B. The Reason for Our Death with Christ (6:6-7)
Through our identification with Christ in this unique and wonderful way, God has broken (1) sin's stronghold in the life. "Knowing this," says Paul, "that our old man is crucified with him" (v. 6a). The expression "the old man" occurs in Ephesians 4:22 and in Colossians 3:9, as well as here, "and always means the man of the old, corrupt human nature, the inborn tendency to evil in all men. In Romans 6:6 it is the natural man himself; in Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9 his ways. Positionally, in the reckoning of God, the old man is crucified, and the believer is exhorted to make this good in experience, reckoning it to be so by definitely 'putting off' the old man and 'putting on' the new."4
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The old man, then, is the man of old, the man we used to be before our conversion. There is something we should know about this old man: he is now dead! He has been crucified with Christ. The figure of crucifixion is very striking, for no man can crucify himself. In death by crucifixion the execution is of necessity at the hands of another. At Calvary, God has dealt with the question of self as well as the question of sin by putting us to death with Christ. This is something we need to know, for without this knowledge we can never hope to experience deliverance from all that we are by natural birth.
Through our identification with Christ, furthermore, God has broken (2) sin's stranglehold on the life. "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" (vv. 6-7). "The body of sin" has been defined as "the instrument for carrying out sin's orders." W. E. Vine says that the word s ma "denotes the body as the organic instrument of natural life; it is used here figuratively with that as its essential significance ... In the phrase, 'the body of sin,' then, sin is regarded as an organized power, acting through the members of the body, though the seat of sin is in the will."5 The believer is to regard his body as dead so far as being an instrument through which sin can work, is concerned.
Now, of course the body does not feel dead to sin, but that is quite beside the point; God says it is. A sinner seeking salvation must learn that salvation does not depend upon feelings but upon certain facts related to the work of Christ and the Word of God. These facts must be believed, and Christ must be received by faith. Then, on the authority of God's Word, the sinner can know his sins are forgiven no matter how he may feel in this regard. Just so with the saint. He must accept the fact that at Calvary God dealt with "the body of sin" and he must believe that God means what He says in Romans 6:6. Feelings are quite secondary and incidental.