Body of Sin

Body of Sin. (Rom 6:6). If the body is the Prophetic Word, can it be said of sin? In a sense, yes, but not in the way the reader might imagine. The Word does not provide a perfect vision of transcendence, only an adequate one, just as the body is an adequate analog of the resurrection body.

Our present, adequate yet imperfect visual body is the body of potential misapplication, opacity of meaning, and the struggle for meaning—all consequences of the Fall. It is set for destruction. “Sin” in this context refers to evil as the implacable organic and behavioral resistance to God—obstacles that cannot be entirely reformed before the resurrection. Yet “sin” is also used in a lesser sense to describe the noetic and scriptural interference—static—that hinders full apprehension of Christ, and which can be improved before the resurrection.

Thus, the phrase “body of sin” contrasts the current body with the resurrection body—not to denote absolute depravity, but to signify transience, limitation, and imperfection. The impulses of this body are destined to be destroyed—not because they are inherently evil in essence, but so they will no longer tempt the individual to serve the body, or sin as a principle. The resurrection body is a pure, perfect prophetic body—“prophetic” in the sense that it is the fulfillment of what God has spoken and is certain to become real. Our teaching about sin through the symbolic framework of the “body” is therefore not only about genetic and behavioral sin, nor merely about the resurrection’s removal of these, but about the current interpretive difficulty of the prophetic scriptures themselves—a necessary but inferior vision of God.

The “body of sin” is a body that is transitory and limited, both positionally and organically. It gives us some clarity and some obscurity, especially when contrasted with the beatific vision of God and the final consummation of His economy (1 Corinthians 13:12). The Prophetic Word provides an adequate but partial vision—much like the limitations of our physical bodies and carnal minds, which continually challenge our hunger for a complete revelation. Paul’s use of “body” is primarily about the carnal mind (Romans 8:6–7), rather than the physical body alone; his use of sarx (“flesh,” v.8) encompasses both the mind and the body. Our condition is chiefly a noetic infirmity.

Paul speaks proleptically when he writes, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 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. Now if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Romans 6:5–7). This is not only a reference to the Person of Christ, but also to the perfected revelation of Christ, which is now obscured by our fallen, interpretively hindered state.

If the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, then the power of the carnal body and the bondage of carnal thought—though still present—are counted as dead because of sin (v.10). Yet they can be quickened. Abbot takes this quickening to mean sanctification; others see it as referring to the promised bodily resurrection by the Spirit. Likely, both senses apply. The body is not yet destroyed, but is counted as already destroyed, by virtue of the sure prophetic realization to come. Imputation itself is a proleptic category: neither the Prophetic Word nor the body is inherently evil, but only “in part.” We are not to let the challenges God has assigned to the body and the Word dominate our passion for Truth. Rather, we are to overcome them—and through them, build a clearer vision of our love, our Messiah, and His glory.