Romans 6.6a-The Believer's Old Adamic Sin Nature Was Crucified With Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday June 17, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:6a-The Believer’s Old Adamic Sin Nature Was Crucified with Christ
Lesson # 184
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:1.
This evening we will study Romans 6:6a, which teaches that the believer’s old Adamic sin nature was crucified with Christ on the Cross.
Romans 6:1-7, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 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 for he who has died is freed from sin.”
“Knowing” is the verb ginosko (ginwvskw) (ghin-oce-ko), which denotes the attainment of knowledge that all Christians would be and should be familiar with.
The expression “the old self” refers to the old sin nature that resides in the genetic structure of the human body that has corrupted the total personality of the unregenerate person and is the direct result of the fall of Adam.
This expression emphasizes that the source of the sinful nature is Adam and relates us to Adam just as the “new man” relates us to Jesus Christ.
The expression “the old man” is a personification of the sin nature that we received via the imputation of Adam’s original sin at the moment of physical birth.
This old Adamic sin nature is passed down through sex and resides in the genetic structure of the human body, which is why the human body is deteriorating and will eventually cease to function and will immediately decompose once it does.
The expressions “old man” and “new man” are directly related to the contrast between Adam and Christ, the “first man” and the “last” (1 Corinthians 15:45; cf. Romans 5:15).
Romans 5:12-21 and other passages of Scripture teach that every person born into the world without exception received the imputation of Adam’s original sin in the Garden of Eden and the nature of Adam.
This nature of Adam is always disobedient to God and making them all physically alive but spiritually dead, having no capacity whatsoever to have a relationship with God.
Romans 8:8, “and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Prior to salvation, the believer was enslaved to the lust patterns of the old Adamic sin nature since he was under real spiritual death meaning he had no capacity to experience fellowship with God (See Ephesians 2:1-3).
At the moment of salvation, through the baptism of the Spirit, the omnipotence of the Spirit identified the believer with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session (See Romans 6:4-7; Ephesians 2:4-6).
Also, at the moment of salvation, God gave the believer a new divine nature that gives him the capacity to experience deliverance from the lust patterns of the old Adamic sin nature (See 2 Peter 1:4).
Therefore, since the believer has been crucified, died and buried with Christ and has been raised and seated with Christ and given a new divine nature, he is commanded to abstain from the various lust patterns of the old sin nature, which wage war against the believer’s soul and is to flee them.
1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”
Since the believer has been crucified with Christ, he is commanded to consider himself dead to the sin nature.
Romans 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
The believer who appropriates by faith the teaching of the Word of God that he has been crucified, died and buried with Christ will experience deliverance from the lust patterns of the old sin nature.
Galatians 5:24, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
The believer is to consider the members of his body to be dead to these lust patterns of the old sin nature since they were crucified at the cross and he has died with Christ.
Colossians 3:5, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”
The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified so that the believer might not live for the lusts of the old sin nature but for the will of God (See 1 Peter 4:1-3).
The believer sins because he chooses to disobey the teaching of the Word of God that his sin nature was crucified with Christ at the Cross and thus allows the sin nature to control and influence his soul so that he produces mental, verbal and overt acts of sin (See James 1:13-15).
The believer’s sin nature will not be totally eradicated until he physically dies or when the rapture of the church takes place when the believer will receive a resurrection body to replace the body he now has, which contains the old sin nature (See 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:20-21).
In the meantime, the believer has a battle raging within him since he has two natures, which are diametrically opposed to one another and he must choose between the two since the old sin nature wars against the Spirit.
Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”
The believer experiences deliverance from the sin nature by walking by means of the Spirit, which means obeying the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God that he has been crucified with Christ.
Galatians 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
In Ephesians 4:17-24, Paul uses this expression “old man” in contrast with the “new man” challenging believers to put off living in the old nature and put on the new nature so that they might live in a manner consistent with their new position in Christ.
Ephesians 4:17-24, “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
Romans 6:6, “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.”
“Was crucified with” is the verb sustauroo (sustaurovw) (soos-tow-ro-o), which means, “to be crucified along with.”
Therefore, the verb indicates that God views the justified sinner’s old Adamic sin nature as having been crucified along with Christ at the Cross of Calvary, two thousand years ago.
This refers to the doctrine of “retroactive positional truth,” which refers to the believer having been identified with Jesus Christ in His death through the baptism of the Spirit.
This is also called “positional” death, which identifies all believers with Christ in His death on the Cross through the baptism of the Spirit (Rom. 6:3-4; Col. 2:12; 3:3).
By “positionally” I mean that God views the believer as having died on the Cross with Christ.
The verb sustauroo refers to the fact that the believer is dead to the sin nature and is no longer under its rulership since at the moment of salvation they were identified with Christ in His death and under the headship of Christ and no longer under the headship of Adam.