Rom 6:7 in the KJV reads:
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
The Greek translated as "freed" is δεδικαίωται, the third person singular indicative perfect passive of the verb "to justify" (δικαιοω). There are some translations that correctly render this term as "justified" (e.g., ASV; Darby; Douay-Rheims; ERV; Tyndale). Interestingly, many of the translations that render this term "freed" in Rom 6:7 use "justified" to translate δικαιοω in Acts 13:39 where it would be just as appropriate for them to use "freed." The NET, for instance, renders the verse as:
And by this one everyone who believes is justified from everything from which the law of Moses could not justify you.
"Justified" in this verse is δικαιωθῆναι, the infinitive aorist passive of δικαιοω.
Why is this important? With respect to Rom 6:7, the Greek text uses the language of justification with respect to sanctification. In the theology of Paul, "justification" and "sanctification" are not two different magisteria, so to speak, but they are, to use an analogy, two threads of the same rope, and one cannot divide one from the other. As with 1 Cor 6:9-11, this is evidence of the transformative, as well as progressive, nature of justification.
