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It is clear that freedom from bondage is the main theme here, and that this freedom has
some vital connection with death to sin. The question as to the basis of this freedom is
answered in verses 6 and 9:--
"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin
might be rendered inoperative, that we should no longer serve sin."
"Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more
dominion over Him."
The subject here is a sacred one; let us tread reverently for this is indeed hallowed
ground. The first passage ("knowing this") points us to the cross; the second
("knowing that") to the empty tomb. Together, they form the basis and charter of the
believer's freedom.
In Rom. 6: 6 we have the crucifixion of the "old man"; in 7: 6, the "oldness of the
letter". In 6: 6, the body of sin is "destroyed" (katargeo); and in 7: 6, we ourselves
are "delivered" (katargeo) from the law. In both cases the end is "service":--
"That henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom. 6: 6).
"That we should serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter" (Rom. 7: 6).
The "newness" of the spirit is in contrast with the "oldness" of the letter; and we must
find also something "new" to contrast with what is connected with the "old man". This
something "new" is found in verse 4: "newness of life." As we have already remarked
(Article #40) the word "newness", standing here beside an empty tomb, looks back at the
past which is dead, buried, excluded and finished.
The "old man" is crucified, with an object in view--"that the body of sin should be
rendered inoperative". In Rom. 7: 24 we have "the body of this death"; and in
Rom. 8: 3 (literally) "the likeness of sin's flesh". We read in Rom. 6:-8: and
elsewhere of "a law of sin which is in my members". This body, "sold under sin",
dominated by sin and death, is the seat of human depravity, the source of much of
human temptation, and the active instrument in the outworking of evil. In a future day,
the children of God shall stand in absolute freedom--"the freedom of the glory"
(Rom. 8: 21)--and then they shall have attained to the "redemption of the body".
During our life on earth we still have "mortal bodies" in which sin may still reign, though
its dominion is broken (Rom. 6: 12). Our only freedom springs from the canceling of sin
and the ending of its dominion. We were all slaves to sin and death, "sold under sin"
(Rom. 7: 14). The punishment for a slave was crucifixion; and so we read: "Our old
man was crucified with Him." This particular word translated "crucified with" is used in
one other epistle, that written to the Galatians:--
"I through the law am dead to law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and the life that I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself
for me" (Gal. 2: 19, 20).