John Calvin Commentary Romans 6:10

"For the death that he died, he died unto sin once: but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God." — Romans 6:10 (ASV)

He died once to sin, etc. He now applies to his present purpose what he had previously said: that we, according to the example of Christ, are forever freed from the yoke of death.

This present purpose is that we are no longer subject to the tyranny of sin. He proves this from the intended purpose of Christ’s death, for He died so that He might destroy sin.

But we must observe what is appropriate for Christ in this form of expression. For He is not said to die to sin in the sense of ceasing from it (as the words must be understood when applied to us), but rather that He underwent death on account of sin, so that, having made Himself ἀντίλυτρον, a ransom, He might annihilate the power and dominion of sin.

And He says that He died once, not only because He has, by obtaining eternal redemption through one offering and by making an expiation for sin with His blood, sanctified the faithful forever, but also so that a mutual likeness may exist between us. For though spiritual death makes continual advances in us, we are nevertheless said to die properly only once: that is, when Christ, reconciling us by His blood to the Father, at the same time regenerates us by the power of His Spirit.

But that He lives, etc. Whether you add with God or in God, it amounts to the same meaning. For he shows that Christ lives a life not subject to mortality in the immortal and incorruptible kingdom of God, a type of which ought to appear in the regeneration of the godly.

We must remember here the particle of likeness, so. For he does not say that we will now live in heaven, as Christ lives there; rather, he makes the new life, which we live on earth after regeneration, similar to His celestial life.

When he says that we ought to die to sin according to His example, we are not to suppose it to be the same kind of death. We die to sin when sin dies in us, but it was otherwise with Christ; by dying, He conquered sin.

But he had just said before that we believe we will have life in common with Him. By the word believing, he fully shows that he is speaking of the grace of Christ.

For if he were only reminding us of a duty, his way of speaking would have been this: “Since we die with Christ, we ought also to live with Him.” But the word believing denotes that he is here discussing doctrine based on the promises. It is as though he had said that the faithful should feel assured that, through the kindness of Christ, they are dead to the flesh, and that the same Christ will preserve them in newness of life to the end.

But the future tense of the verb live refers not to the final resurrection, but simply denotes the continued course of a new life, as long as we sojourn on the earth.