Romans 6:6 · Bible study
Romans 6:6 Commentary: Our Old Self Crucified with Christ
Greek · 11 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Explore Paul's teaching on the old self crucified with Christ, the body of sin rendered powerless, and freedom from bondage to sin.
Research Summary
- Meaning: The believer’s old sinful nature was crucified with Christ so that sin’s power is broken and we are no longer its slaves.
- Key words: “Old man” (palaios anthrōpos, pre-conversion self); “crucified with” (sunestaurōthē, aorist passive, past fact); “body of sin” (sōma tēs hamartias, sin expressed through the body); “annulled” (katargēthē, rendered inoperative); “enslaved” (douleuein, serve as a slave).
- Main debate: Whether “body of sin” refers to the physical body as the seat of sin or to the whole mass of corrupt nature.
- Theological theme: Union with Christ in his death breaks the dominion of sin, grounding both justification and sanctification.
- Best use: Teaching the objective reality of the Christian’s break with sin, while acknowledging the ongoing struggle of sanctification.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
WEB World English Bible 2000
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
KJV King James Version 1769
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.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
this knowing, that our old man was crucified with him , that the body of the sin may be made useless, for our no longer serving the sin;
Darby Darby Bible 1890
knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Sabiendo esto, que nuestro viejo hombre juntamente fué crucificado con él, para que el cuerpo del pecado sea deshecho, á fin de que no sirvamos|strong="G1398, G2248" más al pecado.
E sabemos isto: que o nosso velho ser foi crucificado com ele , para que o corpo do pecado seja extinto, a fim de que não mais sirvamos ao pecado;
sachant que notre vieil homme a été crucifié avec lui, afin que le corps du péché fût détruit, pour que nous ne soyons plus esclaves du péché;
dieweil wir wissen, daß unser alter Mensch samt ihm gekreuzigt ist, auf daß der sündliche Leib aufhöre, daß wir hinfort der Sünde nicht mehr dienen.
Dit wetende, dat onze oude mens met Hem gekruisigd is, opdat het lichaam der zonde te niet gedaan worde, opdat wij niet meer de zonde dienen.
che il nostro vecchio uomo è stato crocifisso con lui, affinché il corpo del peccato fosse annullato, onde noi non serviamo più al peccato;
To wiedząc, że stary nasz człowiek pospołu jest z nim ukrzyżowany, aby ciało grzechu było zniszczone, żebyśmy już więcej nie służyli grzechowi;
зная то, что ветхий наш человек распят с Ним, чтобы упразднено было тело греховное, дабы нам не быть уже рабами греху;
因為 知道 我們的 舊 人 和他同釘十字架，使 罪 身 滅絕，叫我們 不再 作罪 的奴僕；
Being conscious that our old man was put to death on the cross with him, so that the body of sin might be put away, and we might no longer be servants to sin.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Koine Greek)
New Testament · Koine Greek · Romans 6:6
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that Romans 6:6 anchors Paul’s argument that believers, united with Christ, are no longer slaves to sin. The verse opens with ginōskontes, a present participle meaning “knowing” as a settled conviction, not mere intellectual awareness (Cambridge Bible). This knowledge is to shape the Christian life.
The phrase “our old man” (ho palaios anthrōpos) is drawn from Jewish teaching on the evil inclination, as Gill notes, and appears only three times in Paul (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9). It describes the entire pre-conversion self, the corrupted nature that rules from birth. Vincent calls it “the old, unrenewed self.” Barnes and Wesley agree: it is our native depravity, “coeval with our being.”
The verb sunestaurōthē (“was crucified with”) is aorist passive: a past event, completed and received. The believer’s old self was nailed to the cross with Christ. The purpose (introduced by hina) is “that the body of sin might be annulled” (katargēthē, rendered inoperative, cancelled). This does not mean the physical body disappears, but that sin’s power to use the body as its instrument is broken (Calvin, Murray, Cambridge). The final clause, “no longer be slaves to sin,” uses douleuein (to serve as a slave). The goal is liberation, not perfection in this life, but a decisive change of masters.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Old man as sinful nature: The consensus of Reformed and evangelical commentators (Calvin, Barnes, Gill): the old man is the entirety of fallen human nature, crucified positionally with Christ.
- Old man as unregenerate self (Murray, Cambridge): The old man is the person as he existed before union with Christ, now replaced by a new identity; the crucifixion is not of a nature but of the person in his old standing.
- Body of sin as the mass of sin (Calvin, Gill): The “body of sin” is a Hebraism for the entire corrupt mass, not the physical body.
- Body of sin as the physical body (Origen, some Catholic interpreters): The physical body is the instrument through which sin operates; it is not destroyed but its power to compel sin is broken, to be fully liberated at the resurrection.
What is clear: All believers are united with Christ in his death, and this union breaks sin’s dominion, so that they are no longer slaves to sin and can walk in newness of life.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning of “our old man” | All traditions identify it as the pre-conversion sinful nature, the self that was in rebellion against God. | Some emphasize its Jewish background (the evil inclination), while others focus on the Pauline contrast with the “new man” in Christ (Ephesians 4:22, 24). |
| Nature of the crucifixion of the old man | It is a past event accomplished through union with Christ on the cross. | Reformed commentators see it as a definitive break with sin’s power (positional sanctification); Wesleyan and Methodist traditions stress that the old man is progressively killed through the Spirit’s work, begun at conversion but completed over a lifetime. |
| Meaning of “body of sin” | It refers to sin’s embodiment and expression through human action. | Calvin and Gill take it as the whole mass of corruption; others (Origen, some Catholic interpreters) understand it as the physical body as the instrument of sin, which will be fully redeemed at the resurrection. |
| The purpose clause: “that we should no longer serve sin” | The goal is freedom from sin’s dominion, not sinless perfection. | Christians differ on whether this freedom is total (sin has no hold at all in the believer) or provisional (sin’s power is broken but remains a threat through the flesh). |
Historical & Cultural Context
Paul writes to a Roman church likely divided between Jewish and Gentile believers. In Romans 5:20, 21 he had declared that where sin abounded, grace abounded more. This raised a dangerous objection: why not continue sinning so grace can increase? Romans 6 answers that charge head-on.
Baptism provides the immediate context (6:3, 4). Paul does not derive his theology from baptism, he uses baptism as the public sign of what is already true: believers are joined to Christ’s death and resurrection. Verse 6 deepens the metaphor. Crucifixion was the most shameful and agonizing death Rome offered. Barnes notes that the apostle “probably refers to the painful and protracted struggle” involved in subduing corrupt nature. The cross is not just a transaction; it is a death that kills the old ruling self.
Jewish teachers spoke of the yetser hara (evil inclination) as an “old” thing, bound to a person from birth (Gill cites rabbinic sources). Paul repurposes the language to show that in Christ this old regime has been executed. The term “body of sin” (to sōma tēs hamartias) is debated. Some commentators, following Origen, take it as the physical body as the seat of sin. Calvin and the Cambridge Bible insist it means “the whole mass of sin”, the corrupt nature itself, expressed through bodily actions. Paul will later write, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (6:12), confirming that the body remains but its tyranny is broken.
Roman culture was saturated with patronage and slavery. Calling sin a “master” and believers “slaves” (doulos) would have been immediately understood. The goal is not sinless perfection but a change of lordship: believers now serve a different master.
Textual Notes
The supplied commentaries and lexical data note no significant textual variants for Romans 6:6. The reading sunestaurōthē (aorist passive, “was crucified with”) is stable across the manuscript traditions. The only variation among translations is the rendering of katargēthē as “destroyed,” “annulled,” “cancelled,” or “rendered powerless,” all within the semantic range of the Greek verb.
Reception History
This verse has shaped Christian teaching on sanctification across many traditions. Augustine cited it in his anti-Pelagian writings to argue that grace transforms the will, not merely covers sin. Thomas Aquinas used it to distinguish between the guilt of sin (removed in baptism) and the fomes peccati (the tinder of sin remaining in the flesh).
During the Reformation, Luther and Calvin both made the “old man crucified” central to their doctrine of mortification, the daily putting to death of sin by the Spirit. In the Wesleyan tradition, John Wesley saw this verse as the promise of entire sanctification, the gradual destruction of the body of sin. The Roman Catholic Catechism (par. 1264) teaches that baptism takes away original sin but leaves the “concupiscence” (the inclination to sin), a condition it traces to the “old man” of Romans 6. Across traditions, the verse is sung in hymns of freedom and preached as the ground of Christian hope that sin is no longer the believer’s master.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- What we know: Every Christian knows, or is called to know, that their old self was crucified with Christ. This is not a feeling but a fact of union with Him.
- What was accomplished: The “body of sin” was annulled, rendered powerless as a ruling force. Sin no longer has the legal right or spiritual power to command us.
- What this means for daily life: We are no longer slaves to sin. Bondage is broken; the struggle remains, but the outcome is certain.
Five-point outline
- The charge answered (6:1, 2): grace does not encourage sin because believers died to sin.
- The baptismal connection (6:3, 5): immersion into Christ’s death and resurrection is the ground of our identity.
- The old self executed (6:6a): our pre-conversion nature was crucified with Him, a past, decisive event.
- The body of sin cancelled (6:6b): sin’s power to use our bodies is broken, though the body remains mortal.
- The result (6:6c, 7): we no longer serve sin; death to sin means freedom from its dominion.
Illustration hooks
- An old, worn-out contract that still sits in a drawer. It has no legal force, but sometimes you catch yourself acting as if it still binds you.
- A prisoner who has been pardoned but still walks the hallways of the prison because she hasn’t yet walked through the open gate. The freedom is real; the experience takes time.
- After the Emancipation Proclamation, some enslaved people did not learn of their freedom for months. The decree was true, but daily life had not yet caught up.
Questions your congregation is asking
- “If my old self is dead, why do I still want to sin?”
- “Does this mean I will never sin again, or that sin no longer defines me?”
- “How do I ‘reckon’ myself dead to sin when I feel very much alive to it?”
Leading a Discussion
This verse stands at the heart of Paul’s answer to the question, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). Before you meet, read Romans 6:1, 14. Notice how Paul moves from what is objectively true in Christ to what we are called to believe and live. The goal is not to pretend sin is gone, but to understand that its power has been broken.
Discussion questions
- What does Paul mean by “our old man”? How does the word “man” (anthrōpos) suggest more than just a list of bad habits?
- The verb “was crucified” is past tense. Why is it important that this event has already happened, not something we must achieve?
- What is the “body of sin” (to sōma tēs hamartias)? How have you understood this phrase, and what difference does the interpretation make?
- Compare verse 6 with verse 7: “he who has died has been freed from sin.” How does death break sin’s legal claim on a person?
- The purpose clause begins with “so that” (hina). What is the intended result of the old man’s crucifixion? How is that different from the result of Christ’s crucifixion for atonement?
- If the power of sin is broken, why do Christians still struggle with temptation and failure? How does Paul address that in the verses that follow (6:12, 14)?
- How would your daily choices change if you lived as though the old self were truly dead and a new master were in charge?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| II Kings 5:17 | Naaman said, “If not, then, please let two mules’ load of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will from now on offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to Yahweh. |
| Isaiah 26:13 | Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but we will only acknowledge your name. |
| John 8:34 | Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin. |
| John 8:36 | If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. |
| Romans 6:12 | Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. |
| Romans 6:22 | But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. |
| Romans 7:24 | What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? |
| Romans 7:25 | I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke uses the image of a seed whose body decays to nourish the germ that lives. He argues that our old, sinful self must be destroyed in the same way so that the life Christ planted in us can grow into full strength and righteousness.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes personifies sin as "our old man" that dies a slow, agonizing death through the cross. He stresses the drawn-out inward conflict before sin is subdued and stresses that this crucifying is a moral destruction of sin's power, not a physical change of human nature.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin insists the old man is our entire fallen nature from birth, which must be slain, not merely weakened, by sharing in Christs crucifixion. He also clarifies that the body of sin does not mean the physical body but the whole corrupt mass of sin belonging to the old man.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The Cambridge Bible School stresses that "knowing this" means a practical awareness that actively motivates the new life. The "old man" is the entire self before union with Christ, whose crucifixion with him cancels sin's condemning power, freeing the will to finally revolt against sin out of love for God.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note highlights that believers can know with certainty that their old sinful self was crucified together with Christ. The purpose was to destroy sin's power entirely, so that from that point on they no longer have to live as slaves to sin.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill traces the term "old man" to Jewish teaching about the inborn evil imagination born with every person. He distinguishes two
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB specifies that "the body of sin" is not a figure for the mass of sin nor the physical body itself, but sin as it dwells in believers in their present embodied, fallen state. The old self was crucified with Christ so this indwelling sin might be destroyed, ending our bondage to it.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange reads the passage as describing a radical transfer from the old world of sin to the new world of life in Christ. He stresses that the old man is a pseudo-plasmatic phantom of sinfulness
Vincent's Word Studies Evangelical 1887
Vincent stresses that "body of sin" does not mean the physical body itself is evil. Instead, sin is pictured as a master, and the body is the slave that belongs to it and carries out its will. The body can just as well belong to God and serve righteousness once redeemed.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley treats "our old man" as a powerful biblical phrase for the total corruption that infects every part of human nature from birth. In a believer this old self is not instantly eliminated but gradually killed through union with Christ's crucifixion, so that the whole body of sinful thoughts, words and actions can eventually be destroyed.