Romans 6:7

7. “For the one having died has been made free from sin,” i. e., the person who has “died to sin,” as above described, i. e., “had the old man crucified,” and the “body of sin destroyed.” “Has been made free from sin,” fully and literally translated, giving the force of the Greek perfect, would read, “Has been made free from sin, and more so now than ever.”

Whereas the English definition of the perfect tense is an action completed in past time, developing a state continuing down to the present; the Greek has the same definition, but always lays the emphasis on the present, the English putting it on the past, thus giving a wonderful force to the revealed truth on Christian experience; e. g., Heb 10:10, “By whose will we have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ once, and have it yet better than ever.” This Rom 6:7 we are now investigating has been appropriated by Universalists to refute the future punishment of the wicked, deducing from it the conclusion that physical death liberates all from sin. This construction is utterly untrue, since the apostle is not speaking of the physical man at all, but the spiritual, throughout the entire argument. This verse follows the sixth as a legitimate corollary from the death of the old man and the destruction of the body of sin. Of course in that case the person having experienced the actual death of sin has been made free from it. There is a rattlesnake on your premises, much to your annoyance and danger.

That venomous monster is not only killed, but taken away and buried deep in the earth, there to remain forever. Of course you are now free from the presence, alarm, and peril of the monster, and will so remain forever. This monster is inbred sin. Jesus wants to kill him and utterly put him away forever, thus making you free from sin.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 6:7. Ἀποθανὼν, dead) to sin, Rom 6:2.—δεδιχαίωται, [is freed from sin] is justified) Sin has now no longer any claim against him in law; with which comp. Rom 6:6; Rom 6:9, so that he is no longer a debtor, ch. Rom 8:12. In respect of the past, he is justified [just] from the guilt of sin; in respect of the future, from its dominion, Rom 6:14.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_6:7. Establishment of the τοῦ μηκέτι δουλ. ἡμ. τῇ. ἁμ. by the general proposition: whosoever is dead, is acquitted from sin.

ὁ ἀποθαν.] is explained by many of ethical death. So Erasmus, Calovius, Homberg, Bengel and others, including Koppe, Flatt, Glöckler, Olshausen, Tholuck (who regards sin as creditor), de Wette (whosoever has died to sin, healoneis acquitted from sin), Rothe, Krehl, Philippi (whosoever is ethically dead, over him has sin lost its right to impeach and to control, just as Bengel explains it), also van Hengel, Jatho, and Märcker. But neither the nature of the general proposition, which forms in fact the major premiss in the argument, and of which only the application is to be made (in the minor proposition) to ethical dying; nor the tautological relation, which would result between subject and predicate, can permit this explanation. The conception of ethical dying recurs only in the sequel, and hence σὺν Χριστῳ is added to ἀπεθάνομεν in Rom_6:8, so that Paul in this development of his views draws a sharp distinction between the being dead in the spiritual (Rom_6:6; Rom_6:8) and in the ordinary sense. We must therefore explain Rom_6:7 as a general proposition regarding death in the ordinary sense, and consequently regarding physical death (so rightly Hofmann), but not specially of the death by execution, through which sin is expiated (Alethaeus, Wolf and others; with this view they compare δεδικ., the juristic expression: he is justified; see Michaelis note); for any such peculiar reference of the still wholly unrestricted ἀποθανών is forbidden by the very generality of the proposition, although for δεδικαίωται passages might be cited like Plat. Legg. II. p. 934 B; Aristot. Eth. v. 9.

δεδικ. ἀπὸ τ. ἁμ.] The dead person is made just from sin, i.e. he is in point of fact justified and acquitted from sin, he is placed by death in the position of a δίκαιος, who is such thenceforth; not as if he were now absolved from and rid of the guilt of his sins committed in life, but in so far as the dead person sins no more, no longer δουλεύει τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, from whose power, as from a legal claim urged against him during his life in the body, he has been actually released by death as through a decree of acquittal. Comp Köstlin in the Jahrb. f. Deutsche Theol. 1856, p. 98 f.; Th. Schott, p. 260, and Hofmann; also Baur, neut. Theol. p. 161 f.; Delitzsch, Illustrations to his Hebrew version, p. 84. Just for this reason has Paul added ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας (comp Act_13:38; Sir_26:29; Test. XII. patr. p. 541), which would have been quite superfluous, had he taken δεδικαίωται, justus constitutus est, in the dogmatic sense of his doctrine of justification. The proposition itself, moreover, is an axiom of the popular traditional mode of view, which Paul uses for his purpose as admitted. This axiom has also its relative truth, and that partly in so far as the dead person has put off the σῶμα τῆς σαρκός with which he committed his sins (Col_2:11), partly in so far as with death the dominion of law over the man ceases (Rom_7:1), and partly in so far as in death all the relations are dissolved which supplied in life the objects of sinning.[1419] For the discussion of the question as to the absolute truth of the proposition, in its connection with Biblical anthropology and eschatology, there was no occasion at all here,[1420] where it is only used as an auxiliary clause, and ex concesso. Comp 1Pe_4:1. Usteri mistakenly explains it: by death man has suffered the punishment, and thus expiated his guilt. For that Paul does not here express the Jewish dogma: death as the punishment for sin expiates the guilt of sin (see Eisenmenger, entdeckt. Judenth. II. p. 283 f.) is proved partly by the irrelevancy of such a sense to the context (γάρ); and partly by its inconsistency with the doctrines of the Apostle as to justification by faith and as to the judgment, according to which death cannot set free from the guilt-obligation of sin. Ewald makes a new idea be brought in at Rom_6:7 : Even in common life, in the case of one who is dead, the sins of his previous life cannot be further prosecuted and punished, he passes for justified and acquitted of sin.…; if in addition sin as a power has been broken by Christ (Rom_6:9 f.), then we may assuredly believe, etc., Rom_6:8. But γάρ in Rom_6:7 indicates its connection with what goes before, so that it is only with the δέ in Rom_6:8 that a new thought is introduced. Besides, we should expect, in the case of the assumed course of thought, an οὖν instead of the δέ in Rom_6:8. Finally, it is not clear how that rule of common law was to serve as a joint ground for the faith of becoming alive with Christ.

[1419] The Greek expositorswho already give substantially our explanationhave confined themselves to this point. Chrysostom: ἀπήλλακται τὸ λοιπὸν τοῦ ἁμαρτάνειν νεκρὸς κείμενος. Theodoret: τίς γὰρ ἐθεάσατο πώποτε νεκρὸν ἢ γάμον ἀλλότριον διορύττοντα, ἢ μιαιφονίᾳ τὰς χεῖρας φοινίττοντα κ.τ.λ. Melancthon compares the proverb: νεκρὸς οὐ δάκνει, Beza the saying of Anacreon: ὁ νεκρὸς οὐκ ἐπιθυμεῖ, Grotius that of Aeschylus: οὐδὲν ἄγλος ἄπτεται νεκρῶν. Comp. Soph. O. C. 955.

[1420] Compare Melancthon: Ceterum hoc sciamus, diabolos et omnes damnatos in omni aeternitate horribilia peccata facere, quia sine fine irascuntur Deo, etc.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 6:7 . ὁ γὰρ ἀποθανὼν κ . τ . λ . Here we have the general principle on which the foregoing argument rests: death annuls all obligations, breaks all ties, cancels all old scores. The difficulty is that by the words ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας Paul introduces one particular application of the principle the one he is concerned with here as if it were identical with the principle itself. “Death clears men of all claims, especially (to come to the case before us) it clears us, who have died with Christ, of the claim of sin, our old master, to rule over us still.” Weiss would reject the introduction into this clause of the idea of dying with Christ , on the ground that the words σὺν Χριστῷ bring it in as a new idea in the following verse. But it is no new idea; it is the idea of the whole passage; and unless we bring it in here, the quittance from sin (and not from any obligation in general) remains inexplicable. Weiss, in fact, gives it up.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 7. “For he that is dead is of right freed from sin.”

Many commentators, from Erasmus to Thol., De Wette, Philip., Hodge, Gess, etc., take the participle ἀποθανών, he that is dead, in the figurative sense (comp. the similar expressions in Rom 6:6; Rom 6:8). But these critics divide immediately as to the meaning of the term δεδικαίωται, literally, is justified; some applying it to deliverance from guilt and punishment (Hodge for example)—as the ordinary meaning of the word justify by Paul seems to demand—the others to deliverance from the power of sin, in the sense that he who is dead is no longer subject to this master, no longer owes him anything. Yet neither of these meanings is satisfactory. The first would take us back to the subject of justification, which was concluded at the end of chap. 5. According to Gess, Paul means to express the idea that “the believer’s absolution from sin (justification) takes place only on condition of his death to sin.” That would result in making sanctification the principle of justification. The other meaning would be more suitable in some respects: “He who is dead spiritually (in the sense of Rom 6:6), is thereby set free from the power of sin.” Undoubtedly in a general way this is the apostle’s meaning in Rom 6:7; the context demands it. But we do not think that this interpretation accounts exactly for the expressions used. The word δικαιοῦν, even with the preposition ἀπό, cannot signify: to free from the power of, or, at least if we reach this meaning, it must be shown in what legitimate way that is possible. Then the participle ὁ ἀποθανών, he that is dead, not being accompanied by any qualification, is rather to be understood in the strict sense, and the more so as in the following verse, when the apostle returns to the spiritual meaning, he expressly indicates the change by adding the words σὺν Χριστῷ, with Christ.It is therefore a maxim borrowed from common life which the apostle expresses here, leaving it to the reader to apply it immediately to the corresponding fact of the moral life, which is precisely that just described by him in Rom 6:6. It follows that the word justify, δικαιοῦν, must have a somewhat different meaning from its ordinary dogmatic sense in Paul’s writings; for the domain to which he here applies it is altogether different. One who is dead, he means to say, no longer having a body to put at the service of sin, is now legally exempted from carrying out the wishes of that master, who till then had freely disposed of him. Suppose a dead slave; it will be vain for his master to order him to steal, to lie, or to kill. He will be entitled to answer: “my tongue and hands and feet no longer obey me.” How, then, could he be taken to task for refusing to serve? Such is the believer’s position after the crucifixion of his own will (of his old man) has reduced his body of sin (Rom 6:6) to powerlessness. He can no longer serve sin in the doing of evil, any more than the slave deprived of his body by death can continue to execute the orders formerly given him by his wicked master. The verb δικαιοῦσθαι, to be justified, signifies in this connection: to be free from blame in case of disobedience; to be legally entitled not to obey. The idea of legality is in the word δικαιοῦν, to justify, that of liberation in the preposition ἀπό, from. Taking the term ὁ ἀποθανών in the literal sense, as we have done, commentators have sometimes restricted its application to the malefactor, who, by submitting to the punishment he deserved, has effaced his guilt, and can no longer be apprehended for the same crime. But the words: he who is dead, are too general to bear so special an application, and the sentence thus understood would reopen the subject of justification, which is exhausted.

The case of the dead slave described in Rom 6:7, as we understand it, is the exact counterpart of the believer’s moral situation described in Rom 6:6. The apostle leaves the reader to make this application himself, and passes in the following verses from the negative side of sanctification, crucifixion with Christ, to the positive side of this great truth, resurrection with Him. This second side is the necessary complement of the first. For the sinful will being once crucified in Christ, and its organ the body reduced to inaction, the believer’s moral personality cannot remain inert. It must have a new activity; the body itself demands a new employment in the service of this activity. We have seen how this idea was contained in the in order that of Rom 6:4. The believer dies, not to remain dead, but in order to rise again; and this he knows well, for in the person of Him with whom he dies, the Risen One, he beholds beforehand the moral necessity of the event. This relation of thought, already indicated Rom 6:4-5, is now developed Rom 6:8-10; comp. Gal 2:20.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_6:7

For he that is dead is free from sin. The Greek here is, ὁ γὰρ ἀποθανὼν δεδικαιωται ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, for he who has died is justified from sin. The particle γάρ, for, shows that this verse is a confirmation of what precedes: The believer (he who is by faith united to Christ in his death) cannot any longer serve sin, for he who has died is justified from sin. The word ἀποθανών may be taken in a physical, a moral, or a mystical sense. If in a physical sense, then the meaning is, that death frees from sin. This may be understood in two ways: first, on the theory that the body is the source of sin, death, or freedom from the body, involves freedom from sin; or, secondly, death considered as a penalty, is the expiation of sin; so that he who dies, is judicially free from sin. Some who adopt this interpretation, suppose that the apostle sanctions the unscriptural Jewish doctrine (see Eisenmengers Entdeckt. Judenthum, 2., p. 283), that death is the full penalty of sin, and therefore its expiation. Others say he is to be understood as speaking only of sin or guilt in relation to human law: He who has died for his crime is free from guilt or further liability. In either way, the only relation which this verse, when understood of physical death, can have to the apostles argument, is that of an illustration: As the man who has suffered for his crime is freed from it, so he who is crucified with Christ is free from sin. In either case the power of sin is destroyed. If the moral sense of the word be adopted, then the meaning is either, he who is spiritually dead is free from sin, (which amounts to saying, he that is holy is holy;) or, he who is spiritually dead is justified from sin. But this last sense is utterly unsuited to the context, and implies that spiritual death, or holiness, is the ground of justification; which is contrary to all Scripture, and especially to Pauls doctrine. The mystical sense of the word is the only one consistent with the context. The apostle has not been speaking of natural death, but of death with Christ; of the believer being crucified with him. It is of that he is now speaking. He had just said that the believer cannot continue to serve sin. He here gives the reason: for he who has died (with Christ) is justified, and therefore free from sin, free from its dominion. This is the great evangelical truth which underlies the apostles whole doctrine of sanctification. The natural reason assumes that acceptance with a holy and just God must be founded on character, that men must be holy in order to be justified. The gospel reverses this, and teaches that God accepts the ungodly; that we must be justified in order to become holy. This is what Paul here assumes as known to his readers. As justification is the necessary means, and antecedent to holiness, he that is justified becomes holy; he cannot live in sin. And he who is dead, i.e. with Christ, (for it is only his death that secures justification,) is justified from sin. To be justified from sin means to be delivered from sin by justification. And that deliverance is twofold; judicial deliverance from its penalty, and subjective deliverance from its power. Both are secured by justification; the former directly, the other consequentially, as a necessary sequence. Compare Gal_2:19, Gal_2:20; Gal_6:14; Col_2:13; Col_3:3; 1Pe_4:1, and other passages in which the sanctification of believers is represented as secured by the death of Christ.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He proveth it by the effects of death, using a comparison of Christ the head with his members.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

For he that is dead--rather, "hath died."

is freed--"hath been set free."

from sin--literally, "justified," "acquitted," "got his discharge from sin." As death dissolves all claims, so the whole claim of sin, not only to "reign unto death," but to keep its victims in sinful bondage, has been discharged once for all, by the believer's penal death in the death of Christ; so that he is no longer a "debtor to the flesh to live after the flesh" (Rom 8:12).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 7. He that is dead is freed from sin.] δεδικαιωται, literally, is justified from sin; or, is freed or delivered from it. Does not this simply mean, that the man who has received Christ Jesus by faith, and has been, through believing, made a partaker of the Holy Spirit, has had his old man, all his evil propensities destroyed; so that he is not only justified freely from all sin, but wholly sanctified unto God? The context shows that this is the meaning. Every instance of violence is done to the whole scope and design of the apostle, by the opinion, that "this text is a proof that believers are not fully saved from sin in this life, because only he that is dead is freed from sin." Then death is his justifier and deliverer! Base and abominable insinuation, highly derogatory to the glory of Christ! Dr. Dodd, in his note on the preceding verse, after some inefficient criticism on the word καταργηθη, destroyed, which, he thinks, should be rendered enervated, has the following most unevangelical sentiment: "The body of sin in believers is, indeed, an enfeebled, conquered, and deposed tyrant, and the stroke of death finishes its destruction." So then, the death of Christ and the influences of the Holy Spirit were only sufficient to depose and enfeeble the tyrant sin; but OUR death must come in to effect his total destruction! Thus our death is, at least partially, our Saviour; and thus, that which was an effect of sin (for sin entered into the world, and death by sin) becomes the means of finally destroying it! That is, the effect of a cause can become so powerful, as to react upon that cause and produce its annihilation! The divinity and philosophy of this sentiment are equally absurd. It is the blood of Christ alone that cleanses from all unrighteousness; and the sanctification of a believer is no more dependent on death than his justification. If it he said, "that believers do not cease from sin till they die;" I have only to say, they are such believers as do not make a proper use of their faith; and what can be said more of the whole herd of transgressors and infidels? They cease to sin, when they cease to breathe. If the Christian religion bring no other privileges than this to its upright followers, well may we ask, wherein doth the wise man differ from the fool, for they have both one end? But the whole Gospel teaches a contrary doctrine.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. For he who has died, etc. This is an argument derived from what belongs to death or from its effect. For if death destroys all the actions of life, we who have died to sin ought to cease from those actions which it exercised during its life. Take justified for freed or reclaimed from bondage; for as he is freed from the bond of a charge, who is absolved by the sentence of a judge; so death, by freeing us from this life, sets us free from all its functions.

But though among men there is found no such example, there is yet no reason why you should think, that what is said here is a vain speculation, or despond in your minds, because you find not yourselves to be of the number of those who have wholly crucified the flesh; for this work of God is not completed in the day in which it is begun in us; but it gradually goes on, and by daily advances is brought by degrees to its end. So then take this as the sum of the whole, — “If thou art a Christian, there must appear in thee an evidence of a fellowship as to the death of Christ; the fruit of which is, that thy flesh is crucified together with all its lusts; but this fellowship is not to be considered as not existing, because thou findest that the relics of the flesh still live in thee; but its increase ought to be diligently labored for, until thou arrivest at the goal.” It is indeed well with us, if our flesh is continually mortified; nor is it a small attainment, when the reigning power, being taken away from it, is wielded by the Holy Spirit. There is another fellowship as to the death of Christ, of which the Apostle often speaks, as he does in 2 Corinthians 4, that is, the bearing of the cross, which is followed by a joint-participation also of eternal life.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(7) Is freed.—“Absolved,” the same word that is used elsewhere for “justified.” The dead man is no longer liable to have the charge of sin brought against him. This is the general proposition, the major premise, adduced in proof of what had gone before, viz., the particular proposition that he who is ethically dead is no longer the slave of sin.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. For he that is dead, &c.] Better, with a slight paraphrase, for he who has once died to sin now stands free from its claim. The legal claim of sin is meant here, not its moral dominion, for the Gr. word rendered “freed” in E. V., is lit. (see margin of E. V.) justified. The argument is that, since death is the penalty of sin, then if death has been suffered and passed, the penalty is exhausted and the claim cancelled: now such is the position of the justified in Christ; His death was endured, and is now past, for them and as theirs; therefore they live as those who have exhausted penalty and are free from its claim—in fact, “justified from sin.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For he that is dead, is freed from sin. This is not to be understood of a natural or a corporeal death; for this is the effect of sin, and is inflicted by way of punishment for it, on Christless persons; so far is it from being an atonement for sin, as the Jews (t) fancy; besides, there are many persons, who as they die in their sins, they will rise in them; though a natural death is alluded to, when persons are free from those laws and obligations to service and duty they are under whilst living: but here it is to be understood of a spiritual or mystical death, and of persons who are dead to the law, by the body of Christ; dead to sin by the sacrifice and grace of Christ; who are baptized into the death of Christ, and in imitation of him: such are "freed from sin"; not from the being of it; nor from the burden of it; nor from a continual war with it; nor from slips and falls into it; no, not even freed from it, in the most solemn services and acts of religion; but they are freed from the dominion of it, from servitude to it, and also from the guilt of it, and from obligation to punishment on account of it: they are, as it is in the Greek text, and as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions read, "justified from sin".

(t); see Gill on Rom 5:11.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Ver. 7. Is freed from sin] Anacreon saith the like, ο θανων ουκ επιθυμει; death is the accomplishment of mortification. It doth at once what death doth by degrees. Herbs and flowers breed worms, which yet at last kill the herbs and flowers. So sin bred death, but at last death will kill sin. A mud wall, while it standeth, harboureth much vermin, which when it falleth fly away; so doth corruption, when once these cottages of clay fall to ruin.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For he that is dead - This is evidently an expression having a proverbial aspect, designed to illustrate the sentiment just expressed. The Rabbis had an expression similar to this, “When one is dead he is free from commands.” (Grotius.) So says Paul, when a man dies he is exempt from the power and dominion of his master, of him who reigned over him. The Christian had been subject to sin before his conversion. But he has now become dead to it. And as when a servant dies, he ceases to be subject to the control of his master, so the Christian being now dead to sin, on the same principle, is released from the control of his former master, sin. The idea is connected with Rom 6:6, where it is said that we should not be the slaves of sin any more. The reason of this is assigned here, where it is said that we are freed from it as a slave is freed when he dies. Of course, the apostle here is saying nothing of the future world. His whole argument has respect to the state of the Christian here; to his being freed from the bondage of sin. It is evident that he who is not freed from this bondage here, will not be in the future world. But the argument of the apostle has no bearing on that point.

Is freed - Greek, Is justified. The word here is used clearly in the sense of setting at liberty, or destroying the power or dominion. The word is often used in this sense; compare Act 13:38-39; compare a similar expression in 1Pe 4:1, “He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.” The design of the apostle is not to say that the Christian is perfect, but that sin has ceased to have dominion over him, as a master ceases to have power over a slave when he is dead. That dominion may be broken, so that the Christian may not be a slave to sin, and yet he may be conscious of many failings and of much imperfection; see Rom. 7.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He that is dead is justified from sin.[1] Some translate, is freed from sin: this is true; but perhaps it is better to retain the word justified, which is observed to be a law-word used in courts of justice, where to be justified is to be acquitted, so that a man cannot be questioned again on that account; and so are sinners, when their sins are forgiven. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Is justified from sin, justificatus est a peccato; Greek: dedikaiotai apo tes amartias. Dikaioo est vocabulum, forense. See Corn. a Lapide, Estius, &c.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

He that is dead, i.e. to sin, is freed from it; not only in respect of the guilt thereof, which sense the marginal reading of the word seems to respect, but also in regard of the service of it. This agrees best with the context; look, as he that is dead is freed and discharged from the authority of, those who had dominion over him in his lifetime, so it is with those that are dead to sin. There is a parallel place, 1Pe 4:1.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For he that is dead - With Christ. Is freed from the guilt of past, and from the power of present, sin, as dead men from the commands of their former masters.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

He that is dead, that is, spiritually dead unto sin, in conformity to the death of Christ, is freed from sin: That is, not only from the guilt, but from the dominion and slavery of sin.

Learn hence, That freedom from the bondage and tyranny, from the dominion and slavery of sin is the privilege of all those that are crucified with Christ, and dead to sin.

Freedom from sin consists in two things:

1. In disposessing the soul of every evil habit and disposition.

2. In renouncing a sinful course of life and conversation.

If sin be weakened in the heart, the fruit of that will appear in the life: The strength of sin lies in the love of sin; if that be broken, the power of sin is shaken.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

for he that hath died is justified from sin .

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. For he that is dead is freed from sin. When a slave died he was freed from his master's service; so when one has died to sin, he is no longer the slave of sin, and is freed from his service. His power over the bodily members should be destroyed.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

7. ὁ γὰρ ἀποθανὼν then enforces the completeness of this result:= he that dies (cf. Moulton, p. 114) is acquitted of his sin for which he is put to death—he has paid the penalty and is free from further effects. This is not a merely general statement. As Rom 6:8 shows, the death here is a sharing of Christ’s death: it is the voluntary self-surrender of man to the penalty of his sin, and involves penitential faith. Consequently it receives from GOD forgiveness, or acquittal from his sin; and sin has no more dominion over him. cf. Moberly, Atonement and Personality, pp. 39 f.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7.] The difficulty of this verse arises from the Apostle having in a short and pregnant sentence expressed a whole similitude, joining, as he elsewhere does in such cases, the subject of the first limb of the comparison with the predicate of the second. Fully expressed, it would stand thus: ‘For, as a man that is dead is acquitted and released from guilt and bondage (among men: no reference to God’s judgment of him): so a man that has died to sin is acquitted from the guilt of sin and released from its bondage.’ I express δεδικ. by this periphrasis in both cases, because I believe that all this is implied in it: ‘is acquitted,’ ‘has his quittance,’ from sin, so that Sin (personified) has no more claims on him, either as a creditor or as a master: cannot detain him for debt, nor sue him for service. A larger reference is thus given to δεδικ. than the purposes of the present argument, which is treating of the power, not the guilt of sin, required: but that it is so, lies in the nature of ἁμαρτία, the service of which is guilt, and the deliverance from whose service necessarily brings with it acquittal.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. ὁ γὰρ ἀποθανὼν ̣ ̣ ̣ ἁμαρτίας. The argument is thrown into the form of a general proposition, so that ὁ ἀποθανών must be taken in the widest sense, ‘he who has undergone death in any sense of the term’—physical or ethical. The primary sense is however clearly physical: ‘a dead man has his quittance from any claim that Sin can make against him’: what is obviously true of the physically dead is inferentially true of the ethically dead. Comp. 1Pe 4:1 ὅτι ὁ παθὼν σαρκὶ πέπαυται ἁμαρτίας: also the Rabbinical parallel quoted by Delitzsch ad loc. ‘when a man is dead he is free from the law and the commandments.’

Delitzsch goes so far as to describe the idea as an ‘acknowledged locus communis,’ which would considerably weaken the force of the literary coincidence between the two Apostles.

δεδικαίωται ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας. The sense of δεδικαίωται is still forensic: ‘is declared righteous, acquitted from guilt.’ The idea is that of a master claiming legal possession of a slave: proof being put in that the slave is dead, the verdict must needs be that the claims of law are satisfied and that he is no longer answerable; Sin loses its suit.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Is freed [δεδικαιωται] . Lit., as Rev., is justified; i e., acquitted, absolved; just as the dead person sins no more, being released from sin as from a legal claim. "As a man that is dead is acquitted and released from bondage among men, so a man that has died to sin is acquitted from the guilt of sin and released from its bondage" (Alford).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.