Romans 6:6

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6-11) Further description of this process. The Christian’s union with the crucified Christ binds him also to crucify or mortify (ascetically) the sinful desires of his body. Thus he is released from the dominion of those desires. But this is not all. Just as Christ passed from the cross to the resurrection, and overcame death once for all, exchanging for it a life wholly dependent upon God; so, too, His followers must consider themselves cut off irrevocably—as if by death itself—from sin, and living with a new life dedicated and devoted to God, through their participation in the death and life of Jesus Christ their Lord.

(6) Our old man.—“Our old self” (Vaughan), as in Ephesians 4:22; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:9-10.

The old self, or that congeries of evil habits acquired in the state of heathenism, was, ideally if not actually, mortified and killed in our baptism. This change was wrought by a power brought to bear upon the will through the contemplation of the crucifixion of Christ. Hence, instead of saying simply “mortified,” the Apostle writes rather “crucified,” i.e. put to death, not in any way, but specially through the cross.

That the body of sin might be destroyed.—The “body of sin” is the body subject to sin, or that supplies sin with the material on which it works. This substratum of carnal and fleshly desire, the Apostle tells us, is to be ascetically chastened and disciplined until it ceases to be a source of sin.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:3-10 Baptism teaches the necessity of dying to sin, and being as it were buried from all ungodly and unholy pursuits, and of rising to walk with God in newness of life. Unholy professors may have had the outward sign of a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, but they never passed from the family of Satan to that of God. The corrupt nature, called the old man, because derived from our first father Adam, is crucified with Christ, in every true believer, by the grace derived from the cross. It is weakened and in a dying state, though it yet struggles for life, and even for victory. But the whole body of sin, whatever is not according to the holy law of God, must be done away, so that the believer may no more be the slave of sin, but live to God, and find happiness in his service.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Knowing this - We all knowing this. All Christians are supposed to know this. This is a new illustration drawn from the fact that by his crucifixion our corrupt nature has been crucified also, or put to death; and that thus we should be free from the servitude of sin.

Our old man - This expression occurs also in Ephesians 4:22, "That ye put off ...the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." Colossians 3:9, "lie not to one another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds." From these passages it is evident that Paul uses the expression to denote our sinful and corrupt nature; the passions and evil propensities that exist before the heart is renewed. It refers to the love of sin, the indulgence of sinful propensities, in opposition to the new disposition which exists after the soul is converted, and which is called "the new man."

Is crucified - Is put to death, as if on a cross. In this expression there is a personification of the corrupt propensities of our nature represented as "our old man," our native disposition, etc. The figure is here carried out, and this old man, this corrupt nature, is represented as having been put to death in an agonizing and torturing manner. The pains of crucifixion were perhaps the most torturing of any that the human frame could bear. Death in this manner was most lingering and distressing. And the apostle here by the expression "is crucified" doubtless refers to the painful and protracted struggle which everyone goes through when his evil propensities are subdued; when his corrupt nature is slain; and when, a converted sinner, he gives himself up to God. Sin dies within him, and he becomes dead to the world, and to sin; "for as by the cross death is most lingering and severe, so that corrupt nature is not subdued but by anguish." (Grotius.) All who have been born again can enter into this description. They remember "the wormwood and the gall." They remember the anguish of conviction; the struggle of corrupt passion for the ascendency; the dying convulsions of sin in the heart; the long and lingering conflict before it was subdued, and the soul became submissive to God. Nothing will better express this than the lingering agony of crucifixion: and the argument of the apostle is, that as sin has produced such an effect, and as the Christian is now free from its embrace and its power, he will live to God.

With him - The word "with" σύν sun here is joined to the verb "is crucified" and means "is crucified as he was."

That the body of sin - This expression doubtless means the same as that which he had just used, "our old man," But why the term "body" is used, has been a subject in which interpreters have not been agreed. Some say that it is a Hebraism, denoting mere intensity or emphasis. Some that it means the same as flesh, that is, denoting our sinful propensities and lusts. Grotius thinks that the term "body" is elegantly attributed to sin, because the body of man is made up of many members joined together compactly, and sin also consists of numerous vices and evil propensities joined compactly, as it were, in one body. But the expression is evidently merely another form of conveying the idea contained in the phrase "our old man" - a personification of sin as if it had a living form, and as if it had been put to death on a cross. It refers to the moral destruction of the power of sin in the heart by the gospel, and not to any physical change in the nature or faculties of the soul; compare Colossians 2:11.

Might be destroyed - Might be put to death; might become inoperative and powerless. Sin becomes enervated, weakened, and finally annihilated, by the work of the Cross.

We should not serve - Should not be the slave of sin δουλεύειν douleuein. That we should not be subject to its control. The sense is, that before this we were slaves of sin (compare Romans 6:17,) but that now we are made free from this bondage, because the moral death of sin has freed us from it.

Sin - Sin is here personified as a master that had dominion over us, but is now dead.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6, 7. Knowing this, &c.—The apostle now grows more definite and vivid in expressing the sin-destroying efficacy of our union with the crucified Saviour.

that our old man—"our old selves"; that is, "all that we were in our old unregenerate condition, before union with Christ" (compare Col 3:9, 10; Eph 4:22-24; Ga 2:20; 5:24; 6:14).

is—rather, "was."

crucified with him—in order.

that the body of sin—not a figure for "the mass of sin"; nor the "material body," considered as the seat of sin, which it is not; but (as we judge) for "sin as it dwells in us in our present embodied state, under the law of the fall."

might be destroyed—(in Christ's death)—to the end.

that henceforth we should not serve sin—"be in bondage to sin."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By the old man is meant, that corrupt and polluted nature which we derive from Adam, the first man: see Ephesians 4:22 Colossians 3:9,10. The old and new man are opposites; as then the new man is the image of God repaired in us; so the old man is a depravation of that image of God, and a universal pollution of the whole man.

Is crucified with him; by virtue of our union with him, and by means of his death and crucifixion: see Galatians 2:20.

The body of sin is the very same that he called before the old man. The corrupt nature is sometimes called the body, Romans 8:13, sometimes a body of death, Romans 7:24, and here the body of sin. It is indeed a mere mass and lump of sin; it is not one sin, but all sin seminally. It is with respect to this body of sin, that particular lusts and corruptions are called members, Colossians 3:5.

Might be destroyed; weakened more and more, till at last it be destroyed.

That henceforth we should not serve sin; as we did before regeneration, and as they still do who voluntarily commit it, John 8:34. They do not only act sin, but are acted by it, having as many lords as lusts, Titus 3:3. See more of this, Romans 6:16.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,.... By the old man is meant the corruption of nature; called a man, because natural to men; it lives and dwells in them; it has spread itself over the whole man; it rules and governs in men; and consists of various parts and members, as a man does: it is called "old", because it is the poison of the old serpent, with which man was infected by him from the beginning; it is derived from the first man that ever was; it is as old as the man is, in whom it is, and is likewise called so, with respect to its duration and continuance; and in opposition to, and contradistinction from, the new man, or principle of grace: it is called "ours", because continual to us; it is in our nature, it cleaves to us, and abides in us. This name the apostle took from his countrymen the Jews, who were wont to call the vitiosity of nature hereby; so R. Aba on that passage, "the firstborn said to the younger, our father is old", Genesis 19:31, asks, what is the meaning of this, "our father is old?" this, answers he, is the evil imagination, or corruption of nature, which is called "old", according to Ecclesiastes 4:13; and is said to be old, , "because it is born with the man" (o); or as the reason is elsewhere given (p), because it is joined to him from his birth, to his old age: this, they say (q), is with a man as soon as he is born, from the hour of his birth, as soon as ever he comes into the world. Now this is said to be "crucified with him"; that is, with Christ, when he was crucified: the Jews (r) have a notion that the evil imagination, or corruption of nature, , will not be made to cease, or be abolished out of the world, till the King Messiah comes, and by him it is abolished: this is so crucified by the death, and at the cross of Christ, as that it cannot exert its damning power over believers; and is so crucified by the Spirit and grace of Christ in them, as that it cannot reign over them, or exercise its domineering power over them; wherefore they are dead unto it, and that to them, and therefore cannot live in it; which is done,

that the body of sin might be destroyed: by "the body of sin" is meant sin itself, which consists, as a body does, of various members; and also the power and strength of it, which the Jews (s) call , "the power of the evil imagination"; this is crucified with Christ, and nailed to his cross by his sacrifice and satisfaction, that its damning power might be destroyed, abolished, and done away: and it is crucified by the Spirit and grace of Christ, that its governing power might be took away, and that itself be subdued, weakened, and laid under restraints, and its members and deeds mortified:

that henceforth we should not serve sin; not that it should not be in us, for as yet, neither by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, nor by the power of his grace, is sin as to its being removed from the people of God: but that we should not serve it, make provision for it, indulge it and obey it, in the lusts thereof.

(o) Midrash Haneelam in Zohar in Gen. fol. 68. 1. Vid. Caphtor, fol. 20. 1.((p) Midrash Kohelet, fol. 70. 2.((q) Zohar in Gen. fol. 102. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 14. 4. (r) Zohar in Exod fol. 94. 4. (s) Ib.

Geneva Study Bible

Knowing this, that our {h} old man is crucified with {i} him, that the {k} body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not {l} serve sin.

(h) Our entire nature, as we are conceived and born into this world with sin, is called old, partly by comparing that old Adam with Christ, and partly also in respect of the deformed state of our corrupt nature, which we change with a new.

(i) Our corrupt nature is regarded as belonging to Christ, not because of what he has done, but by imputation.

(k) That wickedness which remains in us.

(l) The end of sanctification which we aim at, and will at length come to, that is, when God will be all in all.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Romans 6:6. Τοῦτο γινώσκοντες] Definition to τῆς ἀναστάσ. ἐσόμεθα, which objective relation is confirmed by the corresponding experimental conscious knowledge (comp εἰδότες in Romans 6:9): since we know this; not a mere continuation of the construction instead of κ. τοῦτο γινώσκομεν (Philippi), as the participle is never so used, not even in ch. Romans 2:4; nor yet to be conceived as in the train of the ἐσόμεθα (Hofmann), as if Paul had expressed himself by some such word as ὥστε, or with the telic infinitive (γνῶναι). Respecting τοῦτο see on ch. Romans 2:3.

ὁ παλ. ἡμ. ἄνθρ.] i.e. our old ego—our personality in its entire sinful condition before regeneration (John 3:3; Titus 3:5). Comp Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9. From the standpoint of the καινότης πνεύματος, constituting the Christian self-consciousness, the Christian sees his pre-Christian ethical personality as his old self no longer to be found in life, as the person which he had formerly been Comp on 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10.

συνεσταυρώθη] namely, when we were baptized and thereby transplanted into the fellowship of death. See on Romans 6:3-4. This special expression of the being killed with Him is selected simply because Christ was slain on the cross; not as Grotius and others, including Olshausen, hold: “quia sicut per crucem non sine gravi dolore ad exitum pervenitur, ita illa natura (the old man) sine dolore non extinguitur.” Compare Umbreit. The simple ἵνα καταργ. is not at all in keeping with this far-fetched reference, which is not supported by Galatians 2:19 f.; but just as little with the reference to the disgrace of crucifixion (Hofmann).

ἵνα καταργ.] Design of the ὁ παλ. ἡμ. ἄνθρ. συνεστ.: in order that the body of sin might be destroyed, i.e. the body belonging to the power of sin, ruled by sin.[1413] Comp Romans 7:24. The old man had such a body; and this σῶμα was to be destroyed, put out of existence by the crucifixion with Christ; consequently not the body in itself, but in so far as it is the sin-body, becoming determined by sin in its expressions of life to sinful πράξεσι (Romans 8:13). The propriety of this interpretation appears from Romans 6:7; Romans 6:12-13; Romans 6:23. Comp on Colossians 2:11. If we explain it merely of “the body as seat or organ of sin,” the idea would not in itself be un-Pauline, as Reiche thinks; for the σῶμα would in fact appear not as the soliciting agent of sin (not as the ΣΆΡΞ), but as its vehicle, in itself morally indifferent, but serving sin as the organic instrument of its vital activity (see Stirm in the Tübing. Zeitschr. f. Theol. 1834, 3, p. 10 ff.); but καταργηθῇ is decisive against this view. For this could neither mean destroyed, annihilated, because in fact even the body of the regenerate is a σῶμα τ. ἁμαρτίας in the sense assumed (Romans 6:12); nor even evacuaretur (Tertullian, Augustine), rendered inactive, inoperative, partly because then the idea of σάρξ would be assigned to ΣῶΜΑ, and partly because it is only the conception of the destruction of the body which corresponds to the conception of crucifixion. Others take the corpus peccati figuratively; either so, that sin is conceived under the figure of a body with significant reference to its being crucified (so Fathers in Suicer, Thes. II. p. 1215, Piscator, Pareus, Castalio, Hammond, Homberg, Calovius, Koppe, Flatt, and Olshausen; also Reiche, conceiving sin as a monster); or, similarly to this mode of apprehending it, in such a way as to find the sense: “the mass of sin,” τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν διαφορῶν μερῶν πονηρίας συγκειμένην.… κακίαν, Chrysostom. So Ambrosiaster, Pseudo-Hieronymus, Theophylact, Erasmus, Cornelius à Lapide, Grotius, Estius, Reithmayr and others; so also Calvin, who however takes the corpus peccati as a designation of the natural man itself, which is a massa, ex peccato conflata. Philippi also ultimately comes to the massa peccati, which is conceived as an organism having members, as σῶμα; so likewise Jatho and Julius Müller, v. d. Sünde, I. p. 460, ed. 5; also Baur (” as it were the substance of sin”). But all these interpretations are at variance partly with the Pauline usus loquendi in general, and partly with Romans 6:12 in particular, where ἐν τῷ θνητῷ ὑμ. σώματι by its reference to our passage confirms “our view of the ΣῶΜΑ. The right view is held substantially by Theodoret, Theophylact 2, Bengel and others, including Tholuck, Köllner, de Wette, Rückert, Fritzsche, Maier, Nielsen, Hofmann and Weiss; whereas Baumgarten-Crusius, and also Ernesti, Urspr. d. Sünde, I. p. 113, convert σῶμα into the idea of state of life.

τοῦ μηκέτι δουλ. Κ.Τ.Λ[1416]] “finem abolitionis notat,” Calvin. The sin, which is committed, is conceived as a ruler to whom service is rendered. See John 8:34.

[1413] It is self-evident that Paul might have said also τὸ σῶμα τῆς σαρκός, as in Colossians 2:11. But his whole theme (ver. 1) suggested his saying τῆς ἁμαρτίας. He might even have-written merely ἡ σάρξ, but τὸ σῶμα was given in the immediate context (συνεσταυρ.)

[1416] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Romans 6:6. All this can be asserted, knowing as we do that “our old man” = our old self, what we were before we became Christians—was crucified with Him. Paul says συνεσταυρώθη simply because Christ died on the cross, and we are baptised into that death, not because “our old man” is the basest of criminals for whom crucifixion is the proper penalty. The object of this crucifixion of the old man was “that the body of sin might be brought to nought”. τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας is the body in which we live: apart from the crucifixion of the old self it can be characterised as “a body of sin”. It may be wrong to say that it is necessarily and essentially sinful—the body, as such, can have no moral predicate attached to it; it would be as wrong to deny that it is invariably and persistently a seat and source of sin. The genitive is perhaps qualitative rather than possessive, though “the body of which sin has taken possession” (S. and H.) is a good paraphrase. See Winer, p. 235, 768. This body is to be reduced to impotence τοῦ μηκέτι δουλεύειν ἡμᾶς κ.τ.λ. “that we may no longer be slaves to sin”. The body is the instrument we use in the service of sin, and if it is disabled the service must cease. For the gen inf, see Burton, § 397.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. knowing this] Not precisely = “for we know this;” but more fully, “as those who know this.” This knowledge is to be a working motive in the new life.

our old man] Cp., for illustrative passages, Romans 7:22; 2 Corinthians 4:16; Ephesians 3:16; Ephesians 4:22; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:9; 1 Peter 3:4. In view of these, the word “self” in its popular use (“a man’s true self,” &c.) appears to be a fair equivalent for “man” here. Meyer here gives “unser altes Ich,” (“our old Ego”). Here the Apostle views the Christian before his union to Christ as (figuratively, of course,) another person; so profoundly different was his position before God, as a person unconnected with Christ.

is crucified with him] Better, was crucified. Here again the idea is the Representative Death of the Substitute, appropriated and made efficacious for justification, by faith. Not merely Death, but the Cross, is here named; the ideas of shame and pain being specially fit here, to emphasize both the requirements of the law and the claims of grace.

the body of sin] i.e. the body regarded as the special seat and stronghold of sin. Cp. 1 Corinthians 9:27; and below, Romans 6:12-13. The body is “the external basis of human nature;” “the medium for the reception … of life;” and thus “the sinfulness of human nature is … manifested by means of it.” (Cremer.) In connexions like the present it nearly = “the flesh.”

destroyed] Better, cancelled, as to its fatal power on the spirit. Same word as Romans 3:3; Romans 3:31; where see notes. Cp. especially 2 Timothy 1:10; where E. V. “abolished.” For a comment on the meaning here see Romans 8:3, and 1 Corinthians 9:27.

serve] Lit., be slaves to; and so in the whole context. This clause explains the last: “The body of sin” is so “cancelled” as to its power that the “inner man” no longer is the slave, or obedient victim, of sin, but combats it, with final victory. Before our “death with Christ,” the will, although it was swayed by conscience away from single acts or courses of sin, had never decisively revolted from sin as such, under the one effective motive—supreme love to the Holy God as the God of Peace. Hence, little as he might know it, the man’s will was, in the main respect of all, in harmony with sin, and the tool of sin; for sin in its essence is the not-loving the true God. And the impending doom of sin, (in other words, sin as unforgiven sin,) was the strength and secret of this bondage; for till the removal of the doom the man could not love God; God could not be to him the God of Peace. Hence St Paul speaks now immediately of deliverance from the doom of sin as implying deliverance from its bondage.

Bengel's Gnomen

Romans 6:6. Ἄνθρωπος, man) The abstract for the concrete, as in ch. Romans 7:22, and in many other places.—ἵνα—τοῦ μηκέτι) The particles should be carefully noticed; as also the three synonymous nouns, and the verbs added to them.—καταργηθῇ, may be destroyed) may be stripped of its dominion [Romans 6:14].—τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας, the body of sin) the mortal body, abounding in sin and lusts, etc., Romans 6:12, so the body of death, ch. Romans 7:24, note.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 6, 7. - Knowing this (cf. η} ἀγνοεῖτε, ver. 3), that our old man was (not is, as in the Authorized Version) crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed (or abolished, or done away, καταργήθῃ), that henceforth we should not serve (δουλεύειν, expressing bondage, or slavery; and so throughout the chapter in the word δοῦλοι, translated "servants") sin. For he that hath died is freed from sin. The word "crucified" has, of course, reference to the mode of Christ's death into which we were baptized. It does not imply anything further (as some have supposed) as to the manner of our own spiritual dying, such as painfulness or lingering; it merely means that in his death our old man died (cf. Colossians 2:14, προφηλώσας αὐτὸ τῷ σταυρῷ). The term "old man" (παλαὶος ἄνθρωπος) occurs also Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9. It denotes man's unregenerate self, when under sin and condemnation; the καινός or νεος ἄνθρωπος being his regenerate self. It is, of course, a different conception from that of ὁ ἐξω and ὁ ἔσωθεν ἄνθωππος of 2 Corinthians 4:16. In Ephesians and Colossians the old man is said to be put away, or put off, and the new one put on, as though they were two clothings, or investments, of his personality, determining its character. Here, by a bolder figure, they are viewed as an old self that had died and a new one that had come to life in its place (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17, Αἴ τις ἐν Ξριστῷ καινὴ κτίσις τὰ ἀρχαῖα παρῆλθεν). The idea of a new man being born into a new life in baptism was already familiar to the Jews in their baptism of proselytes (see Lightfoot, on John 3.); and our Lord, discoursing to Nicodemus of the new birth, supposes him to understand the figure; but he teaches him that the change thus expressed should be no mere change of profession and habits of life, but a radical inward change, which could only be wrought by the regenerating Spirit. Such a change St. Paul teaches to be signified by Christian baptism; not only deliverance from condemnation through participation in the benefits of the death of Christ, but also the birth or creation of a new self corresponding to his risen body, which will not be, like the old self, under the thraldom of sin. "The body of sin" may be taken as meaning much the same as "our old man;" sin being conceived as embodied in our former selves, and so possessing them and keeping them in bondage. It certainly does not mean simply our bodies as distinct from our souls, so as to imply the idea that the former must be macerated that the latter may live. The asceticism inculcated elsewhere in the New Testament is in no contradiction to the ideal of mens sana in corpore sano. Our former sin-possessed and sin-dominated personality being now crucified with Christ, dead, and done away with, we are no longer, in our new personality, in slavery to sin, and are both bound and able to renounce it; "for he that hath died is freed [δεδικαίωται, literally, 'is justified'] from sin." In Scotland, one who is executed is said to be justified, the idea apparently being that he has satisfied the claims of law. So here ' δεδικαίωται. The word δουλεύειν, be it observed, in ver. 6 introduces by the way the second figure under which, as above said, the apostle regards his subject, though it is not taken up till ver. 16. Romans 6:6

Vincent's Word Studies

Old man (ὁ παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος)

Only in Paul, and only three times; here, Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9. Compare John 3:3; Titus 3:5. The old, unrenewed self. Paul views the Christian before his union with Christ, as, figuratively, another person. Somewhat in the same way he regards himself in ch. 7.

The body of sin (τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας)

Σῶμα in earlier classical usage signifies a corpse. So always in Homer and often in later Greek. So in the New Testament, Matthew 6:25; Mark 5:29; Mark 14:8; Mark 15:43. It is used of men as slaves, Revelation 18:13. Also in classical Greek of the sum-total. So Plato: τὸ τοῦ κόσμου σῶμα the sum-total of the world ("Timaeus," 31).

The meaning is tinged in some cases by the fact of the vital union of the body with the immaterial nature, as being animated by the ψυξή soul, the principle of individual life. Thus Matthew 6:25, where the two are conceived as forming one organism, so that the material ministries which are predicated of the one are predicated of the other, and the meanings of the two merge into one another.

In Paul it can scarcely be said to be used of a dead body, except in a figurative sense, as Romans 8:10, or by inference, 2 Corinthians 5:8. Commonly of a living body. It occurs with ψυχή soul, only 1 Thessalonians 5:23, and there its distinction from ψυχή rather than its union with it is implied. So in Matthew 10:28, though even there the distinction includes the two as one personality. It is used by Paul:

1. Of the living human body, Romans 4:19; 1 Corinthians 6:13; 1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 Corinthians 12:12-26.

2. Of the Church as the body of Christ, Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:23; Colossians 1:18, etc. Σάρξ flesh, never in this sense.

3. Of plants and heavenly bodies, 1 Corinthians 15:37, 1 Corinthians 15:40.

4. Of the glorified body of Christ, Philippians 3:21.

5. Of the spiritual body of risen believers, 1 Corinthians 15:44.

It is distinguished from σάρξ flesh, as not being limited to the organism of an earthly, living body, 1 Corinthians 15:37, 1 Corinthians 15:38. It is the material organism apart from any definite matter. It is however sometimes used as practically synonymous with σάρξ, 1 Corinthians 7:16, 1 Corinthians 7:17; Ephesians 5:28, Ephesians 5:31; 2 Corinthians 4:10, 2 Corinthians 4:11. Compare 1 Corinthians 5:3 with Colossians 2:5. An ethical conception attaches to it. It is alternated with μέλη members, and the two are associated with sin (Romans 1:24; Romans 6:6; Romans 7:5, Romans 7:24; Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5), and with sanctification (Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:19 sq.; compare 1 Thessalonians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). It is represented as mortal, Romans 8:11; 2 Corinthians 10:10; and as capable of life, 1 Corinthians 13:3; 2 Corinthians 4:10.

In common with μέλη members, it is the instrument of feeling and willing rather than σάρξ, because the object in such cases is to designate the body not definitely as earthly, but generally as organic, Romans 6:12, Romans 6:13, Romans 6:19; 2 Corinthians 5:10. Hence, wherever it is viewed with reference to sin or sanctification, it is the outward organ for the execution of the good or bad resolves of the will.

The phrase body of sin denotes the body belonging to, or ruled by, the power of sin, in which the members are instruments of unrighteousness (Romans 6:13). Not the body as containing the principle of evil in our humanity, since Paul does not regard sin as inherent in, and inseparable from, the body (see Romans 6:13; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; 2 Corinthians 7:1. Compare Matthew 15:19), nor as precisely identical with the old man, an organism or system of evil dispositions, which does not harmonize with Romans 6:12, Romans 6:13, where Paul uses body in the strict sense. "Sin is conceived as the master, to whom the body as slave belongs and is obedient to execute its will. As the slave must perform his definite functions, not because he in himself can perform no others, but because of His actually subsistent relationship of service he may perform no others, while of himself he might belong as well to another master and render other services; so the earthly σῶμα body belongs not of itself to the ἁμαρτία sin, but may just as well belong to the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:13), and doubtless it is de facto enslaved to sin, so long as a redemption from this state has not set in by virtue of the divine Spirit" (Romans 7:24 : Dickson).

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