CLAIM: Some interpreters argue that this passage supports the view that Christians can eventually become perfectly holy and lose their sin nature. Is this the case?

RESPONSE: Sure not! (At least, not this side of eternity.) Paul cannot be saying that we are without a sin nature anymore. In other passages, he describes that Christians war with their sin nature constantly (Gal. 5:17; Rom. 7:14-25). John writes, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:10). Christian experience can easily attest to the presence of sin in the Christian life. The Greek word katargeo for “done away with” means to be rendered “powerless.” This word can be translated as “idle” (Mt. 20:3), “useless” (Jas. 2:20; 2 Pet. 1:8), “released” (Rom. 7:2), or “nullify” (Rom. 3:31). In classical Greek usage, it means “to render inactive, put out of use, cancel, bring to nothing, do away with.”^[1] In the NT, its “basic meaning of rendering something inoperative is clear and constant.”^[2] The NLT actually has the best translation on this word: “sin might lose its power in our lives.” Moo concurs that “rendered powerless” better suits this verb.[3]

^[1] Packer, J. I. (1986). Articles. L. Coenen, E. Beyreuther, & H. Bietenhard (Eds.), New international dictionary of New Testament theology (Vol. 1, p. 73). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

^[2] Packer, J. I. (1986). Articles. L. Coenen, E. Beyreuther, & H. Bietenhard (Eds.), New international dictionary of New Testament theology (Vol. 1, p. 73). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[3] Douglas Moo, Romans: The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 198.