place or bed. It signifies the closest union of any kind as being incorporated, growing together, joined with, united. The meaning then is, that as in baptism we have been exhibited as one with Christ in his death, so in due time we shall be conformed to him in the likeness of his resurrection.

We shall be.-The use here of the future tense has caused much perplexity respecting the connexion of this verse with the preceding, and contrary to its obvious meaning, the present time has been substituted. But while the proper force of the future time is preserved, the two verses stand closely connected. Both a spiritual and a literal resurrection are referred to in the emblem of baptism; but, in the preceding verse, the former only is brought into view, as being that which served the Apostle's immediate purpose. In this verse, in employing the future tense, he refers to the literal resurrection hereafter, as being inseparably connected with what he had just advanced concerning walking in newness of life; and thus he unfolds the whole mystery included in dying and rising with Christ, both in this world and the world to come. Believers have already been raised spiritually with Christ to walk with him on earth in newness of life, and with equal certainty they shall be raised to live with Him in heaven. This meaning is confirmed by what is said afterwards in the 8th and 9th verses. How powerful is this consideration, if viewed as a motive to the believer to walk in this world with his risen Lord in new

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ness of life. Every man 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 was 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, was 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 embodied, meaning the whole combination and strength of corruption, as having all its members joined into 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 of a body only that there can be a literal 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 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. It was the result of Paul's crucifixion with Christ, 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 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 occurs fifteen times in this Epistle, and twenty-five 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. In this verse, as in all the other passages, its proper rendering ought to be retained, instead of being exchanged for the term "freed," which has evidently been selected to convey a different sense. To retain 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),

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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," 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. Instead, then, of encouraging him to continue in sin, it 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 the doctrine of justification is 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 the 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 of the law, and invested them with the robe of his righteousness, there is no longer any obstacle to their communion with God, or any barrier to the free ingress of sanctifying grace. As the sin of the first man divested of holiness every one of his descendants, causing each individual to enter the world dead in trespasses and sins, in like manner the obedience of the second Adam imparts holiness to all his members, so that they can no longer remain under the thraldom of sin. Were a sinner when he is redeemed not also sanctified, it would argue that he was still under the curse, and not restored to the favour of God. Besides, what is the state of the believer? He is now united to him who has the inexhaustible fulness of the Spirit, and he cannot fail to participate in the spirit of holiness which dwells without measure in his glorious Head. It is impossible that the streams can be dried up when the fountain continues to flow, and it is equally impossible for the members not to share in the same holiness which dwells so abundantly in the Head. As the branch when united to the living vine necessarily partakes of its life and fatness, so the sinner when united to Christ must receive an abundant supply of sanctifying grace out of his immeasurable fulness. The moment, therefore, that he is by faith brought into union with the second Adam-the grand truth on which the Apostle had been insisting in the preceding part of this