Reflection on Rom 6:7-8
“For he who has died has been justified from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
What is the meaning of the words “he who has died has been justified (freed) from sin”? In this context, it does not mean dying physically but dying spiritually to the power of sin which dominates man. Therefore it is said that such man has been freed from sin. The Greek word “dikaiosiné” (justification), which is used here, means – in biblical terms 1) the fulfilment of the will of God, of everything that God requires, 2) justification from sin, 3) justification of man by God, reconciliation between man and God.
Ad 1) God requires that through faith and obedience to God’s commandments we should fulfil the will of God.
Ad 2) If we are united to Jesus by faith and keep God’s commandments, we are free from sin.
Ad 3) Justification – dikaiosiné – leads to freedom and to the fulfilment of God’s will, but it also means justification of man from his sins and reconciliation with God.
Thus, he who has died spiritually with Christ has been justified and at the same time freed from the bondage of sin. The word ‘die’ is meant spiritually just as the words of Jesus in the Gospel about cutting off our hand or foot or plucking out our eye to overcome temptation. Jesus thus says that we need this radical attitude in order to cut off a thought, a feeling, a wish or a desire, and not to commit a sin by using the members of our body, such as hand or foot. And this spiritual separation causes inner pain which Jesus compares to the pain caused by the cutting off of the hand.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.
We also read in chapter six of the Epistle to the Romans: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
The whole chapter six points out an important mystery related to victory over sin. It speaks about the inner unity with Jesus and about the mystery of baptism which we are to put into practice in our life. It speaks about death and a new life – the life of Christ in us. Similarly, we read in the Epistle to the Colossians: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above… For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
We cannot understand these truths by reason alone. God will reveal them to us in proportion to our faith and our commitment to Him. We can return to them again and again, learn to look at them in an ever deeper light, and yet our earthly life is not enough to understand them. The mysteries in chapter six of the Epistle to the Romans and in other places of Scripture are only revealed to those who truly deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Jesus.
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