Paul's Epistle to the Romans — page 22

Furthermore, the “old man” must not be confused with the “first man” (1 Cor. 15:47), which denotes a different aspect of the human race under Adam. The old man denotes the corrupt state of the fallen race,

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while the first man denotes what is natural, earthly and soulish in the race – they are not identical terms. It is never said of the first man that he is corrupt or a sinner, but the old man is nothing other than that. The first man has to do with what is human and natural; it is what God made in man. For this reason it is never said that the first man is judged by God (crucified with Christ), as the old man is.

Paul adds: “that the body of sin might be done away” [annulled – JND]”. He uses the word “body” here, not to refer to our physical bodies (as some have thought), but to describe “sin” as a whole system of life in its totality. In the same way, we use the word “body” to express the totality of a certain thing. For example, we could say: “The body of scientific knowledge,” or “the body of medical knowledge,” etc. J. A. Trench explained it this way: “‘The body of sin’ – that is, its whole system and force, as we said, the body of a river... It is the whole system and the totality of it.” (Truth for Believers, vol. 2, pp. 77, 83). J. N. Darby said: “He [Paul] takes the totality and system of sin in a man as a body which is annulled by death” (Synopsis of the Books of the Bible). E. Dennett said something similar: “It may be well to say that ‘the body of sin’ is the totality of sin in its ruling energy” (The Christian Friend, vol. 23, p. 182).

“The body of sin” could not be referring to our human bodies because they are a creation of God. The human body has been affected by sin – aging and death prove this – and may be involved in all kinds of sinful acts, but the human body is not characteristically sinful. If our bodies were sinful, God would never tell us to present them to Him for His use in service (Rom. 12:1). (The KJV translates Philippians 3:21 – “our vile body”, which in today’s English conveys the idea of something repugnant and sinful. However, when that translation was made 400 years ago, vile meant “of little value.” Compare with James 2:2. To avoid this misunderstanding, it has been better translated as: “Our body of humiliation” (JND). Later, in Romans 6, Paul makes a reference to the physical bodies of believers and to make sure there is no misunderstanding about what he is referring to, he calls our “mortal body” (chaps. 6:12, 8:11) to distinguish it from the “body of sin”. So what Paul is saying here is that in the judgment of the old man, the whole system of sin in its totality was “annulled” (JND) for the believer. The King James Version translates “done away” as “destroyed”, but the body of sin has not yet been destroyed; we see the evidence of the presence of sin everywhere in the world. Sin will be destroyed and then will be entirely removed from creation in the eternal state. This is the force of John the Baptist’s observation: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. (John 1:29). Many have thought that John was referring to Christ’s work on the cross to take away the sins of believers, but he was actually speaking of a future work of Christ when He will remove every trace of sin from the universe. It is only then that “the body of sin” will be destroyed and disappear. It has presently been “annulled” for believers. This does not mean that the sinful nature is removed from our bodies, but that the whole system of sin in its totality has been defeated for us and, consequently, we no longer need to be controlled by the power of sin. This annulment opened the way for Christians to be freed from the dictates of the old master (sin) and, thus, “henceforth” (KJV) no longer “serve sin”. Chap. 6:7 – Paul concludes: “For he that is dead is freed from sin” (v. 7). J. N. Darby said: “The statement that ‘he that is dead is freed from sin,’ I understand to mean, ‘you cannot accuse a dead man of sin, of self-will, of lust.’ This becomes true of us when we are dead” (Collected Writings, vol. 7, p. 242). Thus, being dead with Christ, we have an honorable liberation from the old master – sin.

“Knowing” the Meaning of Christ’s Resurrection

Chap. 6:8-10 – The third thing that every believer must know is the meaning of Christ’s resurrection. Paul says: “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God”. For a brief moment death had dominion over the Lord, and that only because His Father called Him to give His life, and He did so in obedience (Phil. 2:8; John 10:17-18). As said earlier, having died to sin, He left that whole order of things behind. But, being raised from the dead, the Lord entered into a new sphere of life, where He lives “unto God”. By declaring that “we shall also live with Him” (v. 8), Paul is indicating that, as the Head of the new race is alive in the sphere of resurrected life, that sphere is also open to us to live in by faith. Indeed, it is the proper sphere of life of the Christian. Understanding this is essential for deliverance from sin; if in practice we live in that sphere of eternal life that is now open to us, sin cannot impose its power in our lives.

The “Reckoning” of Faith

Chap. 6:11 – Having established these doctrinal facts concerning deliverance, Paul proceeds to the next thing – the reckoning of faith. He says: “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin”. This is the first exhortation in the epistle and, like every exhortation, it introduces our responsibility. God wants us to be responsibly exercised in this matter. We must “reckon” the facts that our faith has embraced. That is, we must reckon what we know. This is why knowledge is important and comes first. If we do not know correctly, we cannot reckon correctly.

As mentioned in our comments on chapter 4:1-5, “reckon” means “to think or judge it to be so”. First, we must apply these things to ourselves in our minds. We must reckon and believe that what is true of Christ is true of us as well. Since Christ’s link with sin was broken through death, we have the right, because of our identification with Him, to reckon ourselves as “dead to sin” and thus also to have our connections with sin broken! This has been illustrated as follows: It is like a man who paid another man a large sum to go to war in his place. When the government wrote to him saying that that man had died in battle, and that he would now have to go to war, he replied and said that he could not go because he was dead. He realized that he had the right to reckon himself dead because his substitute had died.

This reckoning must not be confused with the reckoning of chapter 4:5. Chapter 4:5 refers to the reckoning that takes place in God’s mind when we believe the gospel. Here in chapter 6:11 it is what takes place in the believer’s mind in view of Christ’s death to sin. The story of Isaac and Ishmael illustrates this. Isaac is a type of Christ and Ishmael is a type of the flesh. When Isaac received his rightful place as son in Abraham’s house, God no longer recognized Ishmael as Abraham’s son (Gen. 21). After that, He called Isaac Abraham’s “only son”, although Ishmael was still alive! (Gen. 22:2, 12, 16) This illustrates the truth that God no longer recognizes the first order of man according to the flesh in the believer. Therefore, we have the right to reckon this way as well. Thus, we must reckon as God reckons this fact.

A believer might say: “But sin is not dead in me.” But the apostle does not say that sin is dead in us; he says that we are dead to sin. The sinful nature is still in us and will continue to attract us, but we must ourselves reckon dead to sin. We are dead and therefore separated from it. This means that we must see ourselves as separated and dissociated from sin (the principle of evil), even though sin (the nature) is still in us.

Some, having read what Paul said here, have thought: “Now I understand; I need to die to sin so that Christ can live in me!” But that is not what Paul is teaching. He is not exhorting us to die to sin; he is affirming that we are dead to sin – that we are separated from it. This is an accomplished fact; it is not something we need to do by a process of self-discipline, etc. J.

1. Darby observed: “It is never said in Scripture that we have to die to

sin” (Collected Writings, vol. 34, p. 406). Nor should we think that the application of the truth of our identification with Christ’s death is something to deceive us mentally; rather it is to believe something that is really true before God. God has judged sin, and He no longer

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recognizes it as being us. So, we must believe what He says and act accordingly.

“Reckon” has to do with our way of thinking. Paul is showing us here that we need to reason from the correct perspective. When temptation presents itself and the sinful nature in us would like to respond, we should no longer reason from the perspective of who we were under Adam, but of who we are under Christ. We have the right to treat sin as not being us. We can say – and sincerely say – “I do not want that evil thing…” because the new nature in us certainly does not want it. (If, however, we allow the flesh to act, we must own the sin and confess it as our sin to God, our Father, with true repentance, and He will restore us to communion with Himself – 1 John 1:9).