Rom 6:6

"KNOWING THIS, THAT OUR OLD MAN IS CRUCIFIED WTH HIM, THAT THE BODY OF SIN MIGHT BE DESTROYED, THAT HENCEFORTH WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN."

the first part: "KNOWING THIS, THAT OUR OLD MAN IS CRUCIFIED WTH HIM..." is referencing the "old man" as the man we were before we were Saved. Put more specifically, the one that was totally morally depraved and in need of God's Life. Our corrupt nature, the Sin Nature (as we refer to it as here), is now dead with Christ.

"Old" here means: something that needs to be thrown away, it's useless and needs to be discarded altogether.

"THAT THE BODY OF SIN MIGHT BE DESTROYED"

Meaning, the power of the sin nature might be destroyed. Allow me to further expound on that thought...

Before we were converted, before we received Christ into our hearts, we had absolutely no knowledge of our sin. Our desires were what we sought to fulfill and had not thought of pleasing God. When we were Satan's spawn, we had NO DESIRE to even do what was right, and NO IDEA that we were sinning when we obeyed the lusts of our flesh and partook in the pride of life and the lusts of the eye. If we wanted it, we got it...if we wanted to do something, we did it. if you wanted what you saw, it was a done deal and we felt no remorse over partaking in that thing.

Jesus said it like this:

Jhn 8:44 "Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

Until we receive the blood of Christ as our total covering and remission of our sin, we belong to Satan, and he is the one that we obey, which is in our flesh. But when we come to God by Christ, our desires change. We may still fail and not have the ability to do what is right, but we do desire to do right and are painfully aware when we are living contrary to the Word of God.

Many that have not received Christ yet, are not even aware that they are sinning, and on their way to hell for that matter. The whole reason that John the Baptist was in the wilderness saying "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand," to those that were being baptized, is because they needed to first renounce themselves and their actions. Until the Law of Moses (referred to as the Moral Law) was sent, man didn't even know that he was wrong when he stole. It took those 10 small commandments to show us that we have fallen short. None of which do we have the power to overcome in order to obey them, without the help of the Holy Spirit through the Blood of our Redeemer who Lives!

the word "destroyed" means that the Sin Nature has no dominion over the Believer anymore. "as a result, the Believer no longer renders a slave's obedience to the evil nature habitually as he did before God saved him. In other words, he's been set free from bondage."

So, imagine if you will a child being born and at a young age being chained and bound up all of their life. They become say, 30 years of age and suddenly meet someone that loses them from those bindings, loves them, and begins to show that person how to live a life that is free from the constraints that they once had. That in fact, is what happens to a Believer when they come to Christ. It takes time for them to realize that they are not bound anymore & time to learn how to live freely unto Christ.

Everyone of us has been bound in one fashion or another. to some it may have been drugs, to others it may have been a bondage to religious traditions of family and their denominational church, or it could be...well, you fill in the blank. we all need freedom from something.

Thank God for Jesus and a saving knowledge of His Grace in our lives! :)