The Old Man/Self: Who Died?
Stuart L. Brogden
I’ve become aware of some who say
that Paul was referring to Adam being put to death in Romans 6:6, that the
accepted understanding that Paul was referring to something in the Christian
being put to death. Here is that verse, in the KJV: 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. The argument is that natural man’s
federal head is Adam and our “old self” refers to our identity in Adam and
Adam’s body was destroyed, not ours – we still have our old bodies! Here’s a
quote from an advocate of this view: “It is in this sense only that it can be
said that the body of sin is destroyed. It has not been destroyed in us,
because as long as we are in this flesh, even as sinners made alive by the
Spirit of God, the sinful nature has not, cannot, and will not change, Romans
8:7,8. The body of sin then is the legal condemnation of sin imputed in Adam to
our account.”
There is much in this brother’s
statement that is cause for concern, the first is his use of Romans 8:7-8 to
refer to the status of Christians. Here’s the larger passage, to provide some
context:
Rom 8:5-9 (HCSB) For those who
live according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who
live according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit. For the mind-set
of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace. For
the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself
to God’s law, for it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot
please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the
Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,
he does not belong to Him.
Paul is contrasting unregenerate (those
who live according to the flesh) with the redeemed (those who live
according to the Spirit). In verses 7 & 8 Paul describes the condition
of the unregenerate: hostile toward God, unable and unwilling to submit to His
law, unable to please God. This is not how the redeemed are described in
Scripture. We are reconciled to God, equipped by the Holy Spirit to will and to
do what pleases Him (Phil 2:13).
The last statement leaves me
wondering if the author is aware of the need for our own sin, in addition to
the imputed sin of Adam, is worthy of condemnation and needs to be forgiven. He
further wrote: “The old man (what we were in Adam), and the body of sin (the
legal condemnation by imputation), are destroyed, Christ having borne it away
in His obedience unto death.” The “body of sin” which needs to be dealt with is
larger than “the legal condemnation by imputation.”
I think part of this brother’s error
is his reliance on the KJV, without consultation of other translations. Here’s
how the HCSB presents Romans 6:6 - For we know that our old self was
crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be
abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin. Note that it is
“sin’s dominion over the body” that must be abolished; “the body of sin” (as in
the KJV) does not refer to a literal body (like man’s) but to a “body of
evidence.” When this body of evidence is rendered impotent by the propitiating
death of Christ, it no longer has power over us, having been nailed to His
cross (Col. 2:13-14) and cannot condemn us any longer. In Romans 7:2, the wife
whose husband has died is freed from the law (i.e., the law of marriage no
longer has any power over her, in spite of what she may feel). A similar point
seems to be made here.
Back to the “old man/self” that was
crucified. The immediate context of Romans 6 sheds some light on this.
Rom 6:5-11 (HCSB) For if we
have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly
also be in the likeness of His resurrection. For we know that our old self was
crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished,
so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed
from sin’s claims. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we
will also live with Him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from
the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over Him. For in light of
the fact that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in light of the fact
that He lives, He lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin
but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Note the tenor of this passage –
personal, related to the children of God and their relationship with Jesus. We
have been joined with Christ; our old self has died; sin’s rule is
finished; we died to sin; we died with Christ; we are dead to
sin and alive to God in Christ. If Paul meant Adam had died; how did
that death reconcile us to Christ? Our relationship to sin must change in order
for us to be reconciled to God. That is the focus of Romans 6!
A quick review of some of the other
passages that describe who died to sin should clarify who Paul spoke of in
chapter 6 and verse 6.
Rom 6:2 (HCSB) How can we who
died to sin still live in it?
Rom 7:6 (HCSB) But now we have
been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that
we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.
2 Cor 5:14 (HCSB) For Christ’s
love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then
all died.
Gal 2:19-20 (HCSB) For through
the law I have died to the law, so that I might live for God. I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The
life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me.
Eph 4:17-24 (HCSB) Therefore, I
say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk,
in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding,
excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and
because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave
themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with
a desire for more and more. But that is not how you learned about the Messiah,
assuming you heard about Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in
Jesus. You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted
by deceitful desires; you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you
put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in
righteousness and purity of the truth.
Col 2:20 (HCSB) If you died
with the Messiah to the elemental forces of this world, why do you live as
if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: “Don’t
handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”?
Col 3:5-11 (HCSB) Therefore,
put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity,
lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these,
God’s wrath comes on the disobedient, and you once walked in these things
when you were living in them. But now you must also put away all the
following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its
practices and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge
according to the image of your Creator. In Christ there is not Greek and
Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but
Christ is all and in all.
2 Tim 2:11 (HCSB) This saying is
trustworthy: For if we have died with Him, we will also live with Him.
1 Pet 2:24 (HCSB) He Himself bore
our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might
live for righteousness; you have been healed by His wounds.
There is no denial that we are
twice-condemned: 1.) For the sin-nature we inherited from Adam and 2.) for the
sin we commit. In being justified, the wrath due us for both of these was
poured out on Christ. 2 Cor 5:17 would not be true if Adam’s death was meant in
Romans 6:6 or any other of these passages. Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new
things have come. This is true for all who have been born from above! A
new creation! Adam’s death didn’t bring us to that state; our death to sin
and being made alive to Christ has wrought this.
In Romans 5, Adam is positioned
against Christ. Nowhere is the death of Adam held out as our hope for peace
with God. In verse 17, we see the condemnation that came from the one man’s
trespass contrasted with the abundant grace we from Christ. Since by the one
man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those
who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life
through the one man, Jesus Christ. What is contrasted is consistently the
condemnation of Adam with the righteousness of Christ, which is ours when we
are given that faith to believe upon Him. Adam’s death plays NO PART in this
reconciliation!
In all of these references, what the
Spirit is pressing upon us is that a change has been wrought in us. We are no
longer slaves to sin because we, being born from above, have died to that
master. Just as another’s faith cannot save us, the death of another human
(such as Adam) cannot redeem us. The life of the Christian is walked out in
tension between who we were in Adam and who we are in Christ. All of the talk
in these passages about us dying are exhortations to quit entertaining sin,
stop submitting to that master. Read the Scriptures and ask yourself – who is
being addressed? Who is the subject, who has “died to sin”? If you are in
Christ, a new creation, that ought to be you!
