🧠 Romans 6:6 | The Original Greek, Phrase-by-Phrase

📧 In today’s email…

• ➡️ Jesus and Adam → life and death

• 🗣️ The original Greek, phrase-by-phrase

• 🤓 Quotes from Sproul & Spurgeon

• 📚️ Resources to help you connect further with Romans 6:6

• 💥 An exciting announcement!

 🧠 Memorize

_{see if you know what words go in the blanks}

We ____ ____ ___ old self ___ crucified ____ ___ in order ____ the ____ of sin might be brought __ _______,

so that we would no longer __ enslaved __ ___.

Romans 6:6

↗️ A Shift to Life and Death

On Monday, we talked about the division within the Roman church between Jewish and Gentile Christians.

And yesterday, we looked at the high level content in the chapters and verses leading up to our memory verse.

Today, we’re digging into Romans 6:6 itself.

Just before our memory verse, Paul shifts from talking about:

• Adam’s disobedience that led to sin and death

• Jesus’ faithful obedience that leads to righteousness and life

To talking about:

• death

• newness of life

This is where we pick up our memory verse 👇️ 

🗣️ Unpacking the Original Greek

Again, here’s the verse we’re memorizing:

Let’s look at each phrase:

We know that our old self

• The Greek word translated as ‘self’ here is anthrōpos (other translations say ‘man’).

  • This is where we get the word anthropology from (aka the study of humanity, not the women’s clothing store)

• ‘Our old self’ refers not just to to our old way of living, but an old being (think back to the last verse we memorized when we talked about the transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly)

• Anthrōpos shows up for the first time in Scripture in Matthew 4:4 when Jesus quotes Deuteronomy to the enemy, saying “Man (anthrōpos) shall not live by bread alone…”

was crucified with him

• This phrase is the Greek word systauroō which means exactly what it says: to be crucified along with

• This word only shows up 5 times in Scripture:

  • The first 3 are in reference literally to the people who were crucified next to Jesus (the robbers)

  • Next, is in our memory verse

  • And lastly, in Galatians 2:20

in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing,

• “In order that” means this is talking about the reason why our old self was crucified with Jesus

• The phrase “brought to nothing” is the katargeō, which can mean a few different things, all of which I think color in what Paul is getting at here.

• To have our old selves crucified and brought to nothing means:

  • to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative

  • to be severed from

  • to be destroyed

  • to deprive of power and influence

The “body of sin” is destroyed. It is no longer in the driver’s seat of our lives.

so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin

• “So that” ties all of this together

• Our old selves are crucified with Jesus…to destroy the old self…so that we would no longer be slaves to sin and death.

This is ultimately what we are saved and healed from - the power of sin and death.

We get to go from being slaves to sin to being a servant of righteousness (v18).

Apply & respond: Meditate on Romans 6:6 📖 

Part of why we do what we do at Malachi Daily is to help you meditate on Scripture.

Did you know that when you don’t adequately chew your food, your body doesn’t get the full nutritional value of the food you’re eating?

You have to chew slowly in order to get all of the nutritional benefit from the foods you eat.

I’ve found that the same is true of how we interact with God’s Word. The more you meditate on it, the more spiritual nutrients you tend to get from it.

Set aside 10 minutes today to spend with God and His Word.

Read 📖 

Read Romans 6:6 slowly.

Read it again, slowly.

Sit with it. Pause on each phrase and meditate on it.

Ask the Lord to speak to you through His Word.

Reflect and Write ✍️ 

As you read Paul’s words in Romans 6, what do you think God is saying to you, specifically?

Write it down in a journal or share it with a trusted friend to help you discern what you’re hearing.

Wisdom 🧐 

All of us are slaves of one sort or another. We’re either slaves of Christ or slaves of sin. There’s no other option for humanity.

R.C. Sproul

Evil enters us now as an interloper and a stranger, and works sad havoc, but it does not abide in us upon the throne; it is an alien, and despised, and no more honored and delighted in. We are dead to the reigning power of sin.

Charles Spurgeon

Recommended Resources 🎙️ 

Here are a few resources to help you dig deeper into this week’s passage and topics:

• 🎙️ Sermon: Sin as Slavery by Tim Keller (link here)

• 📚️ To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain by Matt Chandler (link here)

• 📹️ Bible Project: Overview of Romans (link here)

• 🎵 When Death Was Arrested by North Point Worship to help you meditate on this verse (listen on Spotify | listen on Apple Music)

💥 Introducing: The Malachi Daily Shop

We all wear clothes...

We would love for something as simple as the shirt you wear to spark a conversation with a friend, co-worker or neighbor about the Jesus who changed your life.

To that end, we’re excited to introduce our first batch of Scripture-based clothing!

💡 Note: Because the products are made to order, we do not accept general returns or sizing-related returns.

📣 If you currently support Malachi Daily by paying it forward, you get 15% off of everything in the Malach Daily Shop! Your discount code is visible below 🙂 

Answer key ✅ 

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing,

so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Romans 6:6