cordance with the
Word and will of God. This new man must be found in all Christians;
it begins in baptism or in repentance and conversion. It resists and
subdues the old man and its sinful lusts through the power of the
Holy Spirit. Paul declares, "They that are of Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts," Gal 5, 24.

18. Now, although in those who are new men, the old man is crucified,
there yet, Paul says, remains in them in this life "the body of sin."
By this we understand the remaining lusts of the old man, which are
still felt to be active in the flesh and blood, and which would fain
resist the spirit. But inasmuch as the head and life of sin are
destroyed, these lusts cannot harm the Christian. Still the Christian
must take care not to become obedient to them, lest the old man come
to power again. The new man must keep the upper hand; the remaining
sinful lusts must be weakened and subdued. And this body of ours must
finally decay and turn to dust, thereby utterly annihilating sin in
it.

19. Now, he says, if ye be dead to sin under the reign of the spirit
and the new man, and adjudged to death under the reign of the body,
ye must no longer permit sin to bring you under its dominion, lest it
inculpate and condemn you. But ye must live as those who are wholly
released from it, over whom it no longer has any right or power. For
we read, "He that hath died is justified from sin." This is said of
all who are dead. He that has died has paid for his sin; he need not
die for it again, for he no longer commits sin and evil deeds. If sin
be destroyed in man by the Spirit, and the flesh also is dead and
gone, man is completely released and freed from sin.

20. Paul comprehends the whole existence of the Christian on earth in
the death of Christ, and represents it as dead and buried, in the
coffin; that is, the Christian has ceased from the life of sin, and
has nothing more to do with it. He speaks of sin as being dead unto
the Christian and of the latter as being dead unto sin for the reason
that Christians no longer take part in the sinful life of the world.
And, too, they are doubly dead. First, spiritually they are dead unto
sin. And this, though painful and bitter to flesh and blood, is a
blessed, a comfortable and happy dying, sweet and delightful, for it
produces a heavenly life, pure and perfect. Secondly, they are
physically dead--the body dies. But this is not really death; rather