Paul's Epistle to the Romans — page 21

Chap. 6:3 – The fact that Paul tells us we need to know certain things related to our deliverance shows that knowledge has a place in it. There are three particular things we need to “know.” First, every believer needs to know the meaning of his baptism. Paul asks: “Or do you not know that all who were baptized into [for – JND] Jesus Christ were baptized into [for – JND] His death?”. He appeals to the ordinance of baptism because it signifies the Christian’s identification with the death and burial of Christ. Paul is not speaking here of the form or mode of our baptism – whether we were immersed in water or sprinkled – he is speaking of its meaning. He is saying: “You professed, by the act of being baptized, that you died with Christ. And, since the death of Christ separated Him from sin, then you too are separated from sin! To continue in that state, therefore, would be a practical denial of what you profess in your baptism! It is totally inconsistent with the position you have taken, because we cannot say we are dead to something and at the same time live in it.” Note that the King James Version (and the Portuguese versions too) says that believers were “baptized into Jesus Christ,” but it should be translated as “baptized unto Christ Jesus.” “Unto” indicates a vital connection with Christ in life in our new position before God, into which justification places us. Baptism cannot do that. If it could, then baptism could make someone fit for heaven. The truth is: being justified, we have a new place in heaven before God “in Christ” and, being baptized, we have a new place on earth among men, as being “unto Christ.” “Unto” means identification, and that is Paul’s point here – we are identified with Christ in His death. Chap. 6:4-5 – Paul mentions another thing that baptism signifies – burial. Burial has to do with a dead person being taken out of the scene. Therefore, in baptism, not only did we “die with Christ” (v. 8), but we were also “buried with Him” (v. 4). In being dead with Christ, we profess to have broken our connections with Adam and with sin. But, being buried with Christ, we profess to have left behind that whole order of life in which the world lives and where sin reigns. Hamilton Smith said: “Baptism is a figure of death and burial. It is evident that a dead man has finished the life of self-will in which he once lived, and a buried man has gone out of the sight of the world in which he once lived.” Therefore, baptism is the formal way of renouncing our connection with the old position and state of Adam. It does not, however, make a person holier. A case in point is the man about whom we heard who was saved and baptized and then lost contact with the man who baptized him. Some time later, they met and he said: “I was totally disappointed with my baptism; I thought I would not sin anymore.” The other man said shrewdly: “Well, if I had known that was what you expected from baptism, I suppose I could have held you under the water longer when I baptized you!”

Paul continues speaking about the resurrection of Christ, declaring that, as Christ lives in resurrection life, “we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted [identified – JND] together with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection”. This means that God has opened a new sphere of life in the resurrection of Christ, where He and the members of His race are to “walk” in “newness of life.” F. B. Hole rightly said: “Our death with Christ is with a view to our living with Him in the life of the resurrection world” (Paul’s Epistles, vol. 1, p. 21). Paul will say more about this in verses 8-10. (Note: the epistle to the Romans does not go so far as to see the believer as presently identified with Christ in resurrection. Ephesians and Colossians see us on higher ground as risen with Christ and in union with Him – Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 2:12-13).

“Knowing” that Our “Old Man” Was Crucified with Christ Chap. 6:6 – The second thing Paul says we need to know is the meaning of the cross in relation to the “old man.” He says “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him”. The “old man” (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9) is an abstract term that describes the corrupt condition of the fallen race of Adam – its depraved moral character. The term includes every horrible aspect that marks the fallen human race. To see the old man correctly, we must look at Adam’s race as a whole, for it is unlikely that one person is marked by all the terrible aspects that characterize that corrupt state. For example, one of Adam’s sons may be characterized by being wrathful, but he is not immoral; another son of Adam may be known for not losing his patience, but he is terribly immoral. But when the characteristics of all the members of the race are gathered together, we see the old man in its totality.

Paul says that the old man was "crucified" with Christ. This means that God judged that corrupt, old Adam state. F. B. Hole said: "All that we were as children of fallen Adam was crucified with Christ, and we ought to know it. It is not a mere notion, but a real fact. It was an act of God accomplished at the cross of Christ, and it was as much an act of God, and as real, as is the putting away of our sins" (Paul's Epistles, vol. 1, p. 21). Therefore, not only have we been separated from the whole system of sin (by being dead and buried with Christ in baptism), but God has also judged that corrupt state (by crucifying the old man). Note: Paul does not say that the crucifixion of the old man is something we must do. It is not the exercise of self-judgment in the believer, but rather a judgment that God executed at the cross upon the whole corrupt state of fallen man. The scene of that judgment was at the cross, not within the human heart. It is true that the believer should judge himself (1 Cor. 11:31), but that is not the subject here. Chapter 6:1-10 is positional truth; the believer's practice is not in view here. Paul is referring to the fallen and corrupt condition or state in which we were born and of which we were a part as children of Adam – that was judged by God.

An integral part of our Christian confession is that we have been "put off the old man" (JND). God not only judged the old man at the cross, but we have confessedly put him off when we took our position as Christians. Ephesians 4:22-32 and Colossians 3:5-9 state this clearly. (Unfortunately, the King James Version and the Portuguese versions translate these passages as if it were the Christian's responsibility to put off the old man [put ye off], but these passages should be translated as "Having put off..." (JND), indicating that this is something we have already done in our confession of being Christians.) As was the case with the judgment of the old man, so also is the putting off of the old man – neither is accomplished by a process of spiritual exercise within the believer. They are in the aorist tense in Greek, meaning that they were done once for all. Paul's argument in Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 is that, if we put off the old man when we became Christians, then let us be consistent with that and stop practicing the things that characterize the state that God judged and that we professedly put off.

Many use the term "old man" in place of "the flesh", as if the old man were our fallen sinful nature, but that is not correct. The old man and the flesh are not synonymous. J. N. Darby observed: "The old man has been habitually used incorrectly to refer to the flesh" (Food for the Flock, vol. 2, p. 286). The NASB (New American Standard Bible), NIV (New International Version) and ESV (English Standard Version) translate it as "our old self," but that is to confuse it with the flesh. If the old man were the flesh, then Ephesians 4:22-23 and Colossians 3:9 would teach us that Christians have put off the flesh and no longer have it in them, but we all know from experience that this is not true; the flesh is still in us. The "old man" is never said to be something in us, but the flesh certainly is.

1. G. Patterson said: "I do not think that Scripture will allow us to say that

we have the old man in us – for it teaches more fully that we have the flesh in us" (A Chosen Vessel, p. 51). Nor are we told to reckon the "old man" dead (as people often say). This again is to confuse the old man with the flesh and to assume that it is something alive in us that we need to judge. Others wrongly speak of the old man as being dead, which again implies that it is the old life that was once alive in the believer.

Therefore, it is not doctrinally correct to speak of the "old man" as something alive in us that has appetites, desires and emotions, as is the case with "the flesh" (the sin nature). Christians often say things like: "The old man in us desires sinful things." Or: "My old man wants to do this or that which is evil..." Again, these statements confuse the old man with the flesh. H. C. B. G. said: "I know what a Christian means when he loses his patience and says that it is 'the old man,' but the expression is wrong. If he had said that it was 'the flesh,' he would have been more correct" (Food for the Flock, vol. 2, p. 287). The "old man" is not Adam personally, nor is the "new man" Christ personally (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). The new man is a term denoting the new moral order that characterizes the new race of men under Christ. G. Davison said: "The new man is not Christ personally, but it is Christ characteristically." Every moral characteristic of the new man was seen in His life in perfection. However, just as the old man has been wrongly used for the flesh (the old nature), the new man is universally confused with the believer's new nature. Remarks are made such as: "The new man in us needs an object to look at..." or "We need to feed on things that will satisfy the new man." These observations are clearly confusing the new man with the new life in us. In reality, the old man and the new man are abstract terms that describe the state of the two races of men under Adam and under Christ.