Rom 6:6

“But to us the apostle says, "Now we know this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.". For "to bring themselves into captivity "and to slay themselves, putting to death "the old man, who is through lusts corrupt "and raising the new man from death, "from the old conversation "by abandoning the passions, and becoming free of sin, both the Gospel and the apostle enjoin.”

“Besides, if we do not understand it in this sense, it is not our bodily frame which has been transfixed (at all events), nor has our flesh endured the cross of Christ; but the sense is that which he has subjoined, "that the body of sin might be made void, " by an amendment of life, not by a destruction of the substance, as he goes on to say, "that henceforth we should not serve sin; " and that we should believe ourselves to be "dead with Christ," in such a manner as that "we shall also live with Him.”

“I think it should be noticed that when the apostle says something must be destroyed he calls it the body of sin, but when he does not use this expression he refers not to the body of sin but to our own selves, who ought not to be serving sin. He does this to show that if the body of sin were to be destroyed we would not now be serving sin, which however we serve as long as our body is not destroyed and our members on earth are not put to death.…The "sinful body" is our body, for it is written that Adam did not know his wife Eve, nor did he father Cain, until after he had sinned. In the law it is commanded that sacrifices of a pair of turtledoves or two pigeons shall be offered for a newborn child. One of these is a sin offering and the other is a burnt offering. For what sin is this first pigeon offered? How can a newborn child have sinned already? And yet the child has sin, for which the sacrifice is commanded to be offered.… For the same reason the church has received a tradition from the apostles to baptize even infants. For they, to whom the secrets of the divine mysteries had been committed, knew that there are real stains of sin in everyone which must be cleansed by water and the Spirit. It is because of these stains that the body is called a sinful body and not because of sins which the soul in that body may have committed in a previous life, as some who believe in reincarnation like to think.”

“By these words we are taught that he who is baptized in Christ is baptized in his death and is not only buried with Christ and planted together with him but is first of all crucified with him. Thus we are instructed that, as he who is crucified is separated from the living, so also he who has been crucified with Christ in the likeness of his death is completely set apart from those who live according to the old man.”

“Until, therefore, this price should have been paid for all men which by the shedding of the Lords Blood had to be so paid for the absolution of all, the blood of every man, who, by the Law and solemn custom were to follow the precepts of holy religion, was required. But, since one Lord Christ suffered, seeing that the ransom is now paid for all, there is now no longer any need that the blood of every man one by one should be shed by circumcision, for in the Blood of Christ the circumcision of all has been solemnized, and in His Cross we are all crucified together with Him, and buried in His sepulchre, and planted together in the likeness of His death, that henceforth we should not serve sin: for he that is dead, is free from sin.”

“Get for yourself none of the things that are on earth, and do not be active in the affairs of the present life. For your life is hidden now and unseen by those who do not believe, but the time will come when it will be seen. But now is not your time. Since you have died once for all, refuse to mind the things that are on earth. The greatness of your virtue is seen especially when you have prevailed over the arrogance of the flesh and act toward the good things of the world just as if you were dead to this life.”

“So putting together both the cause and the demonstration of the Resurrection which is to come. And he does not say is crucified, but is crucified with Him, so bringing baptism near to the Cross. And on this score also it was that he said above, "We have been planted together in the likeness of His Death that the body of sin might be destroyed," not giving that name to this body of ours, but to all iniquity. For as he calls the whole sum of wickedness the old man, thus again the wickedness which is made up of the different parts of iniquity he calls the body of that man. And that what I am saying is not mere guesswork, hearken to Paul's own interpretation of this very thing in what comes next. For after saying, "that the body of sin might be destroyed," he adds, "that henceforth we should not serve sin." For the way in which I would have it dead is not so that ye should be destroyed and die, but so that ye sin not. And as he goes on he makes this still clearer.”

“Through baptism you who have been made a member of Christ's body were crucified with Christ. He hangs his innocent body so that you may have the power to restrain your guilty body from sin. Similarly, Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness so that every form of wickedness might be torn down, because each vice is a member of the body of sin. Christ was not crucified in part but in whole. Or perhaps we should read this as meaning that our body should be torn away from slavery to sin and that what used to be the property of transgression should now become the property of righteousness, for "everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin."”

“This refers to Deuteronomy [21:23]: "Cursed be every man hanged from a tree." For as the crucifixion of the old man is symbolized in the cross of the Lord, so the rebirth of the new man is signified in the resurrection. It is clear that according to Paul we are in the place of the old man who is accursed. No one doubts that it was because of him that the Lord was called "sin," because "he bore our sins" and "he was made sin for us," and "by sin he condemned sin."”

“Perhaps some people will think that "the body of sin" is meant to refer to our earthly flesh, which has been joined to the soul as a kind of punishment, in that the soul sinned before bodies were created. Some people think and talk like this, but as it is a pagan idea we must reject it as being incompatible with the truth. Therefore, Paul says that our earthly body is the body of sin and our old man, because it has inherited the necessity of corruption from the old Adam.… Moreover, because of its weakness it has contracted a love for wickedness, and thus sin appears in the flesh as a congenital defect.We were crucified with Christ at the moment when his flesh was crucified, because it somehow included universal human nature in itself, just as universal human nature contracted the sickness of the curse in Adam at the same time that he incurred the curse.”

“Now because John was to be worthy of the knowledge of the Apostles before the dissolution of the curse, and the abrogation of sin, and the matter of the Cross, he rightly received the Spirit in the womb, and he had the growth which was outside the world in order that by these means he might attain unto the natural innocency which the first man possessed before he transgressed the commandment, and that by this innocency of soul he might receive the knowledge of Divine mysteries. And when in the unspeakable depth of the love of God the Redemption was completed, the Person of God Himself stood in the midst like a freeman with power, and with His own hand He annulled the things which were old, and inaugurated those which were new, and the old man died upon the Cross, according to that which is written by Paul, "Our old man was crucified with Him," and the new man was revealed, and made known, and became visible, and not only that which was worthy of the dwelling of Paradise, after the manner of the first Adam, but that which was worthy to dwell also in heaven, and to go round about among spiritual beings, and to be like unto them in every thing. And therefore after this those who are experienced in all wickednesses, and tax-gatherers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and thieves, and worshippers of creatures, Grace seizeth suddenly, and without either plans or preparations maketh them worthy of the wealth of its mysteries, as in a new nature, it worketh in whomsoever it pleaseth, because the old man hath been crucified, and is dead, according to the word of Paul.”

“"Our old man," that is, wickedness, "is crucified with Him," that is, like the body of Christ, is buried in baptism; "that the body of sin might be destroyed," that is, the wickedness composed of various kinds, or our body inclined to sin, which is why he adds: "that we should no longer be slaves to sin." I desire, he says, that the body be dead, not in the sense that it be destroyed, but that it not sin.”

“After showing that we should not continue to sin after baptism has made us dead to sin, the Apostle now shows that we have the means to do this. Concerning this he does two things. First, he indicates the benefit we have received; second, the effect of this benefit, at for he that is dead. Concerning the first he does two things. First he sets out the benefit we obtain; Second, the effect of this benefit, at that the body of sin. First, therefore: we have said that the baptized should walk in newness of life, namely, by desisting from sin. To anyone who says that this is impossible he responds, knowing this, that our old man, i.e., the oldness caused by sin, is crucified, i.e., put to death by the cross of Christ, with him, namely, with Christ. For as was stated above, man's oldness was brought about by sin—in the sense that the goodness of his nature was corrupted by sin—and is predominant as long as he continues in sin. But because what is predominant in a man characterizes the man himself, it follows that the oldness of sin in a man subject to sin is an apt description of the man himself. That is why he says the old self. Now the oldness of sin can refer to the guilt of sin or to the stain of actual sins or even to the habit of sinning, which engenders a sort of compulsion to sin, or even to the fomes, or concupiscence, deriving from the sin of the first parent. Thus, therefore, our old self is said to be crucified together with Christ, inasmuch as the aforesaid oldness is removed by the power of Christ; either because it has been entirely removed, as the guilt and stain of sin are entirely removed in baptism, or because its force has been diminished, i.e., the force of the fomes or even of the custom of sinning: having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Col 2:14). Then when he says, that the body of sin, he mentions the twofold effect of this benefit, the first of which is the removal of previous sins. Hence he says: that the body of sin may be destroyed. The body of sin is the assemblage of evil deeds, just as the assemblage of members makes one natural body: his body is like molten shields (Job 41:6). The second effect is that it makes us beware of future sins; hence, he adds: to the end that we may serve sin no longer. For a man is a slave of sin, when he obeys the concupiscence of sin by consenting to and doing the sin: everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34).”

“Paul underlines and repeats a good deal in order to teach the baptized that they must not sin and above all that they must not return to idolatry, which is a very serious crime and the root of all errors, lest they lose the grace which they have received through Christ. He calls our former behavior "our old self" because, just as the man who has a pure life through Christ and faith in him is said to be new, so the same man is said to be old through unbelief and evil deeds. Paul says that these deeds have been crucified, which means that they are dead, that the body of sin (i.e., all our misdeeds) has been destroyed. Paul calls all our sins a body, which he says has been destroyed by a good life and by orthodox belief.”