Romans 6:6 teaches that the believer’s old, sin-ruled self was put to death together with Christ, so that sin no longer has the same grip on a person’s life. Paul wrote this to the Christians in Rome, a church he had not founded but knew well, as part of a larger argument about how grace relates to sin.
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
Romans 6:6 (WEB)
What Romans 6:6 Means
The phrase “our old man” refers to the person you were before you belonged to Christ, the self shaped by its own desires and pulled toward sin. Paul says this self was “crucified with him,” meaning that in Christ’s death, that old identity was executed. The verse is describing something God has done in the believer’s standing and identity, not a feeling you must manufacture.
The “body of sin” is best understood as sin’s hold on human life, the way wrong desires and habits operate through our bodies and daily choices. Paul says this is “done away with,” which means its power to rule you has been broken, even though its presence is not yet fully removed. The verse promises that you are no longer enslaved to sin as your master, but it does not promise that temptation will vanish or that you will never fail.
The Context of Romans 6:6
Paul wrote Romans in the middle of the first century, and the letter is the most systematic presentation of the gospel in the New Testament. Chapters 1 through 5 establish that all people are sinners and that God justifies them through faith in Christ. Chapter 6 then faces an obvious objection: if grace increases wherever sin abounds, should believers keep sinning? Paul answers with a firm no.
The verses just before and after help explain the verse. In Romans 6:3 to 5, Paul connects baptism with Christ’s death and resurrection, and in Romans 6:7 to 9 he says the one who has died is freed from sin and that Christ, now raised, dies no more. Read in this setting, Romans 6:6 is not a stand-alone promise of personal perfection but the foundation for a new way of living that Paul develops across the rest of the chapter.
Key Phrases in Romans 6:6
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
(WEB)
Paul describes his own life as one in which he has been crucified with Christ, so that the life he now lives is lived by faith in the Son of God. It shows the same union with Christ that Romans 6:6 describes, applied to Paul’s personal testimony.
Romans 6:11
Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(WEB)
Paul follows the teaching of Romans 6:6 by urging believers to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This verse turns the truth of union with Christ into a daily practice of faith.
A Short Prayer From Romans 6:6
Lord, thank you that the old version of me was put to death with Christ on the cross. Some days I still feel the pull of the habits and desires I thought I had left behind, and I need you to remind me that they no longer rule my life. Help me to trust what you have done, to refuse sin’s claim over me, and to walk in the new life you have given. Let your Spirit strengthen me today, one choice at a time. Amen.
