God says happened at Calvary.
The average religious system tries to handle sin like a bad habit that needs supervision. It gives the sinner rules, rituals, pledges, confessions, accountability machinery, sacramental tune-ups, and a spiritual mop for the same mud puddle. Paul goes deeper. He says the old man was crucified with Christ. That is not therapy language. That is execution language. God did not send Jesus Christ to Calvary so the old man could receive a better personality and a cleaner vocabulary. God put the old man on the cross with Christ so the body of sin might be destroyed and the believer would no longer serve sin. The flesh does not need a religious manicure. It needs the cross. The old man is not sick in bed waiting for chicken soup from the church committee. He is judicially crucified with Christ.
This passage is the backbone of practical sanctification. The believer must know before he can reckon, and he must reckon before he can yield. Paul does not begin Romans 6 by telling saints to feel crucified, pretend they are stronger than temptation, or announce victory while secretly being dragged by the collar through the same old ditch. He begins with doctrine: “Knowing this.” Freedom from sin begins when the believer accepts God’s statement about his union with Christ. The cross did not merely happen for the believer; the believer is identified with Christ in it. His old man was crucified with Him. His future is tied to Christ’s resurrection. His slavery to sin has no legal right to continue. Sin may still shout commands like an old tyrant who has not read the emancipation papers, but the believer is not obligated to obey a dethroned master.
Chapter One: Planted Together in the Likeness of His Death
Paul begins verse 5 by saying, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death.” The picture is union, identification, and participation. The believer has been planted together with Christ in the likeness of His death. This is not mere admiration from a distance. It is not religious respect for a dead martyr. It is not a sinner standing at Calvary as a spectator, saying, “That was very moving,” and then walking home in Adam as though nothing changed. God identifies the believer with Christ’s death. The saved man is joined to the crucified Christ so that Christ’s death becomes the believer’s death in God’s reckoning. Grace puts the sinner into the history of Christ.
The word “planted” carries the idea of being grown together, united together, connected together in one living relationship. A branch grafted into a tree does not merely sit near the tree and admire bark. It shares in the life and identity of the stock into which it is placed. The believer has been joined to Christ in such a way that what is true of Christ’s death has legal and spiritual consequence for him. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Paul does not say, “I am inspired by Christ.” He says, “I am crucified with Christ.” The Christian life begins with an execution, not a renovation.
This destroys the shallow idea that Christianity is simply moral imitation. The sinner is not merely told, “Try to be more like Jesus.” That kind of preaching has filled churches with frustrated Adams wearing Jesus bracelets. The biblical order is death, burial, resurrection, and then walk. The believer must first be joined to Christ in death before he can walk in newness of life. God does not ask a man in Adam to imitate the risen Christ by natural strength. That is like asking a corpse to take dancing lessons. The gospel joins the believer to Christ, counts the old man crucified, and gives him life from the risen Lord. Imitation without identification is religion with better manners.
Chapter Two: We Shall Be Also in the Likeness of His Resurrection
Paul continues, “we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” The cross is not the end of the believer’s identification with Christ. The same union that connects the believer with Christ’s death also connects him with Christ’s resurrection. God does not leave the believer buried in doctrinal truth with no living power. The purpose of being planted together in the likeness of His death is that we should also share in the likeness of His resurrection. Death breaks the old relationship to sin; resurrection establishes the new life unto God. Grace does not merely end the old tyranny; it introduces a new walk.
The likeness of His resurrection has present and future dimensions. Presently, the believer is called to walk in newness of life, as Romans 6:4 already declared. Colossians 3:1 says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.” The believer is not waiting until the resurrection body to have a new direction. He is already raised with Christ positionally and called to live in the power of that truth. His affections, priorities, loyalties, and conduct should reflect the fact that he belongs to a risen Saviour. A man joined to resurrection has no business taking orders from a grave.
Future resurrection is also guaranteed because Christ’s resurrection is the firstfruits of the believer’s bodily redemption. First Corinthians 15:20 says, “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” The believer’s body may weaken, age, suffer, and die, but it is scheduled for resurrection or change at the coming of the Lord. The same Christ who broke the grave will not abandon those united to Him. Therefore Romans 6 grounds practical holiness in resurrection hope. The Christian is not fighting sin as a doomed man trying to decorate a sinking ship. He fights as a man joined to the risen Christ, knowing the grave is not his landlord and sin is not his destiny.
Chapter Three: Knowing This
Verse 6 begins, “Knowing this.” That phrase matters more than most saints realize. Paul does not begin with feeling this, guessing this, imagining this, hoping this, or waiting until a conference speaker shouts loudly enough to make this true. He says, “Knowing this.” The Christian life is built on revealed truth. Sanctification begins in the mind informed by Scripture. God expects the believer to know certain facts about his position in Christ and then live accordingly. Ignorance is not humility. Ignorance is expensive. A believer who does not know what God says about his union with Christ will keep signing contracts with sin as though he still belongs to the old master.
The devil understands the value of ignorance. He does not need to take away the believer’s salvation to make him miserable and ineffective. He just needs to keep him uninformed, confused, distracted, and emotionally governed. A saint who does not know he is dead to sin will try to negotiate with sin. He will make promises, bargain, hide, excuse, manage, and patch leaks in a ship God already sunk. That is why Paul says, “Knowing this.” Victory begins when the believer stops asking the flesh for information and starts believing the Book. The flesh has never told the truth about the cross. It keeps insisting it is alive and entitled to rule.
Doctrine is therefore not optional decoration for Christians who enjoy deep study. Doctrine is ammunition. Doctrine is armor. Doctrine is the map out of the swamp. The modern church often wants inspiration without instruction, emotion without exposition, and victory without verses. It wants a spiritual caffeine shot every Sunday and then wonders why Monday drags it back into bondage. Paul gives doctrine before duty. He tells believers what God has done before telling them how to walk. A Christian trying to live holy without knowing Romans 6 is like a soldier charging into battle with no rifle, no orders, no uniform, and no idea which side he is on.
Chapter Four: Our Old Man Is Crucified With Him
Paul says, “that our old man is crucified with him.” The “old man” is not merely a collection of bad habits. It is the believer’s old identity in Adam, the fallen self connected with sin’s dominion, corruption, and condemnation. Ephesians 4:22 speaks of “the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” Colossians 3:9 says, “ye have put off the old man with his deeds.” The old man is not improved by grace; he is crucified with Christ. God did not invite Adam to self-discovery. He nailed him to the cross in union with the Saviour.
“Is crucified” points to a completed reality with continuing consequence. The believer does not crucify the old man by trying harder. God says the old man is crucified with Christ. The believer is told to know it, reckon it, and live in light of it. This is where many sincere Christians stumble. They try to accomplish by effort what God says was accomplished at Calvary. They attempt to crucify themselves emotionally, punish themselves physically, deprive themselves religiously, or make vows fierce enough to scare the flesh into holiness. The flesh laughs at vows. It has broken more promises than a politician in campaign season. The answer is not self-crucifixion as a human achievement. The answer is faith in co-crucifixion as a divine fact.
This truth also cuts against sinless perfection on one side and careless carnality on the other. The old man being crucified does not mean the believer no longer experiences the flesh or cannot sin. Romans 7 will prove the conflict remains real. But it does mean the old man has been judged at the cross and no longer has rightful dominion. The careless man says, “I still feel sin, so I may as well serve it.” The perfectionist says, “I should not feel sin, so I will pretend I do not.” Paul says, “Know what God says: your old man is crucified with Him.” Faith neither excuses sin nor pretends the battle vanished. Faith fights from the ground of Calvary.
Chapter Five: That the Body of Sin Might Be Destroyed
Paul gives the purpose: “that the body of sin might be destroyed.” The “body of sin” speaks of the body as used by sin as an instrument, the organized machinery through which sin expresses itself in the believer’s members. Romans 6:12 will say, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Sin wants the body—eyes, tongue, hands, feet, mind, appetites, and members—as weapons of unrighteousness. Before salvation, sin had a comfortable working arrangement with the body. After union with Christ, that arrangement has been judged and its authority broken.
“Destroyed” does not mean annihilated out of existence in present experience. The believer still has a mortal body and must still mortify the deeds of the body through the Spirit, according to Romans 8:13. The word points to being rendered ineffective, put out of business, deprived of ruling power. The body of sin is not yet removed, but its legal dominion has been broken. Sin can still try to use the body, but it has no rightful title to it. The Christian’s body now belongs to the Lord. First Corinthians 6:19–20 says, “ye are not your own… For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
This doctrine has practical teeth. The believer cannot excuse sin by saying, “That is just who I am.” No, that is who you were in Adam, and God says the old man is crucified. The believer cannot hand his eyes to lust, his tongue to bitterness, his hands to uncleanness, his feet to compromise, his mind to filth, and then claim grace has no claim on the body. Grace purchased the whole man. The body is no longer sin’s workshop; it is to become an instrument of righteousness unto God. Sin may still knock on the factory door, but the ownership sign has changed.
Chapter Six: Henceforth We Should Not Serve Sin
Paul says the purpose of the old man being crucified and the body of sin being destroyed is “that henceforth we should not serve sin.” The word “serve” means bondage, slavery, and obedience under a master. Sin is not a harmless hobby. It is a slaveholder. It promises freedom and pays in chains. It advertises pleasure and delivers habit, guilt, corruption, fear, shame, and death. The sinner thinks he is choosing sin; in truth, sin is training him to obey. Every lust becomes a leash. Every compromise becomes a collar. Every secret sin becomes a private prison with wallpaper.
The believer should not serve sin because he no longer belongs to sin. Before salvation, sin had dominion. The man in Adam might polish his behavior, hide his worst actions, and compare himself favorably with worse sinners, but he remained under sin’s reign. In Christ, that reign has been broken. Romans 6:14 will say, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Notice the answer is not law but grace. Legalism cannot break sin’s dominion. It can only expose, provoke, and condemn. Grace changes ownership and supplies life from Christ.
This does not mean the believer will never obey sin in practice. It means he should not and does not have to. There is a difference between a slave serving his rightful master and a freed man foolishly answering the voice of a former tyrant. Many Christians live as though sin still possesses legal authority because they have not believed what God says about Calvary. They answer when sin calls because the voice is familiar. They return to old chains because bondage feels normal. But Romans 6 says the believer’s old master was dealt with at the cross. The Christian who serves sin is not living naturally according to his new identity; he is living inconsistently with his own emancipation.
Chapter Seven: He That Is Dead Is Freed From Sin
Verse 7 says, “For he that is dead is freed from sin.” That statement is the legal principle underneath the argument. Death ends the old claim. A dead man is beyond the jurisdiction of former masters. You can send him a bill, but he will not pay. You can issue a command, but he will not answer. You can threaten him with consequences, but he has passed beyond your reach. In Christ, the believer died to sin’s condemning dominion. Sin has no lawful claim to command him as before. The believer’s freedom begins with death, not self-improvement.
“Freed from sin” does not mean the believer is incapable of temptation or failure. It means he has been judicially released from sin’s lordship. The word “freed” is connected to justification language—set free, declared free, released from the charge and claim. Sin cannot successfully accuse the believer before God because Christ died for his sins. Sin cannot rightfully rule the believer because the old man was crucified with Christ. Sin cannot determine the believer’s final destiny because the believer is joined to the risen Lord. The cross breaks condemnation; the resurrection opens the walk of life.
This is why reckoning matters. The believer must count God’s declaration true when experience screams otherwise. Sin says, “You are mine.” The cross says, “You died.” Temptation says, “You must obey.” Grace says, “You are freed.” The flesh says, “This is who you are.” Scripture says, “Your old man is crucified with Him.” The Christian life is lived by believing God against every counterfeit witness. Feelings are loud, habits are stubborn, memories are persuasive, and the devil is a master ventriloquist, but none of them has authority to rewrite Romans 6. The believer’s freedom begins when he stops arguing with God’s verdict and starts standing on it.
Conclusion
Romans 6:5–7 teaches the believer’s union with Christ in death and resurrection. We have been planted together in the likeness of His death, and we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. The Christian life is not built on human reform but on divine identification. God places the believer into Christ, joins him to Christ’s death, identifies him with Christ’s burial, and raises him to walk in newness of life. The old relationship to sin has been broken at Calvary. The believer is not trying to escape Adam by decorating Adam. He has been placed into Christ.
The old man is crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be destroyed and henceforth we should not serve sin. That is not weak grace. That is reigning grace. Grace does not wink at sin, excuse sin, protect sin, or hire sin as a consultant. Grace takes the believer to the cross and says, “This is where the old man was judged.” Then grace points to the empty tomb and says, “Now walk in resurrection life.” Legalism can threaten the flesh, but it cannot crucify it. Religion can polish the old man, but it cannot bury him. Only union with Christ deals with sin at the root.
Therefore freedom from sin begins with believing what God says happened at Calvary. “He that is dead is freed from sin.” The believer must know it before he can reckon it and reckon it before he can yield properly. Sin will still make noise. The flesh will still argue. The devil will still accuse. The world will still entice. But none of them can undo the cross. The believer’s old man is not on probation, waiting to see whether he behaves. He is crucified with Christ. Do not take orders from a dead tyrant. Do not report for duty at a slavery camp Christ already burned down. Stand where God placed you, reckon what God declared, and walk like a man whose old master lost his claim at Calvary.
Romans Verse-by-Verse Commentary
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Romans 1:1 Commentary – Paul, a Servant of Jesus Christ
Romans 1:2-4 Commentary – The Gospel Promised Beforehand
Romans 1:5–7 Commentary – Grace, Apostleship, and Obedience to the Faith