The sixth chapter of Romans reveals the believer’s identity as being dead to sin and alive to God. The Apostle Paul emphasized that we must live in accordance with our new identity. The first step is knowing this theological truth:

knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; (Romans 6:6)

The word knowing is the idea of an experiential knowledge usually gained through personal involvement or experience. We are to know that our old self was crucified with Jesus. We were spiritually dead:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, (Ephesians 2:1)

The unregenerate man cannot save Himself. We must realize that we have not only been crucified with Christ, but we have been risen with Him in newness of life. Our responsibility is to live in accordance with our new, true identity. God did not come to make bad men good – He came to make dead men live! There are two words for old in the Greek language, Paul chose the word that describes that which is worn out or useless.

The result of our co-crucifixion is that we are no longer slaves to sin. When Paul writes that our body of sin might be done away, the idea is that sin as the dominating aspect of our lives has become ineffective. Now Christ is at the center of our lives. We are still able to sin, but it is not inevitable. Paul communicates this same truth to the church at Galatia:

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. (Gal 2:20)

There are two powerful truths we see in these verses:

1. We’ve been delivered from the penalty of sin
2. God has imparted to us the desire and power to do His will

Believers have a choice – we are able not to sin through Jesus’ victory over the world, our flesh, and the devil. Although we still have fleshly desires, we have a new nature and, as we walk by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desire of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). We can experience freedom in our lives:

for he who has died is freed from sin. (Romans 6:7 )

The word freed is in the perfect tense which describes a past action with continuing results. Sin no longer has a legal right or claim on a believer. Charles Wesley summarized these liberating truths in his glorious hymn O for a thousand tongues to sing:

He breaks the power of cancelled sin
And sets the prisoner free.
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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