Romans 6:7

“ For he that is dead is of right freed from sin. ”

Many commentators, from Erasmus to Thol., De Wette, Philip., Hodge, Gess, etc., take the participle ἀποθανών, he that is dead, in the figurative sense (comp. the similar expressions in Romans 6:6; Romans 6:8). But these critics divide immediately as to the meaning of the term δεδικαίωται, literally, is justified; some applying it to deliverance from guilt and punishment (Hodge for example) as the ordinary meaning of the word justify by Paul seems to demand the others to deliverance from the power of sin, in the sense that he who is dead is no longer subject to this master, no longer owes him anything. Yet neither of these meanings is satisfactory. The first would take us back to the subject of justification, which was concluded at the end of chap. 5. According to Gess, Paul means to express the idea that “the believer's absolution from sin (justification) takes place only on condition of his death to sin.” That would result in making sanctification the principle of justification. The other meaning would be more suitable in some respects: “He who is dead spiritually (in the sense of Romans 6:6), is thereby set free from the power of sin.” Undoubtedly in a general way this is the apostle's meaning in Romans 6:7; the context demands it. But we do not think that this interpretation accounts exactly for the expressions used. The word δικαιοῦν, even with the preposition ἀπό, cannot signify: to free from the power of, or, at least if we reach this meaning, it must be shown in what legitimate way that is possible. Then the participle ὁ ἀποθανών, he that is dead, not being accompanied by any qualification, is rather to be understood in the strict sense, and the more so as in the following verse, when the apostle returns to the spiritual meaning, he expressly indicates the change by adding the words σὺν Χριστῷ, with Christ. It is therefore a maxim borrowed from common life which the apostle expresses here, leaving it to the reader to apply it immediately to the corresponding fact of the moral life, which is precisely that just described by him in Romans 6:6. It follows that the word justify, δικαιοῦν, must have a somewhat different meaning from its ordinary dogmatic sense in Paul's writings; for the domain to which he here applies it is altogether different. One who is dead, he means to say, no longer having a body to put at the service of sin, is now legally exempted from carrying out the wishes of that master, who till then had freely disposed of him. Suppose a dead slave; it will be vain for his master to order him to steal, to lie, or to kill. He will be entitled to answer: “my tongue and hands and feet no longer obey me.” How, then, could he be taken to task for refusing to serve? Such is the believer's position after the crucifixion of his own will (of his old man) has reduced his body of sin (Romans 6:6) to powerlessness. He can no longer serve sin in the doing of evil, any more than the slave deprived of his body by death can continue to execute the orders formerly given him by his wicked master. The verb δικαιοῦσθαι, to be justified, signifies in this connection: to be free from blame in case of disobedience; to be legally entitled not to obey. The idea of legality is in the word δικαιοῦν, to justify, that of liberation in the preposition ἀπό, from. Taking the term ὁ ἀποθανών in the literal sense, as we have done, commentators have sometimes restricted its application to the malefactor, who, by submitting to the punishment he deserved, has effaced his guilt, and can no longer be apprehended for the same crime. But the words: he who is dead, are too general to bear so special an application, and the sentence thus understood would reopen the subject of justification, which is exhausted.

The case of the dead slave described in Romans 6:7, as we understand it, is the exact counterpart of the believer's moral situation described in Romans 6:6. The apostle leaves the reader to make this application himself, and passes in the following verses from the negative side of sanctification, crucifixion with Christ, to the positive side of this great truth, resurrection with Him. This second side is the necessary complement of the first. For the sinful will being once crucified in Christ, and its organ the body reduced to inaction, the believer's moral personality cannot remain inert. It must have a new activity; the body itself demands a new employment in the service of this activity. We have seen how this idea was contained in the in order that of Romans 6:4. The believer dies, not to remain dead, but in order to rise again; and this he knows well, for in the person of Him with whom he dies, the Risen One, he beholds beforehand the moral necessity of the event. This relation of thought, already indicated Romans 6:4-5, is now developed Romans 6:8-10; comp. Galatians 2:20.