Knowing this, that our {h} old man is crucified with {i} him, that the {k} body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not {l} serve sin.

(h) Our entire nature, as we are conceived and born into this world with sin, is called old, partly by comparing that old Adam with Christ, and partly also in respect of the deformed state of our corrupt nature, which we change with a new.

(i) Our corrupt nature is regarded as belonging to Christ, not because of what he has done, but by imputation.

(k) That wickedness which remains in us.

(l) The end of sanctification which we aim at, and will at length come to, that is, when God will be all in all.

People's New Testament

6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him. The cross of Christ slew our old sinful nature. The gospel was the power that moved us to trample it down, separate from it, and cling to Christ. When this old nature was crucified, we died to sin. Compare Eph 4:22 Col 3:9.

That the body of sin. Sin is conceived of as a living power, with an organism, reigning over us through out bodily members.

Might be destroyed. Our death to sin destroys this dominion.

Wesley's Notes

6:6 Our old man - Coeval with our being, and as old as the fall; our evil nature; a strong and beautiful expression for that entire depravity and corruption which by nature spreads itself over the whole man, leaving no part uninfected. This in a believer is crucified with Christ, mortified, gradually killed, by virtue of our union with him. That the body of sin - All evil tempers, words, and actions, which are the members of the old man, Col 3:5, might be destroyed.

Scofield Reference Notes

[2] old self

The expression occurs elsewhere, in Eph 4:22 Col 3:9 and always means the man of old, corrupt human nature, the inborn tendency to evil in all men. In Rom 6:6 it is the natural man himself; in Eph 4:22 Col 3:9 his ways. Positionally, in the reckoning of God, the old man is crucified, and the believer is exhorted to make this good in experience, reckoning it to be Song by definitely "putting off" the old man and "putting on" the new Col 3:8-14 Ep 4.24, See Scofield Note: "Eph 4:24", note 3.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6, 7. Knowing this, &c.-The apostle now grows more definite and vivid in expressing the sin-destroying efficacy of our union with the crucified Saviour.

that our old man-"our old selves"; that is, "all that we were in our old unregenerate condition, before union with Christ" (compare Col 3:9, 10; Eph 4:22-24; Ga 2:20; 5:24; 6:14).

is-rather, "was."

crucified with him-in order.

that the body of sin-not a figure for "the mass of sin"; nor the "material body," considered as the seat of sin, which it is not; but (as we judge) for "sin as it dwells in us in our present embodied state, under the law of the fall."

might be destroyed-(in Christ's death)-to the end.

that henceforth we should not serve sin-"be in bondage to sin."

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:3-10 Baptism teaches the necessity of dying to sin, and being as it were buried from all ungodly and unholy pursuits, and of rising to walk with God in newness of life. Unholy professors may have had the outward sign of a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, but they never passed from the family of Satan to that of God. The corrupt nature, called the old man, because derived from our first father Adam, is crucified with Christ, in every true believer, by the grace derived from the cross. It is weakened and in a dying state, though it yet struggles for life, and even for victory. But the whole body of sin, whatever is not according to the holy law of God, must be done away, so that the believer may no more be the slave of sin, but live to God, and find happiness in his service.