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I. WHAT DOES THE APOSTLE MEAN BY OUR OLD MAN? Simply our natural self, with all its principles and motives, its outgoings, actions, corruptions, and belongings; not as God made it, but as sin, and Satan, and self have marred it. The old Adam never changes; no medicine can heal the disease, no ointment can mollify the corruption; it can only be got rid of by death. In Psalm 14:1-3 we have God's view of our sad ease. In chap. Romans 3. the apostle quotes this passage to prove the universal depravity of human nature, and the necessity for the gospel which it was his privilege to proclaim.

II. WHAT DOES IT MEANS TO BE "CRUCIFIED WITH HIM"?

1. This expression implies that we have suffered in Christ —

(1) A penal death (Galatians 3:13). I have been crucified with Christ and suffered the penalty which the law demands and the sin of the old Adam deserves. This corrupt self was executed under the sentence of law on the Cross.

(2) A lingering, painful death. The knowledge that I have been crucified with Christ will be a constraining motive for mortifying my members which are on the earth, and make me try to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts (Galatians 5:24).

(3) A voluntary death. Christ was crucified as a voluntary agent, and the Christian voluntarily identifies his lot with the crucified One (Galatians 6:14).

2. See, then, the importance of the statement "crucified with Christ." It is —

(1) An act of sovereign grace, for God gives us union with Christ when He was crucified for sin.

(2) The realisation of this union. Christ lives in the man who has union with Christ, and the man who has union with Christ lives in Christ, and here lies the power for the practical crucifixion of the affections and lusts.

(3) It is the knowledge of this union which constrains us to go out with Him beyond the camp, bearing the cross, despising the shame.

III. THE OBJECT OF THIS CRUCIFIXION. "The body of sin" is another form of expression for the "old man." It is not the human nature defiled by sin, nor the human body burdened by sin, that is to be destroyed (Philippians 3:21), but it is the sin that defiled and possessed it. Because sin has so poisoned the whole body, it is called the body of sin. The word "destroyed" is the strongest possible. It is the same as that used in 1 Corinthians 15:26, and translated "bring to nought" (1 Corinthians 1:28), "put down" (1 Corinthians 15:24), "abolished" (2 Timothy 1:10), "made of none effect" (Galatians 3:17), "done away" (2 Corinthians 3:14).

IV. ITS EFFECT — "that henceforth we should not serve sin," or "be slaves to sin." How can we be slaves to a thing that is extinct? to a power that is abolished? to a principle that is set at nought, made nothing of, put down? See, then, what inconsistent and infatuated creatures we are when we minister in anywise to sin.

(M. Rainsford, B. A.)

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KJV: For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

WEB: For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;