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with "the law of sin and death", the law in our members, the law of our mind, rather than
the law of Sinai.
Consequently we find Paul speaking of the "old man" the inner seat of sin, the
radiating point for the law of sin and death, and here it is that he speaks once again of
being "crucified with Christ".
"Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him" (Rom. 6: 6).
The believer is never told to crucify the old man himself, he is told to look at the cross
of Christ and see that there the blessed "reckoning" operates. We may have "put off
concerning the former conversation the old man" (Eph. 4: 22), and we may have "put off
the old man with his deeds" (Col. 3: 9), we can deal with the "conversation" and "the
deeds" of the old man, but we cannot deal with the old man itself. Neither will all our
"putting off" be of any avail unless based squarely on the great initial reckoning with
Christ when the old man was crucified with Him. What the crucifying of the old man
involves is immediately explained in Rom. 6: 6.
(1)
"That the body of sin might be destroyed" (A.V.)
"In order that our sinful nature might be deprived of its power" (Weymouth).
"That the body of sin might be annulled" (Darby).
(2)
"That henceforth we should not serve sin" (A.V.)
"So that we should no longer be slaves of sin" (Weymouth).
"And free us from further slavery to sin" (Moffatt).
The emphasis is placed here upon being freed from a dominion, and that because of
the intervention of death. This death was not our own, but Another's, and we are
graciously reckoned to have been crucified with Christ, and our old man reckoned to
have been crucified with Him, so that we may make the first step up the sevenfold ladder
of life that leads from Reckoning to Reality.
Here for the time we must stay. That Cross and the Crucifixion terminated in death;
it is not "The Cross" but "the Death of the Cross" that is stressed. It is not the "Cross"
but "the blood of the Cross", "the shame" of crucifixion, the complete rejection and
abandonment that such an execution implied, that is brought to bear upon our old and
sinful nature. We might have thought that this was enough; that no one could ever think
of attempting to be saved by his own works, or by putting himself under law again. The
Lord however knew otherwise, and so we are to go on with Him and learn that "dying
with Him" and being "buried with Him" must be considered before we at last turn our
back upon self completely and enter into newness of life.
"He was numbered with the transgressors."
"I have been crucified with Christ."