John Calvin Commentary Romans 6:11

"Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus." — Romans 6:11 (ASV)

So count you also yourselves, etc. Now is added a definition of that analogy to which I have referred. For having stated that Christ once died to sin and lives forever to God, He now, applying both to us, reminds us how we die while living—that is, when we renounce sin.

But He does not omit the other part: how we are to live after having received the grace of Christ by faith. For though the mortifying of the flesh is only begun in us, yet the life of sin is destroyed, so that afterwards spiritual newness, which is divine, continues perpetually. For unless Christ were to slay sin in us once for all, His grace would by no means be sure and durable.

The meaning, then, of the words may be expressed this way: “Take this view of your case—that as Christ once died for the purpose of destroying sin, so you have once died, that in the future you may cease from sin; indeed, you must daily proceed with that work of mortifying, which is begun in you, until sin is completely destroyed: as Christ is raised to an incorruptible life, so you are regenerated by the grace of God, that you may lead a life of holiness and righteousness, since the power of the Holy Spirit, by which you have been renewed, is eternal and will always continue the same.” But I prefer to retain the words of Paul, in Christ Jesus, rather than to translate with Erasmus, through Christ Jesus, because in this way the grafting, which makes us one with Christ, is better expressed.