<p>6:6&nbsp;<em>Knowing this-</em>&nbsp;see on Rom. 6:3. As in 6:9, &ldquo;knowing&rdquo; these things means more than factual knowledge; Paul is driving home the practical implications.</p><p><em>That our old man</em>- the contrast between the old man and the new man is similar to that which Paul draws in 1 Cor. 15:45 between the &ldquo;first man&rdquo;, Adam, and the &ldquo;last&rdquo; man, Christ. Therefore I suggest that the &ldquo;old man&rdquo; here is a reference to our status in Adam; by baptism we pass from that status to that of the &ldquo;new man&rdquo;, Christ. Eph. 4:22-24 exhorts baptized believers to put off the old man and put on the new man- i.e. to live out in practice the change in status which occurred in baptism. &ldquo;The new man&rdquo; comprises Jew and Gentile (Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:10,11)- connecting with how Gal. 3:27-29 explains that baptism into Christ likewise gives us a status of &ldquo;in Christ&rdquo; which thereby obviates any difference between Jew and Gentile. If &ldquo;the old man&rdquo; refers to our status in Adam which has now ended, been crucified, then we need no longer be phased by the fact that no baptized believer manages to totally avoid sinning; none of us have put to death the old manner of life in totality. All our days we seek to respond to the change of status which has occurred, living appropriate to that change.</p><p><em>Is crucified with Him</em>- the very pinnacle of the Lord&rsquo;s achievement, which we tend to gape at from an awed distance reflecting that &lsquo;I would not, could not, possibly, have done that&rsquo;, is counted to us insofar as we are in Christ. &ldquo;Is crucified&rdquo; is a translation which misses the point- the Greek speaks of this as a one time act which we did with Christ, rather than any ongoing identity with the crucifixion through our sufferings over the course of our life. That one time point of identity was surely baptism, when we were counted as in Christ, changed status from Adam to Christ, and His crucifixion was counted to us as if we had died there. This interpretation is in context with Paul&rsquo;s argument in Romans; he&rsquo;s not merely saying that our sufferings in fighting sin bring us identity with Christ&rsquo;s crucifixion, or that thereby we know something of the spirit of the crucified Christ. For we are so, so far behind Him. And our paltry efforts fall far short, and certainly would not entitle us to a resurrection. By our being counted as dead, even crucified, with Christ, because we are seen as &ldquo;in&rdquo; Him, we will be thereby also resurrected with Him in that we will share in His resurrection life just as we were identified with His death. Indeed, all that is true of Him becomes true of us. We died with Him (6:8), were crucified with Him (6:6), buried with Him (6:4), raised with Him (Col. 2:12; 3:1); are seated with Him in Heaven (Eph. 2:16), are simply &ldquo;with&rdquo; Christ in life today (Rom. 8:17,29), and so will eternally be &ldquo;with the Lord&rdquo; Jesus (1 Thess. 4:17).</p><p><i>That the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin</i>- Is the body of sin done away with at the day of judgment? Or is it now; for therefore we no longer serve sin, and that surely is our status now. It&rsquo;s a case of &lsquo;now but not yet&rsquo;. Paul speaks of how the life / living of Jesus is now manifested in our &ldquo;mortal flesh&rdquo; (2 Cor. 4:11). So we still have &ldquo;mortal flesh&rdquo; now. It will only literally be no more at the Lord&rsquo;s return. This could require the next clause to be translated &ldquo;that from then onwards i.e. after the day of judgment we shall no longer serve sin&rdquo;. However, this phrase could be returning back to this life- with the idea being that because at the day of judgment our body of sin will be destroyed, and this was guaranteed by our baptism into Christ, we therefore shouldn&rsquo;t serve sin, in having sin as our master. We are no longer in that sphere, under that domination- but instead under the domination of Christ and within His sphere. Note the difference between the &ldquo;old man&rdquo; being crucified and the &ldquo;body of sin&rdquo; being therefore, henceforth, destroyed. The old way of life which is how Paul uses &ldquo;the old man&rdquo; in Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9 is dead, we have changed status, living as &ldquo;the new man&rdquo;, Christ. This will come to its physical manifestation in the destruction of our physical body and the gift of the new body at the day of judgment.&nbsp;</p>