that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure." 1 John, iii. 3.

V. 6. 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.

Knowing this. That is assuming it as a thing with which they were already well acquainted, or a thing which they should know, That our old man is crucified with him. Paul draws here the same conclusion from the believer's crucifixion with Christ that he had previously drawn from his baptism into Christ's death. All believers died with Christ on the cross, as they were all one in him, and represented by him. Their old man, Eph. iv. 22; Col. iii. 9, or sinful nature, is crucified together with Christ. If, then, their old man has been crucified with him, it cannot be that they will for the future live according to their old nature. That the body of sin might be destroyed.—Body of sin, that is, sin as a body, meaning the whole combination and strength of corruption, as having all its members as a perfect body. The purpose of his people's crucifixion with Christ was, that this body of sin should finally perish and be annihilated. It is called a body, as consisting of various members, like a complete and entire body-a mass of sin; not one sin, but all sin. The term body is used, because it is in such a

view that there can be a crucifixion, and this body is called the body of sin, that it may not be supposed that it is the natural body which is

meant.

That henceforth we should not serve sin.—The design of the believer's crucifixion with Christ is that he may not henceforth be a slave to sin. This implies that all men who do not believe in Christ are slaves to sin, as wholly and as absolutely under its power as a slave is to his master. But the end of our crucifixion with Christ by faith in his death, is, that we may be delivered from this slavery. Believers, then, should resist sin as they would avoid the most cruel slavery. If this be the end of crucifixion with Christ, those persons cannot be considered as crucified with Christ who are the slaves of sin. Christians, then, may be known by their lives, as the tree is known by its fruits. The effect of Paul's being crucified with Christ was, that Christ lived in him. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," Gal. ii. 20.

V. 7.-For he that is dead is freed from sin.

For he that is dead; that is, dead with Christ, as is said in the following verse. This does not verse.-' mean natural death, but death in all its extent, signifying "the second death," the penalty of which Christ suffered, and therefore all his

members have suffered it with him. Freed from sin. The original word, which is here translated freed, different from that rendered free in verses 18, 20, 22, is literally justified. It oc eurs fifteen times in this Epistle, and twentyfive times in other parts of the New Testament; and except in this verse, and one other where it is translated righteous, is uniformly rendered by the word justified. Hence it appears, that, in this verse, as in all the other passages, its proper rendering ought to be retained, and not exchanged for the term "freed," which has evidently been selected to convey a different sense. Retaining its proper translation in this place is absolutely necessary, in order clearly to perceive the great and cheering truth here announced, as well as to apprehend the full force of the Apostle's answer to the objection stated in the first verse. As to the phrase "justified from sin," we find the Apostle expressing himself in the same manner (Acts, xiii. 39), "By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."

No objection can be made to the use of the expression "justified" in this verse, since the Apostle is speaking of the state of believers, to which it is strictly applicable. In justification, which is a judicial and irrevocable sentence pronounced by God, there are two parts; the one

includes absolution from the guilt of the breach of the law; the other, the possession of that obedience to its precepts which the law demands. These being inseparable, they are both included in the expression justified from sin. If a man be dead with Christ, he possesses, as has been observed, all the blessings which, according to the tenor of the new covenant, are included in and connected with the state of justification by grace. In place, then, of giving him encouragement to continue in sin, this furnishes absolute security against such a result, and ensures the certainty that he shall walk in newness of life until he attains the possession of eternal glory. The Apostle, therefore, is so far from admitting that, according to the supposed objection which he is combating, gratuitous justification is opposed to sanctification, that, after having shown, in the preceding verses, that sanctification springs from union with Christ, he here asserts, as he had formerly proved, that on the very same ground is the doctrine of justification established. The one cannot, therefore, be hostile to the interests of the other.

The bond by which sinners are kept under the

power of sin is the curse of the law. This curse, which is the penalty of disobedience, consists in man being cut off from all communion with God. By throwing off his allegiance to

*

his Creator, he has become a subject of the devil, and is led captive by him at his will. The curse consists in being given up to sin, which is represented as reigning over the human race, and exercising an absolute dominion. So long as the sinner is under the guilt of sin, God can have no friendly intercourse with him; for what communion hath light with darkness? But Christ having cancelled his people's guilt, having redeemed them from the curse, and invested them with the robe of his righteousness, there is no longer any obstacle in the way of their communion with God; there is no barrier to prevent the free ingress of sanctifying grace. As the sin of the first man was the cause of all his descendants being destitute of holiness, and of each individual coming into the world dead in trespasses and sins, in like manner the obedience of the second Adam is the cause of holiness being imparted to all his members, so that they cannot remain under the thraldom of sin. Were a redeemed sinner not also sanctified, it would that he was still under the curse, argue and not restored to the favour of God. Besides, what is the state of the believer? He is now

This truth is exemplified in a very remarkable manner in the first annunciation of the Saviour (Gen. iii. 15) being made, not directly to man, now cut off from communion with God, but to a third party in his hearing.